Christine is an urban designer, teacher, researcher and illustrator with a passion for building engaging, ecologically-responsible and beautiful communities.
She works creatively with developers, citizen groups, researchers and students to transform landscapes, buildings, neighbourhoods and cities into engaging, beautiful and sustainable places. Her unique visual approach to design brings diverse people together and combines community-based planning techniques with socio-ecological design strategies.
Christine has designed at a variety of scales - a new vision for an abandoned warehouse in a small town, detailed designs and planting plans for civic gardens and parks, master plans for residential developments and campuses, and visions for revitalizing core urban areas. Research projects have focused on innovative planning techniques, landscape perception, children’s play experiences, and place-making.
Recently she added LEGO to her communication toolkit to create an Eco-City exhibition. To each new project, Christine combines a researcher’s curiosity with a visionary capacity that stems from a 20+ year career as architectural illustrator.
Background
Christine graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1991 with a degree in Architecture. Over the next two decades, she ran a busy architectural illustration practice in Owen Sound, Ontario, with local and international clients. She and her husband Ralph raised three sons, learned to garden, and undertook renovation projects that were always more complex than they first seemed.
Christine became increasingly involved in volunteer work to strengthen citizen engagement, develop community resilience, and build sustainable landscapes, leading to an illustrated newspaper column. Wishing to steer both advocacy efforts and professional development to sustainable community design, she obtained a Master of Planning from the University of Guelph in 2010, with a research focus on compact urban development.
She pursued her doctorate between 2010 and 2017, with a research focus on landscape perceptions, and processes that strengthen community involvement in regional planning for wind energy. At this time, Christine began to assist in design studios, and teach courses in sustainability, landscape architecture history, and place-making.
In 2017 she and her husband relocated to Vejle, Denmark so he could work for LEGO, his dream job. Christine has now established a design practice.