Helga Plumb

Plumb's style is known for uniting people inside a space. She enjoyed taking old architectural ideas and reconstructing them to fit modern life.[14] She believed contemporary ideas were built from ideas of the past and not entirely new. She often focused on function, structure, and material in her buildings and believed these were the foundations for creating a remarkable design. However, she believed that function and structure were slightly more critical than material, and that material should be used as a way to support function and structure.[15] She wanted her buildings to be backgrounds on which people could engage with one another. Her buildings never dominated a space but rather blended into their surroundings.[16] While growing up, Plumb was heavily inspired by the old architecture of Austria. She noticed the way these buildings and streets made people act within them. Plumb took these ideas and applied them to a post-modern style.[16] She liked the sophistication of the modern movement and its step away from ornamentation. Plumb once stated, “I don’t think you have to attach things to architecture because you can utilize everything you have.” This idea is often portrayed in her designs.[16]

The Oakland Condominium is a large housing complex built in 1981, two years after becoming partners with Macy Du Bois. This building located on 315 Avenue Road and 20-40 Oakland's Ave Summer Hill, Toronto is made up of six floors and 65 different apartments.[17] In this work Plumb wanted to create the idea of a city within a city, to do this she created an internal walkway through the building that is full of natural light.[16] This way renters could come to this mini-city to engage with one another. All renters have access to a parking garage and visitor parking to encourage residents to bring guests.[17] This building's architecture won Plumb the Habitation Space International Award of Excellence, the Canadian Architect Yearbook Award of Excellence, the O.A.A Toronto Life Design Award, the Canadian Architect Design Award and the Governor General’s Medal for Architecture.[7] Plumb used the Scaramouche Restaurant in Toronto as another way to play with human interaction. Built-in 1979 this building is located at 1 Benevento Place in Toronto, Ontario.[18] The foundation of the restaurant is created using a structural grid that controls but encourages the flow of traffic through the restaurant.[16] Plumb designed this building to sit on a hillside, so diners could enjoy looking down onto the city while eating. At night the city lights create a romantic backdrop for the restaurant's French cuisine.[18] The original owner that worked with Plumb continues to run the restaurant over 35 years later. The pair worked together to create an environment that matched the chef's contemporary French food.[18] The restaurant's space is divided so that people can enjoy a casual dinner downstairs or fine dining upstairs. Reviews of this restaurant continue to praise Plumb's design, stating it creates the perfect atmosphere for relaxing.[18]

Another famous project from the Du Bois Plumb Partnership is the Tom Longboat Elementary School erected in 1978.[16] This school is located at 37 Crow Trail in Scarborough Malvern and is named after the long distance runner and Onondaga Aboriginal, Tom Longboat.[19] The school shows Plumb's famous postmodern style that contains a grid-like foundation similar to the Scaramouche Restaurant.[16] The grid encourages children to play and learn with one another but also to remain organized. This building ended up winning the Scarborough Planning Board Urban Design Certificate of Merit and the OMRC Award of Merit.[20] Plumb was often disappointed with the lack of resources and effort put into creating schools for children. She thought Canadian schools resembled jail too much and did not encourage learning.[21] Helga Plumb often turned down requests for schools with no windows at all so that students would not be distracted. Once in an interview, Plumb stated, “there is this whole idea that children will be distracted outside which is incredible to me because there is so much to learn outside. To lock a kid up inside is unbelievable.” [21] A specific moment that altered the way Plumb saw the classroom was when a butterfly fluttered through her window while teaching one day. She stated that all the students stopped their work and became completely engaged with the butterfly. After her attempt to redirect her students’ attention failed, she gave up and spent the rest of her class talking about and watching the butterfly.[21] Plumb realized the disconnect students have from nature in the classroom; schools do not reflect the minds of their students instead they try to control them.[21] Plumb attempted to alter the classroom in very cost-effective ways. In some cases, she would slant rooves in order to allow more windows, or she would colour the walls.[21] School boards kept pushing architects to harden schools so they would last a long time; however, Plumb noticed this caused them to resemble prison cells more and more. By increasing natural light and colour Plumb was attempting to bring softness and life back into the classroom.[21]

• Helga Plumb has received the Governor General's medal for architecture.[7]
• Her works have been included in publishings on energy efficient design.[7]
• Plumb received the O.M.R.C Award of Merit for the Grand River Cable Television.[7]
• Plumb was awarded the Low Energy Building Design Award of Excellence for the Government of Canada Office Building.[7]
• Plumb was awarded the Modern Healthcare/ AIA Design Award and the Nova Scotia Association of Architects Award for the Souris Hospital in Nova Scotia.[7]