As one of Rod Robbie’s most celebrated designs – the Pan American Ceremonies Venue/ Rogers Centre / Skydome – plays host to the Opening Ceremony of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, we thought we’d dig into our records and repost the article published in the Summer 2003 issue of Perspectives celebrating his naming as a member of the Order of da Vinci.* “Rod Robbie has had a varied and distinguished career. Beginning as a staff architect for the Eastern Region of British Railways, Rod emigrated to Canada in 1956, where he joined in partnership with Belcourt & Blair in Ottawa. His Boy Scouts Association Headquarters was the first institutional building constructed wholly from precast concrete elements and one of the first air-conditioned buildings in Ottawa. In 1961, after spending two years with the Toronto firm of Peter Dickinson Associates Architects, he became a founding partner of Ashworth Robbie Vaughan and Williams. In 1966, Rod became Technical Director and Co-Director of the Metropolitan Toronto School Board’s Study of Educational Facilities (SEF).The program, which ran until 1971, “changed the way that large public school boards in Canada programmed and defined their building needs. Construction and Project Management, Performance Specifications, Statistics Canada’s Construction Index and many related industry processes were either pioneered or grew out of the SEF program.”** Rod is still an active member of the International Council of Educational Facilities Planners. In 1985, with structural engineer C. Michael Allen, Rod Robbie won the competition to build what came to be known as Skydome — “the first building in the world in which [unbelievably] a major component was deliberately designed to move.” This incredible facility, along with its neighbour, the CN Tower, has grown to become a proud symbol for the city of Toronto. With his team, RAN International, Rod has gone on to design retractable-roof stadiums in Japan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Ireland and the US. Rod is a Fellow of the RAIC, an Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts, a member of the OAA, a member of the Town Planning Institute of Canada, a Registered Professional Planner, a member of the RIBA, and is certified by NCARB in the US and ARCUK in the United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of Ryerson University and, in 2000, was awarded an honorary doctorate from Dalhousie University for his extraordinary contribution to the practice of architecture. The OAA is proud to confer its Order of da Vinci on this exemplary architect and planner." *The Order of da Vinci recognizes architects who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in the profession, education, and/or service to the profession and their community. **Quotations are taken from James Wright’s nomination letter.