Project Category: Educational

This educational expansion project adds a 13,000-sf second floor to an existing high school to accommodate over 200 Grade 7 and 8 students. The program includes nine classrooms that integrate advanced teaching and learning technologies, complemented by wide corridors designed to foster social interactions. These corridors feature built-in seating areas strategically placed between banks of lockers, creating inviting spaces for student engagement, while a generous three-dimensional clerestory window floods the corridor with natural light.

Due to the congested nature of the site, we first undertook a feasibility study to explore several potential options for expanding the facility above different sections of the existing building. Our comprehensive study explored the structural limitations of the existing building and soil, access to the addition from the rest of the school, phasing and construction logistics, and the estimated construction costs. To accomplish the construction, we leveraged staff areas in the current building to achieve a phasing strategy that minimized classroom disruptions

The final design responds to existing structural conditions and optimizes circulation. Because the addition sits above and adjacent to existing structures that were not originally intended to support a second storey, we pursued specific structural and material strategies to minimize cost and maximize efficiency. The second floor combines precast concrete with existing masonry to reduce the thickness of the structure and provide fire resistance. The second floor roof is supported by a largely separate steel structure to allow for long spans and maximize the flexibility of the column grid while minimizing further load on the existing ground floor structure and minimizing underpinning.

The scope of this expansion project, which added several new standard and specialized classrooms to the existing high school, also entailed significant modifications to the site with respect to grading and circulation. The site plan required the accommodation of increased bus traffic, preservation of pathways to the school’s track and adjacent fields, and rerouting of an existing swale that was serving as a drainage corridor for numerous neighbouring properties and protecting a river course on the opposite side of the site. 

Eschewing traditional and rigid classroom layouts in favour of more dynamic and versatile spaces, our design supports various teaching methods, individual study, collaboration, experiential learning, and socializing. Contemporary classroom design should result in social and learning condensers and encourage the creation of meaningful relationships and lifelong memories.

After exploring various schemes to execute this complex brief, which required reimagining significant outdoor components, we adopted a long double-loaded plan. This allowed us to preserve existing paths across the rear of the site through a crossing corridor that enables easy access from parking areas to the gymnasium and out to the existing athletic field. Views of the adjacent river and rural landscape are framed by large windows and high ceilings in the classrooms and corridors.

This project at University of Toronto’s New College was divided into four key initiatives: the creation of new collaboration and socialization space for students in Wilson Lounge; the renovation of office and administrative spaces; accessibility enhancements across buildings; and fire alarm upgrades throughout the residential building. These improvements aimed to enhance student experiences, support academic and social engagement, and strengthen New College’s identity.

The Wilson Lounge was reimagined as a highly flexible space, accommodating studying, dining, and group gatherings of various sizes. Thoughtful design elements, including ample lighting, sound-absorbing materials, and strategically placed power distribution, ensure adaptability and comfort. The addition of collaboration and socialization spaces fosters interaction among students, creating an environment that supports both academic and extracurricular activities.

New College’s ethos of inclusion and collaboration was central to the design process, which hinged on extensive consultation with students, faculty, and staff. Focus groups and committees comprising student leaders, faculty, and facilities staff provided valuable input related to accessibility upgrades and space functionality. Each discrete project had a dedicated subcommittee that weighed in with recommendations and helped us refine the design, ensuring that the final result met the diverse needs of the community.

We synthesized these insights into a comprehensive design strategy, which was presented to a Building Committee made up of executive staff and student representatives. The resulting upgrades not only improve accessibility and administrative efficiency, but also reinforce New College’s commitment to fostering a connected, inclusive, and engaging student environment.

Our design for the addition at St. Denis Catholic School was driven by two key factors: the building’s orientation on the site and spatial constraints related to the property’s small lot size and steeply sloped incline. In order to work with these restrictions, preserve the existing play area, and bypass the logistical complexities of an at-grade addition, which would have compromised the classroom layout in the original building, we arrived at a creative solution: expand the second-storey library and use the surplus existing space to accommodate the new classroom requirements, ancillary spaces, and the corridors required to access the addition. 

Featuring integrated seating, a wood skin, and an elongated column, the exterior elements of the addition are part of the play space while the interior houses a new library and learning space. Two long bands of windows stretch across the curvilinear body, allowing light to pour into the classrooms. At the elevated level, students have a clear view of the treeline that surrounds the property, reinforcing a connection with nature throughout the day. 

To address the soil conditions and support this second-floor addition, we used deep helical pier foundations to avoid the time and cost required to undertake a large-scale excavation and underpinning of the existing building. In order to install new structural steel and reinforce the foundation of an occupied building, we took great care to devise a phasing and exiting strategy in one wing of the school to minimize disruptions to students, circulation, and the daily school schedule.

Part of a campus of buildings belonging to the OCAD (Ontario College of Art & Design) University, the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion occupies a prominent site in downtown Toronto at the corner of Dundas and McCaul Streets, directly across from the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).
In response to the client brief, we designed a landmark building that functions as an interactive threshold at the northern edge of the McCaul Street campus corridor, reflecting the scale, massing, and form of the urban context, while reinforcing the university’s brand and presence.

The Pavilion is wrapped in a perforated stainless-steel scrim that represents both formal and technological innovation. The intricate laser-cut pattern is in fact a data visualization map of Toronto that reinterprets the city, highlighting art and design institutions, public art installations, and pockets of artist communities. The lacy structure gently peels away from the edges of the building, creating visual intrigue with its complex and compelling patterns and animating the street with views to students working on their art and design projects inside.

The addition of the Pavilion to the OCAD U campus represents a contextually responsive gesture that helps knit the larger community together architecturally, promoting greater cohesion and dynamism in the neighbourhood. Characterized by a harmonious integration of institutional, cultural, retail, and residential uses, this campus corridor provides an enriched urban experience for those who live, work, and study here. The Pavilion is a highly visible and expressive building that signals one’s arrival on campus, activates the streetscape, and heightens OCAD U’s identity. It is a fitting complement to the commercial galleries on the north side of Dundas Street, and in adopting an exterior expression that defers to Frank Gehry’s remaking of the AGO, it manifests a consistent architectural vocabulary along the south side of Dundas Street, conveying coherence and continuity. 

The project comprises a complete transformation of a building that formerly housed administrative offices into an efficient, student-centric, and largely open-concept plan. We retrofitted existing mechanical and electrical systems to meet a stringent sustainability mandate and pursued upgrades to deliver a high-performance envelope and cladding system. The interior conveys a raw industrial aesthetic — the material palette consists of concrete, masonry, glass, and steel — and features studios along with exhibition, meeting, and event spaces to expand digital and work-integrated learning.

The reimagining and reshaping of the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion, both inside and out, represents a significant advancement in OCAD U’s continued transformation of this important arts, education, and cultural precinct, reinforcing its unique position as Canada’s “university of the imagination.”

Our extensive work at Pope Francis Elementary School in Timmins, Ontario included a 15,500-sf addition that houses a lobby, a library, and classrooms as well as upgrades to the existing 23,400-sf elementary school and affiliated YMCA Child Care Centre. Ultimately, we doubled the size of the existing school by building a two-storey addition to the single-storey portion of the existing school and bridging that single storey to connect the second floors of both buildings. This required the strategic demolition and underpinning of the existing lower floor as well as coordinating the existing mechanical systems with the new system.

The building is organized in a radial plan, with three distinct wings extending from a central core that accommodates space for the kindergarten play areas. We undertook the strategic reconstruction and reorientation of the school’s main entrance and reorganized the overall site plan to improve the way the school interfaces with the neighbouring community and accommodates bus laybys.