At the 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM), held on April 11, the Association honoured its newest Members of Long Standing—individuals who have reached the milestone of 50 years of membership with the OAA as part of Ontario’s architecture profession. Among recipients this year was Karl H. Stevens.

Karl is a founding partner of Stevens Burgess Architects (SBA) Ltd., and has practised within the architectural, urban design, and planning industries for more than 50 years, providing oversight and due diligence to the firms’ architectural projects. With his guiding expertise, his firm has undertaken community plans across the Canadian Arctic, including the City of Yellowknife. Over the past two decades, Karl has worked extensively throughout Asia on large-scale redevelopment projects and new towns. Closer to home, SBA played a comprehensive role in the development of Toronto's One Financial Place, overseeing the project from the initial land assembly through to the urban design of the site, including its integration with the city's interconnectivity.

As a founding partner of Project Planning Global (PPG), Karl has prepared residential development projects, community plans, and official plans and zoning bylaws. He has recommended development strategies to private investors, municipalities, federal and provincial governments, and investment corporations. Some of his assignments have included development strategies for communities across Ontario, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and recently, by invitation, the Haitian Island Development Plan for the Government of China.