Brian Curtner, a founding principal of Quadrangle Architects, passed away from cancer on August 15, 2015 at the age of 64.
Brian and co-founder Les Klein formed Quadrangle in 1986, and over the following 29 years, built a firm to a staff of over 140 and a portfolio of projects throughout Toronto, across Canada and internationally. Brian was a modern renaissance man, combining expertise in design and construction with an innate business acumen fuelled by his passion for people, golf, cars, travel and art.
As an architect, Brian has been widely recognized for exemplary designs that include: the award-winning BMW showroom at the foot of the Don Valley Parkway that converted a vacant office building into an iconic six-storey glazed showroom; Corus Entertainment’s state-of-the-art headquarters and broadcast facilities on Toronto’s waterfront; State Street Financial Centre, which saw the renovation and reinvention of a 1950s government building into a Class A office environment; and 130 Bloor Street West in Yorkville, a condominium development built on top of an existing modernist office tower, which won an Innovation in Architecture award from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Brian’s vision for the revitalization of the Yonge Sheppard Centre, one of Toronto’s largest mixed-use residential, office and retail developments, recently received planning approvals. All of these projects represent Brian’s innovative solutions to complex urban challenges. He has also spearheaded the firm’s expansion internationally, and has undertaken projects in Dubai and China.