About Us - Blaz Rendral Quinth Architects

The Story Behind BRQ

Look, we're not gonna pretend we had some grand master plan from day one. We started in a cramped office above a bagel shop on Queen West, and honestly? The smell of fresh bagels every morning made those early years way more bearable.

What brought us together was this shared frustration with seeing Toronto grow without much thought for sustainability or community. We'd graduated into the 2008 recession, watched beautiful old buildings get torn down for glass boxes, and just... wanted to do better, y'know?

Fast forward to now and we've got a team of 17 talented folks who actually care about this stuff as much as we do. Still on Queen West, though we've upgraded from the bagel shop situation.

Meet the Founders

Marina Blaz

Co-Founder & Principal Architect

Marina's the one who keeps us grounded. She grew up in a heritage home in Cabbagetown and watched her parents restore it from the ground up - that's where her obsession with adaptive reuse started.

She's got this uncanny ability to walk into a space and just see what it wants to become. Clients love her because she actually listens instead of just pushing her own agenda. Also makes the best coffee in the office, not that that's relevant to architecture but it matters to us.

Focus: Heritage Restoration, Residential Design

David Rendral

Co-Founder & Sustainability Director

Dave's the sustainability nerd of our group - and we mean that with love. He spent two years in Copenhagen right after school and came back completely changed. Won't shut up about passive house standards, but honestly, we need that energy.

He's constantly pushing us to think about building performance, not just aesthetics. Sometimes it drives contractors nuts, but the clients who get what he's doing? They're usually the happiest ones five years down the road when their energy bills are nothing.

Focus: Sustainable Systems, Commercial Projects

James Quinth

Co-Founder & Design Director

James brings the "let's try something weird" energy that honestly makes half our projects special. He's got this background in furniture design, so he thinks about spaces at every scale - from the building down to the door handle.

He's probably sketching right now as you read this. Seriously, the man goes through notebooks like nobody's business. But that's how we end up with those little details that make people go "oh, that's clever" when they move through our buildings.

Focus: Interior Optimization, Urban Planning

How We Got Here

2011 - The Bagel Shop Era

Started with the three of us, one intern, and way too much optimism. Our first project was renovating Marina's friend's loft. We probably lost money on it but learned a ton about what NOT to do with HVAC systems.

2013 - First Commercial Win

Landed a cafe redesign in Liberty Village. The owner took a chance on us and it turned into this whole thing - magazines covered it, other businesses started calling. Suddenly we weren't just the "cheap option" anymore.

2015 - Sustainability Certification

Dave convinced us all to get LEED certified. It was kind of a pain, honestly, but it opened doors to clients who actually cared about building performance. Started winning projects based on our sustainable approach, not despite it.

2018 - Heritage Recognition

Won an award from Heritage Toronto for the Dundas Street restoration project. That one almost broke us - heritage work is no joke - but it put us on the map for adaptive reuse projects. Now that's like a third of our portfolio.

2020 - Pivot Year

Yeah, that year. We went fully remote for a while, figured out how to do virtual site visits, and somehow kept projects moving. Lost a few along the way but gained some interesting residential clients who were rethinking their spaces big time.

2023 - Where We're At

Team of 17, office that doesn't smell like bagels anymore (kinda miss it sometimes), and a project pipeline that actually excites us. We're doing the kind of work we dreamed about back in architecture school, working with clients who get it. Can't really ask for more than that.

What Actually Matters to Us

Honest Conversations

We're gonna tell you if your budget doesn't match your vision. We're gonna push back if you want something that'll look dated in three years. Architecture's a long-term commitment, and we'd rather have the tough talks upfront than watch you regret decisions later.

Building Smart

Every project gets the sustainability conversation whether you asked for it or not. Sometimes it's full net-zero, sometimes it's just better insulation and smarter window placement. But we're always thinking about how your building performs, not just how it looks.

Context Over Ego

We're not here to slap our "signature style" on everything. Your building needs to work for you, fit its neighborhood, and respect what's around it. Sometimes that means being bold, sometimes it means being quiet. We're cool with either.

Details That Work

James drilled this into us early on - the little stuff matters. How a door feels when you open it, where the light hits at 4pm, whether you can actually reach that top shelf. We sweat the details because that's what you'll live with every day.

Working With Us

Here's the deal - we're pretty involved. Some architects hand off drawings and disappear, but that's not really our style. We're gonna be at your site visits, we're gonna have opinions about that tile you picked, we're gonna catch problems before they become expensive disasters.

Our process isn't super rigid because every project's different, but generally we start with a lot of listening and sketching, move into detailed design work, then stick with you through construction. We've got relationships with contractors who don't hate us (mostly), and we know how to navigate Toronto's permitting process without losing our minds.

We work on everything from small residential renovations to bigger commercial buildings. What ties it together is giving a damn about quality and sustainability. If that resonates with you, we should talk.

Let's Talk About Your Project