Shaping Performance: Our All-Women Team Behind the Toronto Tempo’s New Home
- Jun 19
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 24
The Toronto Tempo Performance Centre marks an exciting new addition to the city: a purpose-built training facility that will support Toronto’s WNBA team in a prominent location near Exhibition Place. Entuitive is providing structural engineering and building envelope services as part of a multidisciplinary team, including Associate Laura Young, structural designers Sarena Zhang and Ibaa Kassab, and BIM technologists Kelsey Fisher and Sara Behnejad.
In honour of International Women in Engineering Day, we spoke with our team about their roles on the project, the technical considerations involved, and their experience working as part of an all-women team.
EN: Can you tell us about the project and Entuitive’s scope?
Laura Young (Associate): The Toronto Tempo Performance Centre is a new training facility for the team, with training, recovery, and day-to-day operations all in one place.
At Entuitive, we’re leading both the structural and building envelope design, working closely with HOK as architect, Smith + Andersen on mechanical, EllisDon supporting pricing, and Kilmer Group as the owner. It’s been a very collaborative process, with a lot of coordination across the team to bring it together.
EN: What aspects of the project have stood out most to you so far, and what are you most looking forward to?
Kelsey Fisher (Intermediate BIM Technologist): It’s my first project where I’ve been able to start the model from scratch, so it’s been really exciting to see all the coordination come together.
It’s been a shift, as I’ve usually worked on smaller pieces of other people’s projects, but here I have ownership of the whole building. It’s been great to put into practice what I’ve learned at Entuitive while setting up the project in a way that works for me.
I’ve had a lot of support from strong mentors on the BIM side, including Andy Ion, Corey Hemphill, Dorinda MacDonald, Fernando Pabelico, and Mike Anderton, so it feels less nerve-wracking and more genuinely exciting.
Ibaa Kassab (Structural Designer): I’m leading the lateral analysis, which has been particularly interesting because it’s not a typical approach. We’re using a combination of steel and concrete to resist lateral loads, which introduces a bit more complexity in how the systems interact and how the load paths are defined.
It has meant working through some additional steps to understand how best to approach the design and ensure everything performs cohesively. That challenge has been a really rewarding part of the process, especially as I start to see how all the pieces come together into a solution that’s tailored to this type of project.
Sarena Zhang (Structural Designer): From a non-technical perspective, I’m really looking forward to seeing this project come to life, especially because it will be so visible and connected to the city. It’s the kind of project people will recognize and engage with, which makes it feel especially meaningful.
On a personal level, it’s also exciting. I follow the WNBA, and I have friends who are already talking about the team, so being able to say I had a hand in this project adds another layer of motivation. It will be really rewarding to see how it contributes to the energy around the team and the impact it has in Toronto.
EN: What challenges have you encountered on the project so far?
Laura Young: It’s a fast-paced project. There’s a target for occupancy, so everything has to come together on an accelerated timeline. It means we have to stay flexible and keep up with changes as they come, but it’s also part of what makes the project exciting.
EN: With International Women in Engineering Day coming up, can you share your experience working as part of an all-women project team?
Kelsey Fisher: I think we put together a really strong team. I genuinely love working with each of these women, and we have a shared respect that makes it easy for us to come together and deliver a great result. We work well as a group, supporting one another and building on each other’s strengths. It also sets a strong precedent for future projects in how we approach and build our teams.
Ibaa Kassab: I’ve never worked on a project that’s all women before. My past projects have been teams with mostly men, so I’m really interested to see how this one feels different and how the dynamic evolves. I’ve also heard great things about everyone on the team, so I’m excited to work together and see what we can produce.
Sarena Zhang: My experience before this has mostly been working on teams with men as well, so this has been a nice change. It’s been positive so far, and I’m excited to see how it continues. It also feels meaningful to be part of something like this, especially while celebrating International Women in Engineering Day.
