OCAD U, formerly known as the Ontario College of Art and Design, wants the surrounding community to reimagine its main office building as an interactive gateway for its campus in Toronto.
To achieve that goal, the university commissioned a $6 million renovation for that 16,300-sf building, whose exterior will be shrouded with a diaphanous white veil of water-jet-cut aluminum panels on metal framing secured by structural steel outriggers.
The façade that Bortolotto Design Architect has proposed would fan out from the edges of the building, like it’s opening up to visitors. The veil will also provide street-level views of student artwork.
ArchDaily reports that the college’s Digital Media Research Lab is developing an app to read information from specific sections of the façade, so pedestrians will be able to learn about different local artists.
OCAD U is rebranding the building as The Rosalie Sharp Pavilion, named after benefactors Rosalie and Isadore Sharp, who donated $3 million of the project’s budget. The college is paying the rest. The office building’s interior space will be converted into a flexible-use, student-oriented facility that includes minimalist studios and rooms for meetings and events.
The Building Team on this renovation also includes Blackwell (SE), ENSO Systems (mechanical/electrical engineer), and Halsall Associates (sustainability consultant). The contractor has yet to be chosen, and the groundbreaking date still needs to be set.
Bortolotto reportedly came up with this patterned veil design by mapping data about Toronto’s artistic community in order to position OCAD U as the nucleus of that activity, and as a cross-disciplinary, collaborative institution.
“The pattern inscribed in the scrim is defined as the notion of OCAD U as densely embedded within the urban fabric of the city,” Tania Bortolotto, the firm’s president, told Daily Commercial News.
The Arch Daily report notes that the peel-away edges of the pavilion “gesture” toward the nearby Art Gallery of Ontario, designed by Frank Gehry; as well as the university’s Sharp Centre for Design, designed by aLL Design’s Will Alsop.
Related Stories
| Oct 13, 2010
Residences bring students, faculty together in the Middle East
A new residence complex is in design for United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, UAE, near Abu Dhabi. Plans for the 120-acre mixed-use development include 710 clustered townhomes and apartments for students and faculty and common areas for community activities.
| Oct 13, 2010
New health center to focus on education and awareness
Construction is getting pumped up at the new Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, Denver. The four-story, 94,000-sf building will focus on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community college plans new campus building
Construction is moving along on Hudson County Community College’s North Hudson Campus Center in Union City, N.J. The seven-story, 92,000-sf building will be the first higher education facility in the city.
| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cell and Genome Sciences Building, Farmington, Conn.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Administrators at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington didn’t think much of the 1970s building they planned to turn into the school’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building. It’s not that the former toxicology research facility was in such terrible shape, but the 117,800-sf structure had almost no windows and its interior was dark and chopped up.
| Oct 12, 2010
Full Steam Ahead for Sustainable Power Plant
An innovative restoration turns a historic but inoperable coal-burning steam plant into a modern, energy-efficient marvel at Duke University.
| Sep 16, 2010
Green recreation/wellness center targets physical, environmental health
The 151,000-sf recreation and wellness center at California State University’s Sacramento campus, called the WELL (for “wellness, education, leisure, lifestyle”), has a fitness center, café, indoor track, gymnasium, racquetball courts, educational and counseling space, the largest rock climbing wall in the CSU system.
| Sep 13, 2010
Community college police, parking structure targets LEED Platinum
The San Diego Community College District's $1.555 billion construction program continues with groundbreaking for a 6,000-sf police substation and an 828-space, four-story parking structure at San Diego Miramar College.
| Sep 13, 2010
Campus housing fosters community connection
A 600,000-sf complex on the University of Washington's Seattle campus will include four residence halls for 1,650 students and a 100-seat cafe, 8,000-sf grocery store, and conference center with 200-seat auditorium for both student and community use.
