Committee Members
Honorary Chair
George Rust-D’Eye is one of Canada’s leading municipal lawyers. Called to the Bar of Ontario in 1971, he has practised municipal law since 1973 and is currently in private practice. He also works as a free-lance integrity commissioner and lobbyist registrar for municipalities and local boards.
In 2007, he was awarded the Ontario Bar Association’s Award of Excellence in Municipal Law. He was one of the first lawyers in the Province designated by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a Certified Specialist in Municipal Law.
He has served in important capacities for a number of public bodies, including as Metropolitan Solicitor for the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, and as Chair of the Toronto Historical Board.
He has been retained and consulted from time to time by the Province of Ontario, for the drafting and amendment of legislation.
George has served as integrity commissioner for a number of municipalities across Ontario, and has completed investigations for the City of Oshawa, the City of Kingston and the City of Brampton (as its Interim Auditor General).
Barry Goldman is the Principal Architect of his Toronto firm and has called the HCD of Cabbagetown North his home for over 20 years. In addition to designing and renovating his home, Barry’s firm has completed a significant number of residential and commercial projects in Cabbagetown. Barry was the recipient of the CPA’s Peggy Kurtin Award for Excellence in Restoration.. Barry is continually stimulated by the challenges and rewards of working on heritage projects around Toronto and within the HCD of Cabbagetown.
Michael Haddad is a lawyer in private practice in Toronto. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1980, and has practiced since 1985 from his offices in Cabbagetown. His practice is built on four main areas of law: corporate/commercial law, estate administration and planning, real estate, and family related matters.
Michael was a member of the Board of Governors at the Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD), Canada’s most renowned degree granting University dedicated to the arts, from 2005 to 2011. He was Chair of the Board’s Development and Alumni Relations Committee and was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Board. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of OCAD’s Foundation Board as well as Chair of the Professional Gallery Advisory Board.
Michael’s community involvement is active, enthusiastic, and diverse. He is a member of the Management Board for the Cabbagetown Business Improvement Area. He recently completed a six year term as Deputy Warden and Warden of St. James Cathedral in Toronto, and is currently the Chair of the Cathedral’s Stewardship Committee.
Wallace Immen writes about urban development and property issues for The Globe and Mail. He's also executive editor of the travel magazine The Cruisington Times (cruisington.com).
Since 1972, he and his wife have lived in an 1870 home in the Cabbagetown Southwest area--the residential district pending addition to the Cabbagetown Heritage Conservation District. His work advocating for historic preservation and serving on community organizations including the Cabbagetown South Residents Association and the Cabbagetown HCD Advisory Committee has heightened his interest in researching Cabbagetown's unique history. He has taken photographs of every house in the district, which appear in the property search feature of the cabbagetownHCD.ca website.
Monica Kuhn is an architect in Cabbagetown, Toronto, whose small firm, established in 1994, specializes in single family, heritage, and greenroof projects. Her residential projects range from additions and renovations, to new homes that attempt to fit into their neighbourhood context, while providing comfortable and contemporary interiors which suit the individual needs of her Clients. Monica has written and lectured widely on urban greening and sustainable design.
Rick Merrill is a Partner with The Planning Partnership. Rick is a member of the Ontario Association of Architects and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute. He is trained as both an architect and a planner and has over 30 years of experience working with public and private sector clients. He is presently on the board of the Cabbagetown Preservation Association.
Jordan is the Principal Configuration Architect at Station 2 Productions and manages an accomplished team that brings professionalism, experience, passion and energy to all aspects of production.
Jordan recently purchased a home on Seaton Street and is a member of the Cabbagetown South Residents Association.
During her professional life, Heather has been a consultant in disability management and accommodation practises including mediation. Over many years she has been deeply involved in her communities through charitable organizations and as an activist challenging political institutions to resolve neighbourhood issues. She is the current president of the Winchester Park Resident’s Association and, as a long-term resident of Cabbagetown, has a strong interest in preserving the unique character of the Cabbagetown neighbourhood.
Emeritus
Scott Weir (CAHP) is an Associate at E.R.A Architects Inc. and holds a Masters degree in Architecture. His architectural work has ranged from overseeing restoration projects like the Carlu (2004 winner of the OAA Award for Architectural Excellence), to master plans for complex sites such as the Ojibway Club at Pointe au Baril, to new design and adaptive reuse projects. An interest in cultural theory and North American urbanism has led to his being published in a variety of architectural periodicals and university guest lectures. Scott has been with the E.R.A. since 2000 and actively tests the theories and methods underpinning architecture through hands-on participation in his own construction and conservation projects. An avid bibliophile and writer, he contributes a column on architectural history and conservation for the National Post.
Jamie MacLean-Bechard owned the Bay & Gable at 455 Ontario Street with her husband Rob from 2009 through to 2017. During this time, she sat on the HCD Advisory Committee and later chaired the committee from 2014 – 2017. She was instrumental in the assembly of the Cabbagetown South-West HCD, which was under study with the City upon her departure. She also organized the HCD booth at the Cabbagetown Festival and raised the profile of the committee as a resource to the community. She assisted with the migration of the website to its current format and worked diligently to develop the Property Search Compendium.
After extensive restoration and renovations to their Ontario Street home, they decided to move their young family to North Rosedale.
Jamie continues to support the committee with website updates and content contributions.
Jim Muldoon moved to Cabbagetown in 2008 from Lake Forest, Illinois, on the North Shore outside of Chicago. He is Senior Fellow with the Center for Global Change and Governance at Rutgers University, Newark, and a scholar of international affairs with research interests in multilateral diplomacy, international organizations, and global governance. His publications include The Architecture of Global Governance: An Introduction to the Study of International Organizations (Westview Press, 2003) and Multilateral Diplomacy and the United Nations Today, Second Edition (Westview Press, 2005) and he is working on a new textbook – The New Dynamics of Multilateralism – from his Cabbagetown townhouse on Aberdeen Ave.
Margaret McBurney is a designer and social and architectural historian who has, with Mary Byers, published six books, including Tavern in the Town: Early Inns and Taverns of Ontario and The Governor’s Road: Early Buildings and Families from Mississauga to London. They have also published numerous articles in The Globe and Mail, Leisure Ways, Ontario Living, and Century Home. McBurney is also editor of the Ontario Heritage Connection’s website. She served as president of the Arts and Letters Club from 1998 to 2000 and lives in Toronto.
Rick Hall is Toronto born and bred, and moved to Cabbagetown in 2003, after long admiring its pretty streets and human scale. He has a Ph.D. in communications and government policy/regulatory making process, and owns RICK HALL PR, which provides PR and a wide-range of communications services to the high-tech, financial and professional services sectors. He acquired his love for old homes and buildings when living in a Grade-II listed house in London UK, while on secondment from the Canadian federal government.
Rollo Myers has lived in Cabbagetown since 1970 and has renovated three historic houses, receiving the Toronto Historical Board’s Award of Merit. He is Manager of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, and has just ended his second (and maximum) term as the Heritage Canada Foundation’s Governor for Ontario. Rollo was awarded the Jane Jacob’s Prize for his efforts to restore the site of the Upper Canada’s First Parliament Buildings to public ownership. Appointed by Toronto City Council to the Task Force to Bring Back the Don, the Toronto Historical Board, and The War of 1812 Commemoration Committee. Rollo is a founding member of the Friends of Fort York, the West Don Lands Committee and the Citizens for the Old Town.
Peggy Kurtin was a resident of Cabbagetown for over 25 years, and a president of the Cabbagetown Preservation Association. In 1995 Peggy started researching the heritage of Cabbagetown and founded the Advisory Committee. She met with many historical groups throughout Toronto to explain how to research their areas and lobby for designation. Peggy earned a Masters degree in Architectural History, and served with the Toronto Historical Association and the Ontario Conservation Board.
