The OAA’s 136th Annual General Meeting of Members (AGM) was held as a virtual event on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. You can view the event in its entirety on the OAA YouTube Channel and learn more about the proceedings elsewhere on the OAA Website.
The 2026 Presidential Address, delivered by Lara McKendrick, is provided here:
Hello again, everyone. This is the part of the AGM where the OAA President gets a chance to speak directly to our members.
As you already know, my name is Lara. I have been a licensed Architect since 2003 and my practice is based in Ottawa. I graduated from Carleton University’s School of Architecture, and worked for three prominent Ottawa firms, where I gained broad experience in institutional, commercial, and residential architecture.
In 2011, I founded Lara McKendrick Architecture Inc. (LMA), with a specialization in adaptive reuse, custom residential projects, and deep energy retrofits.
I joined OAA Council five years ago because I wanted to give back to an architecture profession that has given me so much, and I was a point in my life where I had the time for the commitment. It is a pleasure to work alongside my fellow Councillors, OAA staff, and countless volunteers as we follow the Architects Act to ensure the practice of architecture serves the public interest here in Ontario.
One thing that has been on my mind a lot lately is the Importance of Community.
Our communities, much like our buildings, are our constructs. Therefore, they need us to inhabit them and maintain them in order for them to be habitable places—places where we want to be. In turn, they support us and shelter us.
Wholehearted participation in community life requires us to tolerate difference, friction, and compromise… and to practise patience. In turn, we are rewarded with acceptance, support, and a home. It is through the work of continuous engagement as community members, that we build our personal and collective capacity for empathy and strength.
There are many sayings about this relationship between ourselves and our communities and how it is a “two-way street,” but the one I would like to mention is the Dish with One Spoon Treaty. Many of us here in Ontario live in the territory covered by this very old, pre-colonial treaty. It is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas, and Haudenosaunee.
I am not Indigenous, but I am committed to learning. The Dish with One Spoon Treaty is an excellent reminder that we share the land and water, and all the resources that they provide. That we are a community of communities—past, present, and future.
The Dish.
The Dish is the land, water, and resources of the Great Lakes region. And there is only one dish—we are all sharing the same land, water, and resources
The Spoon.
The Spoon is what we use to take what we need. It is rounded, without sharp edges and is not a weapon to be wielded against each other. And there is only one spoon. And it is shared.
By sharing the same implement to take from the dish, we are aware of how and what we take and what others take; we can better understand the needs of others and future generations. It is a reminder to slow our consumption—to watch (and, in turn, be watched in) our collective consumption.
I have been thinking about this a lot, given the headlines. Around the world, we are seeing major political and macroeconomic upheaval. There are challenging industry economics that are affecting how we practice architecture. And, there are also accelerating technological disruptions, including AI.
These conditions are impacting all of us, both professionally and personally. We all need to find ways to adapt, and to work together.
When the world gets tougher, I do see the people in our communities get kinder, trying to find connections that help us feel less alone.
“Community” was last year’s Conference and SHIFT Challenge themes, and I would like to suggest that we continue to seek community as we weather the current affairs and the long tail of post-pandemic fallout.
At various levels of government, we are seeing responses to housing affordability and barriers to interprovincial trade and practice, but whether the approaches taken are the right ones remains to be seen at this early point. We will continue to monitor these initiatives and offer our profession’s experience and expertise as part of ongoing consultations.
At the OAA, we have our own five-year Strategic Plan that includes meaningful action on the climate emergency and an acknowledgement of the need for Indigenous reconciliation and the critical role that equity, diversity, and inclusion plays in making real improvements in our communities.
Now, in the last year of our strategic plan, these remain the lenses through which we see the work we do. They are as important today as when we started. They really have provided focus and are actively used by both staff and Council to see our way clearly and keep us on course.
I am honoured to be entrusted to lead the 2026 OAA Council, our governing board of directors. Working alongside OAA staff and member volunteers, and guided by the Strategic Plan, together we strive to deliver high-quality member support and regulatory action, as well as other education and outreach programs.
This includes the necessary—and thankfully, unexciting—work on IT upgrades and improved financial transparency. Act modernization work is also underway and the OAA continues making headway on meeting the requirements of the Ontario Government’s Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, otherwise known as FARPACTA. We’re improving the path to licensure for both Canadian-educated interns and internationally experienced architects. We’re also looking at our own policies to ensure we are striving to accommodate, for example, the need to balance IAP experience timelines with parenting or extended family care responsibilities.
With the reciprocity between provinces in place and mutual recognition agreements already worked out and signed, the OAA was able to both demonstrate and communicate that barriers to working at one’s full capacity in the field of architecture are being minimized without impacting public safety or the quality of our built environment. And the OAA continues to monitor the situation and consider ways it can be improved for those seeking a license or limited license.
As well, the OAA continues to actively engage with government and industry peers on legislation, providing expertise on how processes can be improved while still doing the right thing for the climate and livability of our communities.
By funding our Local Societies and other specialized groups or individuals, we support public education and outreach that broadens the public’s understanding and appreciation for how much architecture and design impacts their lives. This includes different types of publics—for example, people in government, other professions, and the children and youth who will become future generations of Architects, Licensed Technologists, or, hopefully, knowledgeable clients.
We had a very well-received SHIFT season in 2025 with two member-oriented evenings at OAA Headquarters and a special event in Ottawa, as well as both hard copy and online publication. SHIFT was developed to show the public that our profession can use its education, its skills, and architectural thinking to offer new approaches to societal challenges. It’s a great program and you can find out more in the Annual Report.
For 2026, we return to the Design Excellence Awards and Service Awards. With these, we show that excellence in design and sustainability go hand-in-hand. I am really looking forward to the awards celebration evening at the upcoming Conference in the Waterloo Region. And, speaking of which, there’s still time for you to register for the conference, which offers a great opportunity to have some fun, connect with our architecture community, and gain more Structured Learning before the Continuing Education Cycle ends on June 30.
This summer, at OAA Headquarters, 111 Moatfield Drive in Toronto, construction work on the landscape project will start. After many months of design and planning, I am very excited to see it become a reality as it will be a worthy counterpart to the net zero building above it.
It is a project with a stormwater management strategy inspired by traditional Indigenous respect for the collective nature of water. Its native plant species will maintain and nurture the soil, provide habitat for the small creatures that form the foundation of our food chain, and help cool our planet. And, the non-vehicular access will be truly equally accessible and enjoyable for all those who comes to the building. This project, its procurement, design and construction processes and final outcome will provide many education and outreach opportunities. Please stay tuned to your OAA e-newsletters for more on that.
Last but not least, I will mention the OAA President Local Societies visits this fall. I look forward to meeting more members when Kristi and I do these visits. And I look forward to learning about your communities, your local engagement, your achievements, your concerns, and your plans for the future of your communities.