In Toronto, Perkins&Will have completed a dramatic landmark building for The York University School of Continuing Studies at the school's Keele Campus. The architects explain the building's twisting architecture symbolizes the institution's twist on the traditional mission of continuing studies by connecting employers and talent directly through its programs.
After nine years of planning, the six-story, 120,000 square-foot, 50-classroom building is designed to meet the post-pandemic needs of students with an inclusive, accessible, and sustainable design that fosters learning while helping to fill Canada's labour market gaps.
Once dispersed across York's campus, the school's programs are now centralized in this state-of-the-art facility, which features modular learning clusters, collaboration spaces, a generous public plaza, and wellness amenities like a lactation room and prayer space. "Students, instructors and staff were included in both the scoping and design phases of the project. To ensure the building is meeting the needs of students of different ages, religions and cultural backgrounds we designed the structure with the highest accessibility standards," said Christine Brooks Cappadocia, interim vice-president of continuing studies at York University.
The building rises from a new public plaza, creating a distinctive new gateway into the campus. "The building's unique twisted form begins with a desire to create engaging public spaces, both within the building and at the scale of the campus. We responded to the neighboring buildings, road networks and pedestrian desire lines by nudging the building over to create a gateway plaza to the west and a discrete drop off zone to the east. With this the twist was born!" says Andrew Frontini, Lead Designer and Design Director with Perkins&Will. "Each of the five floors rotates to lean out and shelter the public realm and engage people at the scale of the campus with a bold sculptural presence. Inside, the twist creates light-filled spaces to engage outside of the classrooms. It's a bold form, but one that is born out of a desire to build culture and community."
The design explores the potential for Net-Zero Energy and Net-Zero Carbon while meeting LEED Gold and City of Toronto Green Standards. Central to the sustainability building strategy is a high-performing unitized curtain wall façade system, alongside a direct outside air system with heat recovery ventilation and daylight harvesting maximizes views while reducing energy use. Triangular openings define the façade with a diagrid pattern that curves as it s rises in response to the building's twisted form.
The building's contortion is achieved by manipulating the building's rectangular floorplate around a common centroid. This introduces a two-way curved into the north and south facade as the building twists open to the new plaza. "In many ways, the twist of the building is symbolic of the agility of program evolution at the School of Continuing Studies. Throughout the design and development process of the new building, we adapted to the effects of the pandemic and asserted a vision for the return to campus," says Safdar Abidi, Higher Education Leader and Principal with Perkins&Will.
