Architects Luc Bouliane embraced the challenges and opportunities of the site—the narrow lot sits due north, in the shadow of a low-rise apartment building—to balance spatial complexity and economic simplicity.
It’s an urban oasis, an indoor landscape, and an effective solution to brand a university campus otherwise lost in the chaos of downtown Toronto. Designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with local firm Zeidler Partnership Architects, Ryerson University’s new Student Learning Centre is an audacious bid to redefine the concept of an inner-city student commons. “The program is amazingly open,” says project architect Michael Cotton, of Snøhetta’s New York office. “It’s almost like a 10-story lobby. Sometimes we call it a library without books.”
Site size: 3,861 square feet Project size: 5,480 square feet Program: Two connected yet disparate structures'which had accommodated a flower bulb distributor for more than half a century'were converted into a single house for owners with a passion for music and entertaining. Location: A highly visible site on a busy residential thoroughfare in Toronto. Solution: With only a few, carefully placed windows on the street-facing fa'ade, the house provides shelter from the busy road. A long hallway leads from the entrance to the protected interior foyer. The architects organized the living spaces around the foyer and an interior courtyard. A
A world-class institution, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto houses an extensive collection of cultural artifacts and natural history curios, from decorative objects to dinosaur bones.
Site size: 87,000 square feet Project size: 16,244 square feet Program: A family that enjoys cooking and entertaining guests desired a spacious residence in suburban Toronto. The clients also wanted their house, an expansion and renovation of an existing structure, to reflect their Asian-Canadian background. Location: The Echo House is located on a flat, two-acre plot in the serene and verdant Bridle Path neighborhood of Toronto. Solution: Architect Paul Raff sought to balance several objectives: to furnish ample room for socializing, to utilize traditional Asian craft techniques, and to harmoniously connect the family and their guests to the natural environment.
Making a Splash: Designed by MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects, a public aquatic center, surrounded by a park in a mixed-income city housing development, proves public recreational facilities needn't skimp on high-concept design.
Out from the Shadows: Finding useful public space in an unlikely location, Toronto transforms a highway underpass into a lively park that glows at night.
Dark and neglected 'that's the kind of derelict space that lurks below most highways and elevated roadways. Cities in the process of densifying, however, can no longer afford to ignore such concrete underbellies. Toronto, which has been busy completing 70,000 residential units between 2008 and 2012'mostly condominium apartments'recently opened Underpass Park, a gutsy template that repairs a previously marginalized urban zone in the city's East End neighborhood.
The industrial yellow-brick building one block north of Toronto’s Dundas Square in the heart of the city has been home to the Ryerson University School of Image Arts since the late 1960s.