The best architecture firms in Toronto are the ones whose buildings you already know, even if you’ve never clocked the name on the plaque. This list covers seven studios shaping the city and exporting its ideas: Partisans, Hariri Pontarini, KPMB, Diamond Schmitt, Superkül, LGA Architectural Partners, and Omar Gandhi. Each entry names the founders and one signature project, so you know exactly whose work you’re looking at.
These aren’t the only good firms in the city, but they’re the ones with the clearest fingerprints on Toronto’s skyline, its cultural buildings, and its public spaces. If you want the wider context, our guide to Toronto architecture maps how the city got the look it has.
Partisans
Partisans is the experimental wing of Toronto architecture, founded in 2012 by Alexander Josephson and Pooya Baktash. The studio won the Ontario Association of Architects Best Emerging Practice award in 2015. Its signature project is the Grotto Sauna, a sculptural timber retreat on a Georgian Bay island that reads more like landscape than building.
If you’ve eaten at Bar Raval on College Street, you’ve been inside their work too. The mahogany interior curves like the inside of a shell, with no flat surface to rest a hand on. That’s the Partisans signature: forms that look poured rather than built, and a refusal to treat a wall as just a wall.
Hariri Pontarini
Hariri Pontarini, led by Siamak Hariri and David Pontarini, works at the scale of cultural landmarks and city-shaping towers. Its signature project is the Bahá’í Temple of South America in Chile, which won the RAIC International Prize in 2019. The firm also designed the Pinnacle SkyTower, one of the tallest residential buildings in Toronto.
The temple is the clearest statement of what this studio does well. Nine translucent marble and glass “wings” fold around a central dome, catching light differently through the day. It’s craft at a monumental scale, and it explains why Hariri Pontarini keeps getting the commissions other firms only pitch for.
KPMB
KPMB, founded in 1987 by Bruce Kuwabara, Thomas Payne, Marianne McKenna, and Shirley Blumberg, is the firm behind much of Toronto’s cultural infrastructure. Its signature project is the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the festival’s permanent King Street home. The studio also designed the Gardiner Museum and the Royal Conservatory’s TELUS Centre.
Why does it matter? Because KPMB built the rooms where Toronto’s cultural life actually happens. The Lightbox turned a stretch of King Street West into a year-round film district, not just a ten-day festival zone. Few firms have done more to give the city places to gather.
Diamond Schmitt
Diamond Schmitt has anchored Toronto’s civic and cultural architecture since 1975, founded by Jack Diamond (who died in 2022) and Donald Schmitt. Its signature project is the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, completed in 2006 as the first purpose-built opera and ballet house in Canada.
The Four Seasons Centre is the one to study if you want to understand the firm. From University Avenue it reads as a calm glass box, but inside sits a horseshoe auditorium tuned for unamplified sound. That balance, restraint outside and precision within, runs through most of what Diamond Schmitt builds.
Superkül
Superkül, founded in 2002 by Andre D’Elia and Meg Graham, moves easily between houses, retail, and offices, and was named Designlines Designer of the Year in 2020. Its signature project is Junction House, a residential building that brought considered, low-key modernism to one of the city’s fastest-changing neighbourhoods.
The firm also handled the renovation of the CN Tower’s Lower Observation level, which tells you something about its range. Few studios can deliver a quiet residential street one year and a national landmark the next. Superkül’s work tends to feel restrained and warm rather than loud, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
LGA Architectural Partners
LGA Architectural Partners, founded in 1989 by Janna Levitt and Dean Goodman, builds for the public realm with a sustainability-first approach, and holds the RAIC Firm Award. Its signature project is Stackt Market, the shipping-container retail and event village near Bathurst and Front that became an instant Toronto fixture.
The firm also designed the Scarborough Civic Centre Library, proof that LGA takes the suburbs as seriously as the core. That’s the throughline here: architecture meant to be used by everyone, not just admired from the sidewalk. It’s civic-minded work, and the city is better stocked with gathering places because of it.
Omar Gandhi
Omar Gandhi runs a studio split between Halifax and Toronto, opening the Toronto office in 2016, and won a Governor General’s Medal in Architecture in 2018. Most of the studio’s signature houses sit in Nova Scotia, where dramatic coastal sites suit its precise, weather-tuned timber and concrete forms.
So why include a firm with East Coast roots? Because the Toronto studio gives the city access to one of Canada’s most awarded architects, and because Gandhi’s careful, material-first approach is exactly the sensibility Toronto’s design scene rewards. For a sense of how that civic ambition plays out, see the debate around the new Ontario Science Centre.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most respected architecture firms in Toronto?
The most respected architecture firms in Toronto include KPMB, Diamond Schmitt, Hariri Pontarini, Partisans, Superkül, and LGA Architectural Partners. They span cultural landmarks, civic buildings, and experimental work, and most hold national or international awards such as the RAIC Firm Award or the RAIC International Prize.
Which Toronto firm designed the TIFF Bell Lightbox?
KPMB designed the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the permanent King Street West home of the Toronto International Film Festival. Founded in 1987 by Bruce Kuwabara, Thomas Payne, Marianne McKenna, and Shirley Blumberg, KPMB also designed the Gardiner Museum and the Royal Conservatory’s TELUS Centre.
Who designed the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts?
Diamond Schmitt designed the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, completed in 2006. It was the first purpose-built opera and ballet house in Canada. The firm was founded in 1975 by Jack Diamond, who died in 2022, and Donald Schmitt, and remains a leader in civic and cultural architecture.
Is Partisans a good firm for experimental architecture?
Yes. Partisans, founded in 2012 by Alexander Josephson and Pooya Baktash, is Toronto’s leading experimental studio, winning the Ontario Association of Architects Best Emerging Practice award in 2015. Its sculptural work, including the Grotto Sauna and Bar Raval, favours flowing, hand-crafted forms over conventional flat surfaces.
