Finding your swagger

Neil Sharma • Special to Postmedia Network

Published Aug 23, 2024 • 3 minute read

Robert Kastelic, founding partner of Akb Architects, an award winning architectural firm, is being featured in a recent Parkinson Canada advertising campaign.

It’s full speed ahead for founder of award-winning architecture firm amid Parkinson’s diagnosis

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It began with a change of gait.
“My wife, Kelly, noticed I wasn’t swinging my left arm as I walked, which didn’t seem serious at the time, but we thought maybe something was up,” says Robert Kastelic, founding partner of Akb Architects.
And it wasn’t long until others noticed what Kastelic likens to a “robotic” walking demeanour. “Doctors referred me to a neurosurgeon and I got a brain scan to rule things out.”
But what they found in 2017, following two years of visits to medical specialists and a battery of tests, was Kastelic, then 47, had Parkinson’s disease.
There are a lot of misconceptions about Parkinson’s — that the afflicted are advanced in age or cognitively impaired — Kastelic, 54, is an example that the former isn’t true.
In 2004, Kastelic and his wife, Kelly Buffey, a renowned architect in her own right (both are recipients of the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada Fellowship) launched Akb Architects, an award-winning contemporary custom homes architectural firm that will celebrate its 20th anniversary this fall.
Akb has customized everything from cottages in Arcadia, N.B. and the Muskokas, to residential homes and various businesses in the greater Toronto area.
Notable projects include the Ravine Residence, Whitney Residence, Castle Frank Residence, Hudson Residence, Stone House, Notan House, Crescent Residence, Noel House, all in Toronto, and a number of other residences located through Ontario.
One prominent Akb Architects project is the two-storey, cedar-clad Maison Glissade in Collingwood, Ont.
Featuring an agrarian-style, barn-like design, the 2,400-sq. ft, home for a family of five contains everything from an upper-floor study, kitchen, dining and living room areas, to exterior balconies with captivating views of ski hills to the south and open fields to the north.
Maison Glissade was cleverly designed with windows on side elevations to optimize natural light and enhance cross ventilation.
That early Akb project, which led to scores of more design projects in cottage country, came before Kastelic’s Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2017.
Kastelic says that at the time his wife and three children were understandably jarred. “In the early days, I guess it was something where you just keep to yourself; you just feel shocked,” Kastelic said. “I’m not sure how to express it, being so young and getting ; it was a total surprise.”
But Akb — the company is comprised of a small, but efficient, team of seasoned professionals — has carried on and its full-speed ahead.
Add to that, Kastelic has recently become a celebrity in his own right, agreeing to be a star in a recent Parkinson Canada advertising campaign aimed at inspiring and empowering the more than 100,000 Canadians living with Parkinson’s disease.
The campaign, entitled Find your swagger, focusses on the lives of real people instead of actors, and Kastelic — whose teenage daughter helped him submit his reel — was chosen.
In the commercial, a smiling Kastelic walks Toronto’s streets with a bouquet of flowers in his right hand while his left arm swings somewhat uncontrollably.
Upon gifting strangers a flower and a smile, their icy demeanours melt.
No more than 30 seconds long, the commercial strikes an emotional note, perhaps because the soft-spoken Kastelic smiles in equal measure throughout, but perhaps even more so because he demonstrates Parkinson’s diagnosis doesn’t mean there isn’t still a lot of life to live.
Judging by the response — the commercial was featured prominently during the Paris Olympics — the campaign has been a success.
“I’ve been getting calls from family and friends,” Kastelic joked. “You’re on the Olympics!”