Marianne McKenna, Founding Partner of KMB Architects

Marianne McKenna founded KPMB Architects with her partners in 1987 as a hybrid model of practice based on collaboration, diversity, and design excellence. Born in Montreal, and educated at Swarthmore College and Yale University, Marianne is invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada for creating “architecture that enriches the public experience.”

 

The architecture of concert halls is one of Marianne’s particular areas of focus, recognizing the power of music to both inspire and build community. Her most recognized project, the Royal Conservatory TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning and its associated Koerner Hall has been praised by artists from Valery Gergiev to Yo-Yo Ma. The Hall has garnered numerous awards including a Governor General’s Medal for Architecture. For Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Marianne steered the design to enhance spaces that support patrons and business objectives, delivering a revitalized hall, expanded lobbies, and a new ‘city room’ for performance and events. The new spaces have delighted patrons, exceeded their revenue targets, and contributed to the urban revitalization of the downtown core. Marianne also led restoration/expansion projects for the Jenny Belzberg Theatre at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Toronto’s iconic Massey Hall.

 

As partner-in-charge, Marianne has led a diversity of educational projects for science, engineering, and liberal arts programs. These include the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto (Governor General’s Medal), the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre at the University of Waterloo, the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre*, and Le Quartier Concordia*, an integrated campus for Concordia University in downtown Montreal. In 2019 she completed the first phase of a campus expansion for The Brearley School. The new building creates a vertical campus for academics and performance on a tight Manhattan site.

 

Her workplace strategy experience includes the Torys LLP offices in both Toronto and Calgary, as well as offices for Woodbridge Co. Ltd and Gluskin Sheff.  Having recently opened a new renovation of the Park Hyatt Toronto, Marianne is currently working on the Center for Computing & Data Sciences at Boston University and a series of projects for the United Church of Canada.