Meet the Torontonian who is transforming Madison Square Garden

The latest entry in our file of Torontonians making it big in the Big Apple will leave his mark on one of New York’s most famous landmarks: Madison Square Garden. This weekend, the Globe and Mail ran a short profile of Waterloo-born architect Murray Beynon, who is responsible for the stadium’s nearly $1-billion redesign. Beynon is a principal at Toronto- and Ottawa-based BBB Architects, which beat out 20 U.S. companies for the contract (reportedly, the firm’s expertise in designing and managing luxury suites such as those in the Air Canada Centre and Vancouver’s GM Place helped net them the job). It’s a complex-sounding project: unlike Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, which were both built from scratch on land next to the old venues, the new Madison Square Garden is being constructed within the existing building—and while the New York Rangers continue to play there. Beynon said the “Herculean task” of remaking the venue will be the crowning highlight of his career (and this from a man who worked on the then-SkyDome back in the ’80s). [Globe and Mail]