Happy retirement to Randall Kober

It is with mixed feelings that we share that our dear colleague and Founding Faculty at MSoA, Master Lecturer Randall Kober, is completing his full-time commitment to MSoA and will retire as of December 31, 2025. We are excited for his next chapters in life and of course we are saddened that he will no longer be at our school full-time.

Randall joined as one of six Founding Faculty in the summer of 2013 to co-create and launch the MSoA, Canada’s newest school of architecture. The task was daunting and exciting, as we chartered new territories in architecture education, including hands-on making and design-build throughout the curriculum. As one of the Founding Faculty, Randall helped create and initiate the iconic first year design-build projects (ice fishing huts for the first two years, ice skating stations from 2016 onwards) and he has created and taught core wood and building case study courses in our school. Randall founded and ran the summer Dinkelsbühl program in Germany, hosting dozens of students over the past decade in his hometown as they worked on design-build projects. In this summer program he also led tours of important buildings in the surrounding region. Randall has led graduate design studios, numerous special topics and elective courses focused on design-build, and has represented MSoA in national and international forums on wood and wood design. Randall also served as Graduate Coordinator from 2022-2024.

More than all of this, Randall is an amazing colleague, professor and mentor. His vast knowledge, kind humour and patience made MSoA the place that it is. He will be sorely missed in our daily lives, but has promised to stay connected as an Adjunct Professor.

In the words of a wise man, ‘WOOD IS GOOD, GOOD IS WOOD,’

wishing you all the best Randall,