Series 11 - Advising, assessing and consulting

In addition to his work as a juror, Professor Richards was active as a consultant or advisor to a number of projects, most associated with architectural and design, but some with academic matters such as tenure and the external supervision of theses. Some of the activities listed in his curriculum vitae are filed with other series and others are not documented in this series. The arrangement is chronologically by the name of the organization or individual concerned. The files may contain any or all of the following: correspondence, notes, memoranda, reports, photographs, architectural drawings and site plans.

Within accession B2007-0011, the most heavily documented of his consulting work is with the selection of an architect for the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, the Environmental Sciences Building at Trent University; as a thesis advisor (1989-1990) to Brian Christianson of Miami University whose thesis was on Canadian architecture; as a member of the 2006 program review for the School of Architecture at McGill University; and his being a consultant to and a member of the Royal Ontario Museum’s architectural advisory committee regarding ‘Renaissance ROM’ and Daniel Libeskind’s project. Two other well documented activities are his work as a member of the curatorial advisory board of Power Plant (1987-1990) and as a member of the visiting team of the National Architectural Accrediting Board (USA) to Texas State University (1992).

B2019-0009 includes documentation of Richards’ work with Kin Yeung, founder and owner of the fashion brand Blanc de Chine. After having met Yeung on a trip to Hong Kong in the early 2000s, Richards began consulting for the company to help grow its international visibility. Over the span of more than a decade, Richards worked on a range of projects including interior design for the brand’s New York retail locations (including Bleu de Chine), Yeung’s private apartments, writing and editing an unpublished biography of Yeung, and founding the Toronto studio, WORKshop. Material includes extensive correspondence, draft manuscripts, notes, journals, reflective commentaries, as well as plans and drawings for interior design projects.