Claude Cormier Biography: University of Toronto [5 of 8] 

After two years at the University of Guelph, Cormier concluded “science and I are not compatible” and opted to move to Toronto to study landscape architecture. In the city the “farm boy” discovered culture. The school of design opened new worlds along with new ways of thinking and seeing. He discovered night clubs and loved going out, art museums and galleries, secondhand clothing stores and foods from different ethnicities. Academically, instead of focusing on plants he was dealing with the urban built environment. During his fourth year, his thesis adviser, Michael Hough, did not approve of Claude’s project. Claude went to the architecture school to get a new thesis advisor and found urbanist Blanche Lemko van Ginkel. It was the beginning of Claude embracing a new way of thinking about landscape architecture and issues of urban design and city making.