Liat Margolis

Bridging the Performance Gap

Liat Margolis is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. She is the Director of the Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) at the University of Toronto, an interdisciplinary research facility that is dedicated to evaluating and optimizing the environmental performance of green building technologies, including green roofs, green walls, and green roof integrated solar photovoltaics. The GRIT Lab is recognized as a leading test facility in North America and was awarded the 2013 American Society of Landscape Architects Excellence Award in Research. Liat's research has received grant funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), Mitacs, Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation (LACF), Mitacs, Connaught Fund, RCI Foundation, and the City of Toronto.

Liat is also Co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Research at the Daniels Faculty. She is a book review editor for Landscape Journal, and a member of the scientific committee of Sustainable Canada Dialogues, an initiative that mobilizes over sixty Canadian scholars to advance climate change mitigation in Canada. Liat also sits on the Green Streets and Pollinator advisory for the City of Toronto. Her 2007 book Living Systems: Innovative Materials and Technologies for Landscape Architecture provides case study examples for successful integration of natural ecosystems with urban landscapes. Her 2014 book Out of Water, Design Solutions for Arid Regions discusses strategies for sustainable and resilient urban water management.

Liat holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.