JLR is a multidisciplinary firm of architects, engineers, and planners in northern Ontario. After joining the firm in 2004 he has become an associate owner and heads the architectural group at the Sudbury office. The firm’s multidisciplinary work includes institutional, municipal, and commercial projects that focus on sustainable design within a northern climate.

He was lead architect on the Vale Living with Lakes Center for freshwater restoration and research in Sudbury, which won the Holcim Awards Bronze 2008 for North America. His projects also include Canadore College Parry Sound Campus and MacLeod Public School.

The Holcim Awards prize for the Vale Living with Lakes Center for freshwater restoration and research provided much needed recognition for the project and helped to further secure capital funding to complete construction. Construction was completed in 2011. The project includes a number of sustainable design principles and was designed to meet LEED Platinum certification. Most importantly, the building was designed to help heal the landscape that was damaged by over a century of industrial damage.

He studied fine art at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and studied architecture at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Jeffrey Laberge is a founding member of the board for Laurentian University’s School of Architecture (LAL). The school opened its doors in September of 2013 to its first class of 70 students. The curriculum is grounded in northern issues of place/landscape, First Nations, and sustainability. Students experience co-op placements within northern industries as well as design firms around the world. The students learn directly from First Nations communities and are taught by in-house elders from local First Nations communities.

The LAL project is principally an urban re-development project. Applying research developed by the Waterloo School of Architecture on mid-sized cities, the steering committee developed the project with a goal to re-vitalize downtown Sudbury. Over the past thirty years, downtown Sudbury suffered the same fate as most mid-sized cities in Canada, its downtown was void of residents and its commercial value slowly declined. The LAL project offered a unique solution to this problem, and although the school has only just opened, downtown Sudbury has already begun to experience a significant change.

Jeffrey Laberge was a member of the Holcim Awards jury for North America in 2014.