Brendan Stewart

Education

• Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA); University of California, Berkeley (2009)
• Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA); University of Guelph (2004)

Professional Memberships

• Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA)
• Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA)
• Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals (CAHP)
• Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA)

Bio Summary

Brendan Stewart, OALA, CSLA, CAHP is a landscape architect and heritage planner whose research and creative scholarship focus on cultural landscapes and the adaptive re-use of public and community spaces through participatory design processes. Prior to joining SEDRD, he led the landscape practice at ERA Architects in Toronto, an interdisciplinary firm focussed on heritage conservation, design, and planning, and he continues to collaborate with the firm. In 2023, Brendan was awarded the OALA's Research & Innovation Award.

Brendan is an OAC alumni, having received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Guelph (2004). He also attended Edinburgh College of Art (2003) and received a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley (2009).

Throughout his career, Brendan has been actively engaged in the academic, professional, and community spheres. He is a regular invited critic in the architecture, landscape architecture and planning programs at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and Toronto Metropolitan University, and was an editorial board member of Ground Magazine, the journal of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects.

In 2015, Brendan was involved in organizing and participating in the ‘Leading with Landscape’ conference in Toronto, hosted by the Washington DC based Cultural Landscape Foundation, which was attended by over 400 landscape practitioners and scholars from around the world, and he assisted in the creation of an associated guidebook to Toronto’s designed landscapes. He is a director of the Friends of Allan Gardens and the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation (AHLP) and served for four years as the University of Guelph's appointed educator to the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects governing council.  

Brendan has collaborated with landscape architects, architects, artists, urban designers and planners on projects across Canada and abroad, and has completed several award winning, youth led place-making projects in inner-suburban communities in and around Toronto.

Since 2018, Brendan has been co-leading plazaPOPS, a tactical urbanism initiative tailored to the conditions of suburban main streets that generates community and economic development through pop up public spaces on privately owned strip-mall parking lots. You can learn more about plazaPOPS’ first pilot in this video and report, a ‘proof of concept’ project that involved numerous LA students in the school who contributed through design studios, research assistantships and independent study courses.

In summer 2021, plazaPOPS incorporated as a not-for-profit organization and was awarded a grant from the Federal Development Agency of Southern Ontario as part of the City of Toronto’s ‘Main Street Recovery and Rebuild program', which led to the implementation of 11 installations between 2022 and 2024.

With funding through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, in partnership with the City of Toronto, Brendan led a multi-disciplinary research team, including community-based researchers, to evaluate the social and economic impacts of the plazaPOPS program. Preliminary results were shared in a 2025 public exhibition at the Urbanspace Gallery in Toronto, and several reports are forthcoming in fall 2026. plazaPOPS was awarded the Special Jury Award for Community Activation at the 2023 City of Toronto Urban Design Awards, and the organization is actively working toward a new phase of the initiative, which it refers to as the Citywide Incubator.

Brendan brings this experience to his community design studio and professional practice courses in the undergraduate and graduate landscape architectural programs at Guelph.

Research Interests

1. Cultural Landscapes, Heritage Conservation, and Adaptive Reuse

A longstanding focus of his work has been the study, conservation, and adaptive reuse of cultural landscapes. Prior to joining the University of Guelph, Brendan led the landscape practice at ERA Architects, an interdisciplinary heritage conservation and planning firm. He also serves on the board of the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation (AHLP), an international organization dedicated to the stewardship and conservation of cultural landscapes.

Research Themes

• Cultural landscape theory and practice
• Historical landscape research and documentation
• Adaptive reuse / design interventions within cultural landscapes
• Heritage interpretation and storytelling

2. Public Space, Community Design, and Social Infrastructure

Brendan is a co-founder and Director of Design and Research for plazaPOPS, a Toronto-based non-profit organization that transforms underutilized parking lots and commercial landscapes into free, accessible, and community-oriented gathering places. Through plazaPOPS, Stewart explores questions related to public space, tactical urbanism, community-engaged design, cultural planning, social infrastructure, and policy innovation. This work combines design, community-based research, advocacy, and partnership-building to support more vibrant and equitable suburban communities.

Research Themes

• Participatory and community-engaged design
• Community-based research methodologies
• Service-learning in landscape architecture education
• Public life studies, behavioural mapping and ethnographic research
• Social infrastructure and community resilience
• Equity and inclusion in underserved communities
• Design advocacy and policy change

3. Urban Horticulture, Public Gardens, and Community Stewardship

Brendan has a longstanding involvement with the Friends of Allan Gardens (FOAG), a volunteer-led organization dedicated to supporting Toronto’s historic Allan Gardens Conservatory and its surrounding gardens. His interests in this area include urban horticulture, public gardens, reconciliation and decolonization, community stewardship, cultural representation, and the role of gardens as social and cultural infrastructure. A current area of interest is the Friends’ Legacy Project, which explores opportunities for the future expansion and revitalization of the Allan Gardens Conservatory.

Research Themes

• Community stewardship of public landscapes
• Reconciliation and decolonization in public landscapes
• Public gardens as social and cultural infrastructure
• Edible landscapes, urban horticulture and food systems

Recent Publications

Stewart, B. (2026). plazaPOPS: From Intervention to Institution. Canadian Architect, v71 no.1, pp 43-46.

Stewart, B., Ashari, A., Shafaghati, R. (2026). Public Life Study Datascapes that Visualize Space and Time. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture. V.11, 876 – 885. doi:10.14627/537770083.

Stewart, B. (2026). Operating in the ‘Grey Area’: Creating Civic Commons on Private Parking Lots Along Toronto’s Strip Mall Main Streets. In L. Chan and E. Stapleton (Eds.) Transformational Participatory Urbanism: Making Do as a Spatial Practice. Routledge.

Stewart, B. (2025). plazaPOPS: Paradise in a Parking Lot [Exhibition]. Urbanspace Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Stewart, B., Rotsztain, D. (2025). The Ballet of the Parking Lot. In D. Reid, Z. Ebrahim, L. Woo, and J. Lorinc (Eds.), Messy Cities: Why We Can’t Plan Everything (pp. 84-92). Coach House Books, Toronto.

Stewart, B., McCartney, S. (2024). Looking Back to Move Forward: Training the Catalyst Practitioners of Tomorrow. Landscapes / Paysages, v26 no.4, pp 28-31.

Stewart, B. (2022). Paradise in a Parking Lot: A Pragmatic, Partnered approach to enhance the public realm of suburban main streets. Landscapes / Paysages, v24 no.3, pp 42-45.

Stewart, B., Rotsztain, D., Landman, K. (2020) plazaPOPS: Accessing the Urban Suburban. Ground Landscape Architecture Quarterly, v49, pp 24-25.

Affiliations and Partnerships

• plazaPOPS Co-founder / Director of Design and Research
• Friends of Allan Gardens Board Member
• Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation (AHLP) Board Member
• ERA Architects – Landscape Collaborator

Recent Awards

• OALA Research & Innovation Award (2023)
• Special Jury Award for Community Activation, City of Toronto Urban Design Awards (2023)

Website / Social Media Links

Brendan Stewart - LinkedIn
Brendan Stewart - Instagram