Richard Kroeker grew up on a Manitoba farm near a small prairie village, one of five boys in a home where canning season, butchering bees and hay crews were shared community work. His father, a Ukrainian immigrant who worked as a bricklayer, plumber, carpenter and mechanic, told his sons that their heads were their future. Richard set out to be a naturalist, drawing and painting everything he observed, until a shortcut through the University of Manitoba architecture building showed him people laughing, building and generating ideas together. He soon changed course.

He went on to the Architectural Association in London, where students wrote their own curriculum and defended it before external juries, with teachers that included Peter Cook and Zaha Hadid. After designing in London through the Thatcher years, a teaching post brought his family home to Canada and to Dalhousie University in Halifax. There he became a professor, director of the School of Architecture, and now Professor Emeritus, treating the studio as a place to solve real problems. In Gambia, his students built hand pumps from discarded tires and flotation gear from water bottles for fishing families. In Eskasoni, he worked with Albert and Murdena Marshall, and in Minnesota a studio helped protect a Dakota sacred site.

Richard is a Member of the Order of Canada, a 2022 World Architecture Festival WAFX award winner for the Muscowpetung Powwow Arbour, and a recipient of the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award for the Pictou Landing Health Centre. He still paints.

Richard Kroeker

Upcoming Episode:

⁠Richard Kroeker⁠ Pt.2

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Doors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠To connect with our sponsors, email me: jonathan@issuedforconstruction.ca

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Jamie grew up in Cedarvale, the youngest of three sisters, with summers at the family cottage on Lake Simcoe. By her own account she was a serial quitter of piano, guitar and dance, but she never stopped making things, from beading and painting to bedazzling, and she still remembers the hot pink and orange Ikea haul that made decorating her bedroom feel like a turning point.

A psychology degree from McGill did not point her toward design, but a nudge from her mom and a leap into a Toronto interior design program did. She passed on Parsons in New York, spent a summer traveling through Southeast Asia, and learned the business from the ground up through retail at Club Monaco, a short stint selling condo upgrades, and nearly five years at Tara Fingold Interiors, where she picked up drafting, styling, purchasing and the confidence to get on the phone and make things happen.

After a maternity leave that came to an end, in early 2020, weeks before the world shut down, she launched JPZ Interiors with one renovation, a freshly photographed home and an Instagram account. Today her Toronto residential practice often runs around ten projects at once and has reached Florida, and she is building a team while raising three kids. Along the way she opens up about pricing her time, writing her first contracts, trusting her gut on red flags, and why you should simply pick up the phone and ask.

⁠⁠JPZ Interiors⁠⁠

Upcoming Episode:

Richard Kroeker

Sponsors:

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Doors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠To connect with our sponsors, email me: jonathan@issuedforconstruction.ca

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Place of Work is an architecture studio with one foot in Halifax and one in Toronto, founded by Jennifer Esposito, Duncan Patterson, and Will Perkins. The three first worked together at MacKay Lyons Sweetapple Architects, and when COVID shook everything loose they realized a practice built on trust and shared shorthand could live in two cities. Today they design mostly houses, with a deep interest in the rituals that happen inside them, and the studio was featured in the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2026. The name comes from a term in a Canadian construction contract, where it simply means the site, but they loved how it also speaks to place and to work.

Will was born in Halifax, spent his early years in Los Angeles and New Zealand while his luthier father worked abroad, and trained in lighting design at the National Theatre School of Canada before starting architecture school at 26. Duncan grew up between Regina and his dad’s cattle ranch, sketching in colored Conte and building fences, then came to Dalhousie by way of an architectural technology program. Jennifer, a Toronto native and former varsity swimmer, followed Carleton and Harvard’s GSD with practice in Yellowknife and Halifax, and now teaches at Toronto Metropolitan University while advocating for equity in the profession through BEAT.

Away from the studio, Will cooks ambitious dinners, meditates early in the morning, and is learning tennis for the joy of not being good at it. Duncan hikes, camps, plays rec league basketball, and joins his brother’s nonprofit that turns basketball courts into murals. Jennifer reads, travels, and dreams of a shack on the ocean.

⁠⁠Place of Work⁠⁠

Upcoming Episode:

JPZ Interiors

Sponsors:

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Doors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠To connect with our sponsors, email me: jonathan@issuedforconstruction.ca

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Issued For Construction⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠