Toronto George Brown College: Limberlost Place | 52.5m | 10s | George Brown | Moriyama Teshima Architects

[DavidCapizzano]

GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE ANNOUNCES LARGEST-EVER DONATION AND ONE-OF-A-KIND EXPANSION OF WATERFRONT CAMPUS

/CNW/ - The largest-ever donation to George Brown College paved the way for a groundbreaking event today, supporting the ongoing Waterfront Campus expansion...

www.newswire.ca

TORONTO, Dec. 14, 2021 /CNW/ - The largest-ever donation to George Brown College paved the way for a groundbreaking event today, supporting the ongoing Waterfront Campus expansion with an Ontario first - a tall-wood, mass-timber, net-zero carbon emissions, 10-storey institutional building.

Today's $10-million donation from Canadian philanthropist, Mr. Jack Cockwell builds upon his previous $8M donation, making it the largest donation to an Ontario college by a single donor. Mr Cockwell's donation will fund Limberlost Place, a visually stunning new learning facility constructed with mass timber components sourced in Canada.

"This signature building not only represents an important addition to George Brown's waterfront campus, but also signifies its strong commitment to sustainable development with its innovative design and extensive use of natural building materials. We are pleased to have had the opportunity to play a small part in the building of Limberlost Place, and hope that future generations will benefit from the enhanced education, knowledge and innovation it will serve to facilitate," said Cockwell.

Inspired by Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve in Huntsville, ON, the building will house the college's School of Computer Technology, School of Architectural Studies, and a new childcare facility. It will also be the new home of the Brookfield Sustainability Institute - a hub for innovative research and programming connected to industry. Limberlost Place will help to future-proof the economy and prepare the workforce for climate change. It will also dedicate space to Truth and Reconciliation and to celebrating and recognizing Indigenous culture.

The unique wood-based structure features the strength of a traditional steel and concrete building with a fraction of the carbon footprint, harnessing the power of the sun and Lake Ontario. No fossil fuels will be used to heat or cool the building. Limberlost Place will include solar chimney systems, rooftop photovoltaics and deep-water cooling.

"We are grateful to Mr. Cockwell for his incredibly generous donation that will allow us to build this impressive new centre for learning and deepen George Brown College's commitment as a community-builder," said Dr. Gervan Fearon, President of George Brown College. "Limberlost Place highlights the future leadership role George Brown will play in the city's Waterfront development as a sustainable city. This stylish addition to the city skyline will add to the vitality and modernization of Toronto's beautiful waterfront, and will help George Brown students to work, study, learn, and grow. We welcome students from around the world and we are excited to have them experience a uniquely Canadian building."

"The financial gift itself is remarkable and reflects a true commitment to community. Seeing it used to develop Ontario's first ever mass timber institutional building makes it exceptionally unique. Education is key to a positive future and a strong economy," said Minister Dunlop.

"This is an exciting moment for Toronto as we continue the hard work to rebuild our city post-pandemic. The new Limberlost Place will not only add to our growing waterfront, and to George Brown's already established reputation, but will help us move further in our climate action goals with its net-zero carbon emissions. This expansion and new building will bring in new jobs, new students and much more and I look forward to seeing it along our waterfront. Thank you to Jack Cockwell for his generous donation and for making this possible – people like Jack are city builders who share the same goals of making our city a better place for everyone," said Mayor John Tory.

President of the George Brown College Foundation, Dr. Cindy Gouveia stated, "The George Brown College Foundation is grateful for the thought leadership exhibited by donors like Jack Cockwell. This mass timber building will stand as tangible testament to the positive impact on communities that can be achieved through philanthropy."

The landmark structure is designed to adjust to changing academic uses and is scheduled to be completed by summer 2024.

 

[Northern Light]

GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE ANNOUNCES LARGEST-EVER DONATION AND ONE-OF-A-KIND EXPANSION OF WATERFRONT CAMPUS

/CNW/ - The largest-ever donation to George Brown College paved the way for a groundbreaking event today, supporting the ongoing Waterfront Campus expansion...

www.newswire.ca

The donation is appreciated, 10M for George Brown is great.........I'm glad he didn't see fit to put his family name on another building.........(no offense to him personally, I just grow irritated by such egotism).......

But I have to say the name chosen is a bit unwieldy...

Limberlost Place

The name immediately brings 2 thoughts to mind................one could read it as 'Limb Lost' Place............another as "Timber Lost" Place........... I suppose the place could also make you less limber...........

Any which way.........'The Arbor' was a better choice.

 

[smably]

G&M story (not sure if paywalled):

‘Mass timber’ movement breaking ground on Ontario’s tallest wood building

10-storey building at George Brown College will house school’s computing and architecture centres, as well as a daycare

www.theglobeandmail.com

A few tidbits on the building:

The wood for Limberlost Place will come from Nordic Structures, which cuts black spruce and glues it into what’s known as cross-laminated timber at its Chantiers Chibougamau manufacturing plant about 700 kilometres north of Montreal.

...

Construction costs are pegged at roughly $160-million. The architects describe Limberlost Place as “a net-zero ready energy building with capacity to produce as much energy as it consumes.” The design includes solar chimneys, which will suck in air and circulate it through the building, and solar energy panels. The building will also tap into Toronto’s deep lake water cooling system, which uses Lake Ontario’s natural chill to provide air conditioning in downtown towers.

Mr. Ferrara said that, along with other fundraising, the school will have a mortgage on the building. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2024.

 

[wmedia]

A few cellphone pics from today's official groundbreaking and announcement of new name.

 

[Northern Light]

G&M story (not sure if paywalled):

‘Mass timber’ movement breaking ground on Ontario’s tallest wood building

10-storey building at George Brown College will house school’s computing and architecture centres, as well as a daycare

www.theglobeandmail.com

A few tidbits on the building:

Not paywalled to me.

****

I see the Cockwell family happens to be in the timber business; owns 3 saw mills up north (in Ontario) and just purchased a 150,000 acre forest near Timmins.
Not to knock the donation at all; but in light of that, this is amusingly self-serving as donations go.

This is essentially a demonstration project which, I take it, is hoped will drive up the value of their inventory and business.

Given their holdings Timber are at least in the hundreds of millions of dollars and maybe well over 1B (estimated net worth 2.1B) .....
Even a 10% lift to the value of the family's holdings would far exceed this donation, possibly by more than an order of magnitude.....

 

[interchange42]

Not paywalled to me.

****

I see the Cockwell family happens to be in the timber business; owns 3 saw mills up north (in Ontario) and just purchased a 150,000 acre forest near Timmins.
Not to knock the donation at all; but in light of that, this is amusingly self-serving as donations go.

This is essentially a demonstration project which, I take it, is hoped will drive up the value of their inventory and business.

Given their holdings Timber are at least in the hundreds of millions of dollars and maybe well over 1B (estimated net worth 2.1B) .....
Even a 10% lift to the value of the family's holdings would far exceed this donation, possibly by more than an order of magnitude.....

The Cockwells have donated to George Brown before (the Health Sciences building just to the south) and to Ryerson (the new building on Church), and who knows what else… so let's slap 'em around a bit? Anything that helps push renewable building materials technology forward, I'm good with, so I'm fine with a little self-serving donation in this case. Not that there's going to be an exponential jump in the value of their forest from this one donation anyway, so Jack Cockwell didn't have to make this donation to keep his investment solid. Anyway, not up to me to determine how much of his wealth he should be giving away, but this donation is a good thing.

42

 

[Undead]

I'm just glad they didn't name the building after that unfortunate Cockwell name...

 

[Northern Light]

I'm just glad they didn't name the building after that unfortunate Cockwell name...

The name is already on other buildings in the City, off-hand, Ryerson's new Residence and Nursing program.

 

[AHK]

I believe there is actually meaning to the name - a reference to a natural swamp / forest area in Indiana, and to the loss of such habitats.

"The story takes place in Indiana, in and around the Limberlost Swamp. Even at the time, this impressive wetland region was being reduced by heavy logging, natural oil extraction and drainage for agriculture. (The swamp and forestland eventually ceased to exist, though projects since the 1990s have begun to restore a small part of it.)"

The novel of course is 'A Girl of the Limberlost' by Gene Stratton-Porter), originally published over 100 years ago in 1909: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Girl_of_the_Limberlost_(novel)

So an entirely appropriate name for a natural wood products based building.

Edit - additional background on the donor: Mr. Cockwell is also a founder and director of the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve, a developer of accessible wilderness trails, nature guides and related environmental publications.

 

[Undead]

The name is already on other buildings in the City, off-hand, Ryerson's new Residence and Nursing program.

Damage control!

 

[Northern Light]

The Cockwells have donated to George Brown before (the Health Sciences building just to the south) and to Ryerson (the new building on Church), and who knows what else… so let's slap 'em around a bit? Anything that helps push renewable building materials technology forward, I'm good with, so I'm fine with a little self-serving donation in this case. Not that there's going to be an exponential jump in the value of their forest from this one donation anyway, so Jack Cockwell didn't have to make this donation to keep his investment solid. Anyway, not up to me to determine how much of his wealth he should be giving away, but this donation is a good thing.

42

I'm aware of their previous donations, and did go out of my way to suggest I wasn't demeaning this one.

I simply find the self-interest component to be of note.

That said, I'm not going to give un-due credit when we adjust for the donation against the scale of family wealth, the self-interest component and associated tax treatment which further abates the financial benefit to the state.

A sizable portion of that wealth is due to corporate welfare handed out by the state; this only returns a small portion of that benefit.

 

[Northern Light]

I believe there is actually meaning to the name - a reference to a natural swamp / forest area in Indiana, and to the loss of such habitats.

"The story takes place in Indiana, in and around the Limberlost Swamp. Even at the time, this impressive wetland region was being reduced by heavy logging, natural oil extraction and drainage for agriculture. (The swamp and forestland eventually ceased to exist, though projects since the 1990s have begun to restore a small part of it.)"

The novel of course is 'A Girl of the Limberlost' by Gene Stratton-Porter): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Girl_of_the_Limberlost_(novel)

So an entirely appropriate name for a natural wood products based building.

The name comes directly from a family holding: (per the G&M article linked above)

"The building will be called Limberlost Place, after Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve in Ontario’s Muskoka region, which Jack Cockwell bought in 1985."

Edit to add, this history of that holding can be found here:

History

The lands which comprise the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve were sparsely and largely unsuccessfully settled in the mid-1800’s. Evidence of early homesteading, including stone walls …

limberlostforest.com

 

[AHK]

The name comes directly from a family holding: (per the G&M article linked above)



Edit to add, this history of that holding can be found here:

History

The lands which comprise the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve were sparsely and largely unsuccessfully settled in the mid-1800’s. Evidence of early homesteading, including stone walls …

limberlostforest.com

Perhaps this might be the original source of the name, subsequently bestowed on the novel, as well as the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve. From 1864:

Origin of name​

According to the History of Jay County by M.W. Montgomery, published in 1864, the name Limberlost came from the following event:

A man named James Miller, while hunting along the banks of the swamp, became lost. After various fruitless efforts to find his way home, in which he would always come around to the place of starting, he determined to go in a straight course, and so, every few rods he would blaze a tree. While doing this, he was found by friends. Being an agile man, he was known as 'limber Jim,' and, after this, the stream was called 'Limberlost.'

The Indiana State Museum contends, "The swamp received its name from the fate of 'Limber Jim' Corbus, who went hunting in the swamp and never returned. When the locals asked where Jim Corbus was, the familiar cry was 'Limber's lost!'"[1]

 

[jxmith_]

Hrm, Limberlost sounds like a village for a side quest with elves. But I’ll echo the sentiment that it’s best they didn’t go with the donor family name. Apart from the obvious puns involving Cockwell and wood, I’d be hearing “Coxwell” all the time.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

Hrm, Limberlost sounds like a village for a side quest with elves. But I’ll echo the sentiment that it’s best they didn’t go with the donor family name. Apart from the obvious puns involving Cockwell and wood, I’d be hearing “Coxwell” all the time.

Yeah, somewhere between Eversong Woods and the Ghostlands in Quel'Thalas...