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Designing woman Architect wins business award after building successful career

Frank Armstrong
The Kingston Whig-Standard
from October 25, 2006

A Kingston architect was named the winner of a citywide women's business award yesterday.

Heather Clark Kembel, co-owner and president of Colborne & Kembel Architects Inc., received The Kingston Whig-Standard's 2006 Women in Business Front Cover award.

Deborah Tindal, nomination committee chairwoman and the Whig's special features manager, announced Kembel's award before an audience of almost 300 businesswomen at a luncheon at the Days Inn.

"Overcoming traditional hurdles for women in architecture, she has excelled in her profession and serves as an excellent role model for other women," Tindal said.

Kembel was among 22 women nominated for the 24th annual award, which lauds the accomplishments of the city's businesswomen.

As her prize, Kembel will be profiled on the front cover of a 64-page special section in the Whig on Nov. 11. She also received a cheque for $1,500 from St. Lawrence College and Susan Creasy Financial of Kingston.

Kembel, a mother of two teenage boys, is married to fellow architect Gary Kembel. The couple lives in Yarker in a home they designed and built together.

A Calgary native, Kembel always wanted to become an architect and, at the age 16, designed her first building, a Calgary bus shelter that is still used.

A principal in her firm for more than 10 years, Kembel was nominated by her business partner, Todd Colborne, and their eight staff members.

Together, the two have won awards for their local designs. Those designs include renovations to Indigo Books and Music, The Gallery of Clocks and Lululemon. They've also designed Princess Animal Hospital, the new Children's Aid Society building in Picton and the Central Public School in Cornwall. They've designed more than 100 schools.

Current design projects include a new Kingston dental clinic and a $13-million renovation to one of the heritage dormitories at Royal Military College.

Kembel was one of the first architects in eastern Ontario to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accreditation from the Canada Green Building Council. She also won the 2006 Paul Harris Award for Distinguished Community Service.

Kembel credits much of her ability to run a successful business while raising two children to her husband, Gary.

"My husband has really shared equally in the family running of the household and that's what really gave me the freedom in my career choice," Kembel said. "I don't think that would have been possible if it had been a more traditional marriage."

Kembel's words mirrored some of those spoken by the luncheon's keynote speaker, Mary Lou Finlay, retired co-host of hit CBC radio news show As It Happens.

In her talk, Finlay shared details of her long radio and television career and her struggles as a mom and female journalist.

Finlay is now a visiting fellow at Queen's University's Centre for the Study of Democracy.

"Kingston ... has sort of become my second home," Finlay told the crowd.

Kembel was selected for the front cover profile award by a panel of judges made up of five past winners and Tindal.

The awards were launched in 1992. Mayor Helen Cooper won that year's award.

The special supplement began as a two-page spread and will this year be 64 pages.

The size of the crowd at the luncheon has also grown.

At the first Women in Business luncheon in 1997, 135 women attended. This year, that number is more than double as the event's popularity balloons.

Past winners include:

Susan Creasy of Susan Creasy Financial;

Peggy Hallett, founder, co-owner and director of Maplecrest School and Academy;

Carol Hughson, owner of Hughson Fencing and Guiderail;

Inger Sparring-Barraclough, president, owner and manager of Fancy That Group;

Sherri Agnew, owner and CEO of J.E. Agnew Foods Services.