SUDBURY - Accomplished architectural and urban designer and Laurentian University McEwen School of Architecture professor Shannon Bassett passed away Dec. 26 at the age of 52.
She was survived by her brother, parents, and her beloved Boston Terrier, Suboo.
“During her short time, she led an extraordinary life,” said her obituary. “Her accomplishments were many - national and international published writings, lectures, design work and research exhibitions … This beautiful, kind soul was loved and will be missed forever by so many.”
Flags on Laurentian’s campus were lowered to half-mast in Bassett’s honour Jan. 7.
A minute of silence in her memory was also held during the Jan. 21 meeting of the university’s senate, of which she had been a member. Bassett had also served on Laurentian’s board of governors as the senate’s representative to that governing body.
A celebration of life for Bassett is set to take place at the McEwen School of Architecture at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 27. A livestream is available for those who cannot attend in person.
BEA(N), the Building Equality in Architecture (North) group that Bassett co-founded, will be supporting this event, screening the film “City Dreamers” later in the evening, at 8.30 p.m., and will present a digital exhibit of work she mentored while at the McEwen School of Architecture.
The Architecture Library has also put together a small exhibit of books, articles and book chapters authored by Bassett, as well as a collection of McEwen School of Architecture M.Arch theses she supervised.
Bassett’s obituary said donations to the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada would be gratefully accepted in her memory.
The obituary also spoke of her affection for Sudbury.
“As a tenured Professor of Architecture at McEwen School of Architecture, Laurentian University, Sudbury, she was inspired by both her students there and by the surrounding breathtaking landscape,” said the obituary. “It was there, as well, that Indigeneity became a vital part of her teaching and of her spirituality.”
Her colleague, McEwen School of Architecture director Tammy Gaber, shared with Sudbury.com an email she and founding director Terrance Galvin sent to the architecture school community following Bassett’s passing, which contains her extensive biography.
The email said Bassett joined the McEwen school as a faculty member in 2018, having studied architecture at Carleton and urban design at Harvard University.
She worked in architecture offices in Dublin, in Ottawa — including the National Capital Commission — and in Boston with Moshe Safdie and Associates.
With expertise in both architecture and landscape architecture, Bassett taught full-time at the State University of New York in Buffalo and at the University of South Florida in Tampa before returning to Canada to join our faculty, the email said.
She specialized in landscape urbanism and landscape ecologies as integral aspects of architecture and urban design.
“Her creative thinking and unbounded energy were known to undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty alike,” said the email.
In addition to teaching, Shannon was heavily engaged in mentoring young female architects through co-founding ‘Building Equality in Architecture North’ BEA(N).
She travelled the globe extensively for research, fostering opportunities for projects or competitions with students.
(Check out this 2023 Sudbury.com article, in which Bassett shared her thoughts on architecture and a recent trip to Venice, Italy with writer Vicki Gilhula).
“Shannon was a bibliophile with an encyclopedic mind, generously distributing references to her many students,” said the email from her colleagues. “In 2016, she edited and published “(Re)Stitch Tampa-- Designing the Post-War Coastal American City Through Ecologies.”
When she fell ill, Bassett was pursuing doctoral studies at Laurentian University (LU) and was also an LU member of a pan-Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant on raising the bar on quality in the built environment.
“She will be deeply missed by our Sudbury community,” said her colleagues.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.