Joe Lobko

At the beginning of 2023, Joe established Joe Lobko Architect Inc. with the intention of transitioning to a modifed form of practice aligned with his interests and experience. 

Following completion of graduate school in Chicago in 1984, Joe established a Toronto practice focused primarily upon community revitalization. He works both as an architect with extensive adaptive reuse experience as well an urban designer involved in the development of numerous community master plans. 

In 2006 he joined DTAH as a partner with the merger of his own practice, and in the same year received an urban leadership award from the Canadian Urban Institute and became a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Joe has led the design of two of Toronto’s most beloved community hubs: the Artscape Wychwood Barns and the Evergreen Brick Works, both award-winning LEED certified examples of the creative adaptive reuse of abandoned industrial facilities on behalf of not-for-profit clients responsible for developing these public lands. 

Joe has also helped bring innovation to the design of Toronto shelter facilities including the Fort York Residence, (recipient of a 2006 CMHC award for best practices) and has recently led the design of three new buildings to house the homeless, including Florence Booth House, the revitalization of the Salvation Army’s Shelter for Women along Queen W.; as well as two new Shelter facilities for the City of Toronto, both involving the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. 

Other notable projects include Eltuek Centre for Arts, the redevelopment of the historic 40,000 SF Holy Angels Convent building into a facility intended to help support the economic and cultural revitalization of Cape Breton; the award-winning L’Arche Dayspring Chapel in Richmond Hill; Artscape’s (and Ontario’s) first legal live/work project in Toronto; the competition-winning Sims Square office building adjacent to Burlington’s City Hall; as well as several multi/single family residential projects over the years.

Joe’s urban design experience includes Waterfront Toronto’s West Don Lands community (with UDA); coordination of the 2015 Pan Am Games Athlete’s Village on behalf of the Province of Ontario; coordination of the Film Studio District Urban Design Guidelines (PIC Core) for the City of Toronto; Richmond Hill’s Key Development Areas Secondary Plan; Whitby Harbour Master Plan for Brookfield; Baker District Master Plan for downtown Guelph, the Downsview Park Aerospace Campus and Cultural Commons for the Canada Lands Corporation, as well as the Parkdale Community Hub Master Plan.

As chair of the Toronto Society of Architects from 2001 to 2004, Joe led the creation of an award-winning contemporary architecture guide map for the GTA. He later served as a member of the City of Toronto Clean and Beautiful City Roundtable as chair of the subcommittee on city processes, standards, and procedures. 

He served as the professional advisor for the first affordable housing design competition in the Regent Park renewal initiative, as well as for recent international design competitions for the Nova Scotia Art Gallery, Etobicoke City Hall, and The Arbour at George Brown College.

In 2020, Joe received the OAA Randy Roberts Service Award, recognizing his service to the profession. Joe is also the recipient of the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from Sustainable
Buildings Canada.

Academic Qualifications

Master of Architecture
University of Illinois at Chicago, 1984
Award of Excellence

Bachelor of Architecture
Carleton University, 1980

Professional Memberships

Fellow, Royal Architectural Institute
of Canada

Member, Ontario Association
of Architects

LEED Accredited Professional

Other Affiliations

City of Toronto Design Review Panel 

Canada Green Building Council

Congress for New Urbanism 

ICOMOS Canada

Toronto Society of Architects Member and Past Chair