Jason Moriyama , BID / 84

Visitors to the new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa will be familiar with the talent of industrial designer turned architect Jason Moriyama. He designed the major public spaces at the war museum, which won the Royal Institute of British Architects International Design Award of Excellence and the Royal Irish Architecture Award of Excellence in 2006.

He has left his mark on many Canadian and international institutions: TEL Building at York University, Bata Shoe Museum, Global Furniture’s Headquarters and Learning Centre, Brock University Complex, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, Bank of Montreal Institute for Learning and the Saudi Arabian National Museum.

Moriyama earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial design at Carleton and his master’s of architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Along the way, he worked at the offices of Frank Gehry and Coop Himmelblau Architects. He joined Moriyama & Teshima in 1988. Moriyama is a Member of the Ontario Association of Architects and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Among Moriyama’s numerous awards and recognitions, he was: selected as one of 31 Rising Stars of Canadian Arts and Culture by the Globe & Mail (1994); awarded a Canada Arts Council Arts Grant B (1989); and given the Jack Cooke Award, Graduating Student Design Prize by Carleton University (1984).

In 2006 alone, his firm received the Globe Foundation of Canada Award for Excellence in Urban Sustainability, Ontario Association of Architects Architectural Excellence Award, the International Illumination Design Award and the Ontario Association of Architects Good Design is Good Business Award. The Canadian War Museum was also one of three worldwide finalists for the first International Lubetkin Prize.