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As construction begins on a new master-planned community occupying the site of the former Bloor Collegiate Institute (BCI) highschool at the corner of Bloor and Dufferin Streets, work on the replacement school building has quietly been making progress just a few hundred metres to the southwest. Developed by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the project tapped Snyder Architects Inc. to design the new four-storey school, to accommodate roughly 900 students from the programs of both Bloor Collegiate Institute and Alpha II Senior Alternative School.
The initial application for the replacement school dates back to 2018, when the TDSB submitted plans outlining the redevelopment of the neighbouring Brockton High School, located at the northeast corner of Croatia and Brock Streets, just north of Dufferin Mall. Slated to offer a total of over 110,000 ft² of floorspace, the new building also strives to meet the programming needs of the contemporary student population through the use of hybrid spaces like a Cafetorium (a cafeteria-auditorium combo) to maximize usable area, while more flexible open-concept classroom designs will allow the Alternative program to maintain their self-directed learning approach.
Work to bring the project to life began shortly after the initial application in 2018, with the demolition of Brockton High School starting in the Summer of 2019. The building was removed by August, and work continued into the Fall to excavate the foundations and grade the site ahead of shoring. Shoring wouldn’t begin until over a year later, however, when the first rig was pictured on site in January of 2022. During that extended period of dormancy, the local community found ways to enjoy the site, setting up a vegetable garden and a pandemic hangout space referred to as 'Bloordale Beach.'
With construction work picking up again in early 2022, excavation for the project’s lone below-grade level was completed and forming of the concrete foundations got underway shortly after. By June, the building’s frame had emerged above grade.
Catching up with the latest images of the site, captured on March 29, 2023, we can see that a year of construction work has resulted in the completion of the exterior structure up the second storey. Interestingly, most of the project employs a steel frame system while relying on cinder blocks as the primary material for the exterior walls, while concrete is being used on the eastern wing for an elevator core, pictured on the left in the image below.
Students enrolled at BCI and Alpha II at the time of the previous building’s closure in 2017 were relocated to Central Technical Institute, where both programs have remained for the duration of the construction period. The completion of the replacement school will allow the programs to return to their local areas, while providing students with a refreshed facility that will be an anchor institution for the high-density community coming together in this emerging hub.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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