Perkins+Will Toronto is proud to announce a major new project at the University of Toronto Mississauga. The North Building Phase B will bring 210,000 square feet of mixed-used academic space to the campus, including space for four academic departments, a suite of state-of-the-art Active Learning Classrooms, and major student life programming. The commission was awarded through a two-stage competition and will be delivered through a design-build methodology with its partner Stuart Olson Construction.
North Building Phase B is the second phase of a three-phase project to replace the campus’s first structure, a temporary building erected in 1967. The new building will transform the campus and its culture by completing the ring of public space that encircles the campus green, and providing vital public realm connections and gathering spaces. Seen from across the green, the architecture will express the coming together of diverse influences and celebrate the unique theatre of campus life. A singular public space, the North Hall, will support student life and state-of-the-art learning and research environments on a daily basis, while providing much-needed event space. It will be simultaneously a dramatic architectural backdrop to the campus at large and a stage upon which the range of academic, social and cultural activities are played.
The design features a bold material expression, with twin slabs of departmental facilities, clad in a glazed terra cotta, balanced above a rusticated base of architectural concrete that houses the classroom and student life functions. These articulated masses define and animate a vibrant public realm that connects students and faculties to the verdant campus landscape.
With an ambitious sustainable mandate, the building aims to be the Mississauga campus’s first LEED Gold building. Design features include natural ventilation and conditioning of the main public spaces, maximizing indoor environmental quality; accessible green roofs; an environmentally responsive envelope; and advanced measurement and verification systems that will ensure the highest-possible building performance over its entire lifecycle.
PROJECT FACTS
North Building Phase B
University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga Ontario
Construction Budget: $89 Million CAD
Completion date: Summer 2018
Project Size: 6 stories, 210,000 SF
Program
• Academic Departments of English & Drama, Historical Studies, Language Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology
• State-of-the-art Active Learning Classrooms
• Student lounges, study space and dining
• Research Centre for the six academic departments, as well as a Centre for South Asian Civilizations
• Academic Skills Centre
• Administrative space for Campus Facilities and Planning
Key Features
• A terraced atrium that integrates students and faculties around a multi-functional event space, connecting the campus ring road to the Campus Green
• A suite of state-of-the-art Active Learning Class rooms, technology-rich teaching spaces that support innovative teaching methods and peer-based learning
• Elevated roof gardens and terraces for faculty and student events that overlook the Campus Green
• A holistic approach to sustainability that features intelligent siting and building orientation, low impact design, solar shading, natural ventilation and enhanced measurement and monitoring
Perkins+Will’s competition team included Andrew Frontini, Alan Mortsch, Aimee Drmic, Juan Carlos Portuese, Jon Loewen, and Nadia Shahed.
ALL ABOUT PERKINS+WILL
Perkins+Will is an interdisciplinary, research-based architecture and design firm established in 1935 and founded on the belief that design has the power to transform lives and enhance communities.
Each of the firm’s 24 offices focusses on local, regional, and global work in a variety of practice areas. With hundreds of award-winning projects annually, Perkins+Will is highly ranked among top global design firms. Perkins+Will is recognized as one of the industry’s preeminent sustainable design firms due to its innovative research, design tools, and expertise. The firm’s 1,800 professionals are thought leaders in developing 21st-century solutions to inspire the creation of spaces in which clients and their communities work, heal, live, and learn. Social responsibility is a fundamental aspect of Perkins+Will’s culture and every year the company donates one per cent of its design services to pro bono initiatives.
In 2015, Fast Company ranked Perkins+Will among “The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Architecture.”
For more info, vist perkinswill.com