Following is a brief introduction to my firm:

Prior to moving to the County I was fortunate to accumulate extensive experience in a wide range of architectural projects. Until 1978 I freelanced as a designer for a number of innovative architectural firms, in the Toronto area and then in 1978 joined Colin Bent as an Associate and in 1983 became a partner in the firm of Colin Bent Associates Architects. While  with CBAA our firm gained an international reputation for building system design. This was due in part to the projects designed for remote locations in the Arctic as well as in the Caribbean. The firm provided a complete range of conventional services as well as specialized experience in systems building, community planning and design, and remote northern settlement design. In 1982 the firm of Colin Bent Architect won the "Canadian Architect Award of Excellence" for the most Northern Settlement in Canada, the unique Polaris Project on Little Cornwallis Island, NWT.

Present:

Brian Clark Architect began in 1986 in Prince Edward County and I continue to work alone in my practice. My goal since it's conception has been to develop a balanced practice with a wide range of diverse clients and projects. In 1991 Stevenson Market Condominiums won one of the Loyalist Parkway Awards for it's restoration,in 1992 Brian Clark Architect won second prize/honourable mention for the Hunchuck Residence, Bayside Cressy sponsored by the Ontario Association of Architects/Canadian House and Home Magazine, and again in 2005 won the Prince Edward Homebuilders Association Commercial Project Award for the Grange Winery in Hillier, Prince Edward County

Projects have ranged in size and complexity upwards to $10 million and staff and consultants have been retained as most suitable for the individual project but all design and contract documents are produced entirely by myself. Innovative design solutions require careful consideration, financial analysis, program studies, product research, material selection, and construction management. In actively pursuing a wide variety of work it is felt that the cumulative result will enrich the individual members of the design team and lead to more dynamic solutions for all our clients. Education of the design team includes the architect, the client and the individual specialists which are brought in specific to each project, as well as the individual trades involved during the construction.  I have found that all problems which do develop during a project can usually be directly connected to a lack of sufficient information, education, and awareness, and usually becomes manifested in misunderstandings, delays, extra costs, inappropriate design and decisions, or ultimately in user dissatisfaction.

In the past number of years I have attempted to encompass an increased awareness of environmental factors in all the stages of design and construction. Any design must not only respond to things such as light, space, form, and function but must consider the client's lifestyle and dreams, economics of construction, as well as the site, healthy materials, resource efficiency, solar heating, and day lighting, natural cooling, indoor and outdoor connections, and pure pleasure. We must learn to value life more if we are to continue to survive and thrive. Each project must be better, in all aspects, than those projects which have gone before. I feel that each project has the wondrous potential to be a complete satisfying process for all those involved, from initial conception through design, construction, and ultimately through all the years of client use, future renovation, and possible reuse.

I also believe that there is a fundamental view of the world which says that when you build a thing you are not merely building in isolation but also repairing the world around you. It is our responsibility to work in making the larger world around us, at least at that one place and time, more coherent and more "whole" and in doing so enable people and their communities to feel more alive.