Brad Abbott is the founder and principal designer of Abbott Design, based in Toronto, Ontario. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he grew up in a family of physicians and was a lifelong sketcher, known in school for being pulled from class to draw murals for community and holiday events. He played hockey and became an avid skier early on, spending weekends in Manitoba’s Pembina River Valley in a quirky ski culture that included converted railway boxcars used as ski cabins.

Abbott began university in the sciences with the intention of pursuing medicine, then switched into architecture after being inspired by the studio culture at the University of Manitoba. He completed a Bachelor of Environmental Design and graduated with a gold medal for highest standing. He then moved to Ottawa to complete a Bachelor of Architecture at Carleton University, where he again finished at the top of his class and received an Ontario wide graduating award that included a travel scholarship. That scholarship launched a year of travel and work, including time with an architectural firm in London, England, followed by extensive skiing and backpacking across Europe, and an offshore sailing passage in the Mediterranean aboard a historic 104 foot racing sloop once associated with King Edward VII.

He began his professional career in Calgary, later relocating to Toronto, where he worked with Page and Steele Architects and the interior design firm Marshall Cummings and Associates before incorporating his own practice in 1992. His early independent work included houses and additions in Toronto neighborhoods such as Lawrence Park and Moore Park, along with Committee of Adjustment and approvals work. Over time, his ski life and family ties brought him increasingly to Collingwood and Thornbury, where his firm designs a wide range of residential projects from traditional chalet architecture to contemporary glass and steel homes, including work connected to Ontario’s private ski club culture. Abbott keeps his studio intentionally boutique, leading design personally with a small team of three architectural technologists and typically carrying eight to ten projects at a time. Now 70 and semi retired by his own description, he still splits life between Toronto and ski country, often meeting clients on site and skiing with them.

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