As the partners of Toronto firm Williamson Chong tell it, they embarked on their practice quite literally in a canoe. Donald Chong, an Ontario native with his own firm, wanted to teach Shane and Betsy Williamson—an American couple with an architectural practice in Toronto—a thing or two about a classic Canadian pastime. Something clicked as the trio navigated the waterways of Algonquin Provincial Park and schlepped their gear over portages. Chong recalls thinking, “Hey, why don’t the three of us dovetail?” If this boot camp scenario was the proving ground for their relationship, then greater Toronto was the test tube for Williamson Chong’s combined interest in devising small-scale solutions to big-picture challenges like the condition of the city and the future of the archetypal family dwelling.
Before teaming up in 2011, the three architects often crossed paths in Toronto’s architectural community. Chong, who holds a B.Arch. from the University of Toronto, started his firm in 2004. Shane and Betsy Williamson, who both hold M.Arch. degrees from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, began their firm in 2007 and moved to Canada after Shane took a position at the University of Toronto.
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