Jaime Torres Carmona
Baker and Ryerson Fellow Jaime Torres Carmona is Founder and Principal of Canopy / architecture + design, LLC, an award-winning architecture and urban design practice based in Chicago. Recognized for his approach and sensitivity towards the end user, social impact and the environment, Jaime explores the role of design as a vehicle for positive change. Through projects ranging in scale from community and health centers to housing, schools, mixed-use buildings, and urban design, Jaime is drawn towards the urban and civic realm and its impact on the human experience.
Engaging in this approach, Jaime’s firm has produced some of Chicago’s most recognized neighborhood-based architecture, including the Enlace Community Center in Little Village, OSO Apartments in Albany Park, and the Encuentro Square Master Plan at the mouth of the 606 trail in Humboldt Park.
Jaime is currently engaged in projects throughout Chicago and the Midwest US, including the conversion of the historical Humboldt Park United Methodist Church into affordable apartments; the adaptive reuse of a former Chicago Public Library in Marshall Square to serve as Latino Progresando’s (LP) New Immigration Resources Center; and the adaptive reuse of the former YMCA in South Chicago to convert into a new community hub and senior apartments.
Jaime’s work has been presented in a number of venues including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the AIA Oregon Housing Design Conference, the Chicago Cultural Center, as well as the National AIA Conference in New York City. A distinguished graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he has taught at UIUC, Judson University, and other local universities where his studios have focused on cities, urbanism, people, and culture.