Connor Malloy, Educator
Connor Malloy brings a background in both carpentry and interior design to his work as a professor in the design and building program at George Brown College in Toronto.
Connor Malloy’s modest, soft-spoken demeanor belies his breadth of experience. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the George Brown College professor describes himself as “not quite a designer and not quite a builder.” That may be true, but his credentials are equally weighted.
What started as a traditional path to a carpentry career—working for his dad’s renovation business—has since taken many turns, including studying interior design at Toronto Metropolitan University and working in architecture firms. But design alone didn’t hold his attention; he missed carpentry.
“Once I finished my design education,” Connor recalls, “I went to work for a green builder and fell in love with the building process all over.” He wanted back in the trades but felt he was “missing the language to be an effective problem-solver.” Grad school was the solution; his interdisciplinary design strategy studies were laser-focused on how to build collaborative tools across industry trades.
Subsequently, Connor learned of George Brown College in Toronto. “I didn’t know there was such a school—where you could formally learn carpentry in a way other than apprenticeship,” he says. When a full-time position in the design and building program opened, he applied and got the job.
Today, Connor is 100% educator.
He led the revamping of the college’s Building Renovation Technology program, which was launched in 1973, growing it from a single class to a full-blown building-science curriculum.
The burgeoning field of building-science diagnostics is a topic Connor returns to often because he sees tremendous opportunities for his students in that realm. He speaks rosily of the six blower doors he procured with grant money. Describing them as “a tool of carpentry,” he says, “I feel like a blower-door drug dealer, but it’s a fantastic drug to get people hooked on.”
Looking to the future, Connor visualizes “STEM 2.0: Skilled Trades and Environmental Manufacturing,” to be taught in public grade schools—to show kids that “this is a thing.”
— Kiley Jacques; senior editor, Green Building Advisor
Keep Craft Alive is our campaign celebrating those who have chosen to passionately pursue a career in design, building, and remodeling. Find out more and show your support by visiting KeepCraftAlive.org, and use #KeepCraftAlive to share your passion for the cause.
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