Over the past year a huge chunk of Devonshire Place has been dug up and blocked off, and students of the University of Toronto, as well as residents of the St. George and Bloor Street West area, have been confronted with the sights and sounds of a large construction project. The ongoing construction neighbouring the Munk School of Global Affairs is a mixture of athletic facilities and teaching labs that is sure to serve the needs of both U of T students and athletes alike. The Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport is the fourth and final phase of a $98 million Varsity Centre complex renewal, an impressive addition to the University of Toronto which may also likely serve as the foundation for further development of high performance sport facilities in Ontario, making Canada a more prospective nation for future Olympic Summer Games to be hosted in the City of Toronto.

Goldring Centre for High Performance Sports, image courtesy of Patkau and MJM Architects

The immediate purpose of this facility is to accommodate several events during the Pan Am Games, which Toronto will be proudly hosting in 2015. The University of Toronto will also host Pan Am Games events across Devonshire Place at Varsity Stadium, while it has also made plans to change the grass on the field at King's College Circle to synthetic turf, plus build several other expansions at the Varsity Centre. The Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport is  the largest addition to the university's Varsity Centre expansion, and will be open to all university students, staff and graduates as an intellectual and recreational facility in the years to come following the Games.

Current construction for Goldring Centre, image courtesy of UT forum member androiduk

Designed by Patkau Architects and MJM Architects, the Goldring Centre will also provide a home for sport science research and teaching, sport medicine, athlete training, coaching and competitive athletics on a world-class scale. The building will provide many purpose-designed rooms and spaces, some of most highly anticipated features being the 2000-seat field house for basketball and volleyball games, a strength and conditioning centre overlooking Varsity Centre stadium, an innovative sport medicine clinic, and plenty of sport science laboratories for teaching and research. On top of all the fantastic features indoors, the exterior of the Goldring Centre should also impress passersby with its cutting edge architecture.

Goldring Centre basketball and volleyball court, image courtesy of Patkau and MJM Architects

The Goldring Centre has sponsors in many national and provincial sport governing bodies, such as the Canadian Olympic Committee and Athletics Canada, and holds the promise of renewing Ontario's ability to support high performance athletics. Should a successful 2015 Pan Am Games encourage the province of Ontario, facilities like the Goldring Centre will give it a chance of bringing the Olympic Summer Games back to Canada in the future.

Completion of the building is set for the year 2014 and will be an exciting addition to the University of Toronto, affecting students, professors, graduates and prospective young athletes.

Feel free to contribute to the discussion of this project in our Forum, visit our dataBase page linked below for more information on this project, or check in with the University of Toronto's Faculty of Kineseology and Physical Education website.