Toronto George Brown College Waterfront Campus | ?m | 8s | George Brown | KPMB

Lotsa boxes, and complexity, compared to the sleek-flanked grande horizontale next door. And how nice if it really does pick up on Corus's subtly-angled Jenga vibe.
 
Pretty meh, but it is just a Sketchup model so we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully the Kearns Mancini addition up north will inspire some real use of colour here...

...and now, Shocker's furious rebuttal.
 
Actually, I'm with Shocker on this one. Well, not about that thing next door, but there are definitely some elements in this primitive rendering. Hopefully those elements make it to the next rendering and the building itself. Wood, colourful glass and steel could really bring beauty to this building.
 
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STANTEC ARCHITECTURE/KPMB ARCHITECTS
The new waterfront campus for George Brown College is designed to meet LEED Gold standards.
Projects
George Brown College ready for first waterfront phase in Toronto
But water-saturated excavation will provide a challenge
PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Toronto’s George Brown College is gearing up to get a shovel in the ground by late October on the estimated $175 million first phase of its new waterfront campus.

Designed to house the college’s growing Centre for Health Sciences, the project is being undertaken by a team that includes the architectural joint venture of Stantec Architecture/KPMB Architects and construction manager EllisDon.

Substantial completion of the LEED Gold health sciences building is targeted for March, 2011.

“It’s an extremely aggressive schedule,” says Eugene Harrigan, the college’s vice-president of corporate services.

The building will be among the first in Canada to be purpose-built for inter-professional healthcare learning, a cross-disciplinary approach to education in the health sciences that mirrors the current transformation of healthcare delivery in the province.

The campus will sit lakeside on two blocks of land just south of the St. James campus, on Queen’s Quay between lower Sherbourne and lower Jarvis streets. The health sciences project is being fast-tracked.

Terry Comeau, executive director of the waterfront campus development project, said the building’s “elegant and complex” design will take advantage of views of the new Sherbourne Park to the east as well as a promenade overlooking the water’s edge.

Aside from providing additional facilities for the college, the project also is expected to play a pivotal role in the revitalization of the waterfront, providing the new East Bayfront community with a new public landmark and year-round student life.

The campus will include classrooms, labs, lecture theatres, student support services, food services, a bookstore and clinics that will be open to the public. Community access is an important component of the project, Harrigan said.

From a construction perspective, building on the waterfront poses its share of challenges, said Comeau, a registered architect and LEED-accredited professional with 25 years of experience.

Those challenges include a high water table.

“We will be conducting the excavations in water-saturated conditions over the winter months.”

Excavation is slated to get under way in late October. Subtrade tenders for shoring and excavation have already been called. Foundation work is to begin in 2010.

The project will add 3,500 student spaces and free up room across the college’s existing campuses to allow for greater capacity in other high-growth programs, such as construction and apprenticeship.

EllisDon senior vice-president and area manager Bruno Antidormi said his company, a long-time employer of George Brown College graduates, is pleased to be partnering with the college on the project.

The provincial government has invested $61.5 million in the project while the federal government is contributing $30 million through its Knowledge Infrastructure Program.

Comeau said the remainder of the funding will come from other sources, including the college, Waterfront Toronto and fundraising.
 

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Making round forms into the living spaces, classrooms or anything else on this campus, really, for that matter, would be inefficient and a poor use of space.
 
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Norman Foster's round suspended pods at the UofT Pharmacy building seem to work very well as learning spaces.
 
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I don't think I'm usually negative. I have a had a few times recently where perhaps I have been provoked, but I try to keep my issues offline.

There's nothing negative about saying that round walls are generally not efficient, in terms of space/ room setup. I just don't think round forms are usually a good idea. That's partially my own style/bias, but for a building to be rounded, it's much harder to use the interior space well.

I suppose if the rooms facing the lake were rounded, they would make nice lounges, etc. Lecture halls could be housed within. But I can't imagine they'd want to build a whole campus of round forms.


simply Dan said:
Norman Foster's round suspended pods at the UofT Pharmacy building seem to work very well as learning spaces.
Click to expand...

The Leslie Dan Pharmacy building's pods are nice learning spaces (why do my classes always have to be in the basement?!) but they are housed inside an open space. They are within the square walls of the building. It's a good use of the open lobby.
 
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East Bayfront between Parliament and Yonge is an aboslute hive of activity right now, with Sherborne Park under construction, heavy prep work being done on and around the future George Brown site, and Corus being finished off. Sugear Beach should be showing signs of progress soon as well. For several blocks, Queen's Quey East is a non-stop parade of heavy machinery. I find this tremendously exciting, and can't wait to see how this area will look in a few years. Based on the rendering, George Brown should complement Corus beautifully.

Seeing all heavy machinery currently in place in this area, I find it frustrating to hear people accuse Miller of getting nothing done on the waterfront file. The amount of behind-the-scenes work to get to the stage has been massive, not mention projects that have been completed, such as the new boardwalk/promenade in the central waterfront, the wavedecks, and HTO. A crowning acheivement will be if he can get the Queen's Quay re-build project thorugh the EA process and approved by council in the year or so that he has left.
 
and it is great to see Harper work with Miller and McGunity and come through with his share of the money for these waterfront projects. Anyway, is it possible for someone to pass by the area and take photos? I would love to see what OldManKensey is talking about
 
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Daily Commercial News

Construction contract has been awarded to EllisDon ~

This suggest work will start soon ;)
*********

COLLEGE CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT Const manager
Proj: 9085967-8
Toronto, Metro Toronto Reg ON
AWARD
George Brown College, Waterfront Campus Development, within the East Bayfront Precinct of the City of Toronto, M5V
Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:00 009-WF01
$50,000,000 est

Start: October, 2009

Note: Contractors price was not released.

Project: to prepare for and construct a new 300,000-350,000 sq ft academic Health Sciences Building.

Scope: 350,000 square feet; 8 storeys

Development: New

Category: Educational bldgs

Bid Results
EllisDon Corporation, 89 Queensway Ave W Ste 800, Mississauga ON L5B 2V2, Phone: 905-896-8900, Fax: 905-896-8911

First report Thu Jul 10, 2008. Last report Mon Aug 24, 2009.
This report Thu Oct 01, 2009.


http://www.dailycommercialnews.com/cgi-bin/top10.pl?rm=show_top10_project&id=807d017347ad143cef610416a19bdf2b82ecc541&projectid=9085967&region=ontario
 
SP!RE said:
Making round forms into the living spaces, classrooms or anything else on this campus, really, for that matter, would be inefficient and a poor use of space.
Click to expand...

What a joyless world we would live in if the only concerns of people were strictly practical matters. There would be little room for beauty or romance, in a society like that. What a sad place this world would be.
 
hahahahahaha...

Torontovibe said:
What a joyless world we would live in if the only concerns of people were strictly practical matters. There would be little room for beauty or romance, in a society like that. What a sad place this world would be.
Click to expand...

Can I just award this quote the exalted "Most Pretentious Post of the Year" award now, or do we have to wait until Saint-Sylvestre?

Although just about anything from our Chicagoan anti-Gentrification nob would have to be in the running...
 
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