The architect
Humanism, imagination, and public life.
Raymond Moriyama was a Canadian architect born in Vancouver in 1929. During the Second World War, when he was a child, his family was forcibly uprooted and interned because of their Japanese ancestry. He later spoke of building a treehouse as a refuge—a formative experience in his understanding of how places can offer dignity, freedom, and belonging.
Moriyama studied architecture at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1954, then completed postgraduate studies at McGill University in 1957. He established his own practice in 1958 and joined with architect Ted Teshima to form Moriyama & Teshima Architects in 1970. Moriyama died on September 1, 2023, aged 93.
His work ranged across science centres, libraries, museums, cultural institutions, civic buildings, and international projects. Across that variety, he returned to a clear idea: architecture should create meaningful experiences for the people who use it, and public buildings should welcome rather than intimidate.
“Successful public buildings inspire new physical and emotional experiences.”
A summary of themes described in the University of Toronto’s remembrance of Moriyama.