Toronto OCAD U: 100 McCaul | 39.4m | 9s | OCADU | Morphosis

Update and details on a public meeting next week, from an OCAD newsletter:

CREATIVE CITY CAMPUS UPDATE
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The Creative City Campus (CCC) team has been hard at work responding to feedback from the community and City Planning staff. After further studies and review of the available site options, the strategy has evolved toward building on the north end of the campus at 100 McCaul St.

This option allows for an important addition to the main building at 100 McCaul St. that remains fully connected to existing studios and spaces, while respecting the iconic presence of the Sharp Centre and public realm elements further south. Over the next few days, the CCC team will be consulting with various stakeholders on this new strategy.

Members of the OCAD University community can meet CCC project leaders at a drop-in event this Monday, January 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the lobby of 100 McCaul St.
 
Great to see. Graduated 5 years ago and it was cramped as ever then so can only imagine the space issues they're having now.
 
Barely recognize it myself.... I graduated 36 years ago. I have yet to even set foot in the Sharp addition. But I visit the area weekly for life drawing and I'm excited to see McCaul growing up and densifying. Can't say all of the people I draw with are equally pumped however. Some of these folks are people I went to school with and not everyone is thrilled with how expensive the city is becoming (especially for practicing artists).
 
Lenser said:
Barely recognize it myself.... I graduated 36 years ago. I have yet to even set foot in the Sharp addition. But I visit the area weekly for life drawing and I'm excited to see McCaul growing up and densifying. Can't say all of the people I draw with are equally pumped however. Some of these folks are people I went to school with and not everyone is thrilled with how expensive the city is becoming (especially for practicing artists).
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I'm very happy for the students in general, of course, but as a passerby, I'm most excited about the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion and keen to see it get going for real.

And, just to be sure I've got the projects right, this (100) is the one that Morphosis is slated to design, right?
 
Seems that way to me too. I'm guessing they don't want to crowd out Alsop's box floating on its knitting needles. The end result is a kind of hodge-podge modularity.
 
For an art facility you'd think there'd be some thrust in adding to the Alsop whimsicality, something that augments and enlarges rather than do this " hodge-podge modularity ", as Lenser aptly put it. The Box caught us a little off- guard and delighted many when it appeared so let's hope this raises the bar and surprises and delights a little more too.
 
Although Alsop's box was a supreme flight of fanciful whimsy and that really raised the bar. Might be a serious challenge for the new addition to properly reflect its genius without the whole ensemble looking goofy. I think it would be a delicate balance to achieve. And in the end, the net effect is likely going to be eccentric anyway - three different components soldiered together, all from different eras, each with different sensibilities.
 
Lenser said:
Seems that way to me too. I'm guessing they don't want to crowd out Alsop's box floating on its knitting needles. The end result is a kind of hodge-podge modularity.
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That and the AGO's impressive corner would end up being overshadowed (quite literally). A small addition will help but the school has been expanding its campus of late. When I was there we had some space at Richmond and John(ish). Sounds like there will be some space in the Mirvish-Gehry towers, the Rosalie Sharp renovation and there's a speckling of space throughout that area. The next big step would be a standalone building...but couldn't imagine it ever being that tall - the school isn't exactly swimming in cash.
 

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ADRM said:
Very helpful and informative deck that was presented at last night's consultation; answers a whole bunch of questions I had about phasing, timelines, and what, exactly, is entailed in the different projects they've got on tap: https://www2.ocadu.ca/sites/www2.ocadu.ca/files/documents/CCC - Jan 26 2018 update - website.pdf

They've also put together a site explaining much of the same: https://www.ocadu.ca/creativecitycampus

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Actually, the website is maybe the most helpful in rooting through how the various projects that have been announced relate to each other:

The "project" as OCAD describes it actually includes five distinct ones, which they've rolled up into the "Creative City Campus", for which they're budgeting a total of $60M and expecting completion by 2020 of 93,000 sf of new construction and 95,000 sf of renovated space across:

1. 100 McCaul Addition and Renovation
- This is the Morphosis thing and includes: expansion of teaching studios; renovation and expansion of fabrication shops, studios, and services; addition and modernization of classrooms and seminar spaces; student commons and gathering spaces; Indigenous visual culture and student centre; renovation or redevelopment of faculty offices; and renovation and addition of social space.
- Budget: $25M for new construction + $5.5M for renos to existing.
2. Centre for Experiential Learning
- This is the really cool Bortolotto design for the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion, at the southeast corner of McCaul and Dundas.
- Budget: $7.8M
3. George Reid House Refurbishment
- This is the gorgeous heritage property that abuts the south side of the AGO, where they'll "Create a 21st century venue for gathering, exhibition and digital presentation integrating contemporary design ideas and technology, while celebrating the historic significance of the building and its context" among a bunch of other 21st-century upgrades and SOGR stuff.
- Budget: $2.5M
4. The Sharp Centre for Design
- This is renovation work inside the Alsop tabletop to make the studio space better.
- Budget: $3.5M
5. Art and Design Library
- This is renovating their existing space in 113 McCaul (and exploring a potential relocation of this space to 100 McCaul).
- Budget: $3.5M

This is a cool and ambitious project and I hope it all goes swimmingly (and that Planning doesn't muck it up once they get their mitts on it).
 
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