Celebrating alumni leadership in city building and its centre
On May 14, the Centre for Urban Research and Land Development (CUR) hosted a reception at the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre. In attendance at this first-ever networking event were CUR researchers and supporters, as well as alumni from Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP).
From left, David Amborski, director of CUR, with Devin Tu, founder of Map Your Property, who partnered with CUR on several research projects. Photo courtesy of Carly Anderson.
The event also celebrated CUR founding director and SURP professor David Amborski, who formally retired from teaching last year and is now the school’s professor emeritus. In his welcoming remarks, Amborski toasted the success of SURP alumni, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in urban planning, public policy and land development.
“I’m like a proud parent,” said Amborski. “All the kids have done well. I’m so excited to see the successes everybody’s had and how well they’ve done.”
Over the course of his 50-year career teaching an estimated 4,000 SURP graduates, Amborski is the program’s fulcrum, seeing at least two generations of alumni in his classroom. This includes Patrick O’Hanlon, Class of ’83, whose daughter Kelly obtained her Master of Planning degree in 2017 and continues the legacy of success as director of development at DiamondCorp. DiamondCorp’s president and COO is another SURP alum — Bob Blazevski, Class of ’86 — who also attended the reception.
Patrick O’Hanlon, Urban and Regional Planning ’83, speaks to the crowd of alumni and friends at the Sears Atrium. Photo courtesy of Carly Anderson.
Industry veteran O’Hanlon played a pivotal role in CUR’s establishment, alongside Amborski and CUR senior research fellow Frank Clayton, and is a past recipient of an Alumni Award of Distinction and a G. Raymond Chang Outstanding Volunteer Award, in recognition of his professional success and work in support of his alma mater. “Through our connections and through all our graduates we were able to raise over $2 million to start CUR,” said O’Hanlon.
He credits Amborski’s passion and direction for the level of exceptionalism of SURP graduates in the industry. “David is the glue of our alumni,” said O’Hanlon, who recalls being an undergrad and playing on SURP’s champion intramural hockey team with Amborski, named the Urban Cowboys.
Amborski hopes attendees found the opportunity to network at the May 14 event helpful, adding that they will often be at an industry event or working with another firm and not realize that the people that they are talking to, or working with, are also SURP alumni. “It might be that they graduated 5, 10 or 15 years apart from each other,” he noted. “I can walk into a session at BILD [Building Industry and Land Development Association] and there’s 300 people there and I’ll see 20 or 30 grads at different tables.”
Since its inception in 2013, CUR has been a leader in conducting independent economic and market-based research on land use in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area. SURP was founded in 1969 and is one of North America’s oldest urban planning programs.
Are you a SURP alum with exciting news you want to share?
We want to know (and so do your classmates)! Submit a class note or update your contact information online. Want to learn more about how you can support the Centre for Urban Research and Land Development? Reach out to Anthony Bakerdjian at anthony.bakerdjian@torontomu.ca.