WOODSWORTH COLLEGE

EQUAL STATUS

A new courtyard for Woodsworth College creates a home for part-time studies at the University of Toronto.

QUIRKY CONTEXTUAL

A new L-shaped classroom and office building with a seasonally adjustable cloister frames a mid-block courtyard behind a string of heritage houses on St. George Street. Its quirky circulation system invites you in from multiple directions and idiosyncratically stitches a series of preexisting buildings – former drill hall and officers’ mess, heritage houses, garage, etc. – together into a coherent new whole.

ACADEMIC VISION

The principal and vice principal of Woodsworth College insisted on quality materials throughout, which had the effect of elevating the overall expectations for new architecture on the University of Toronto campus.

GESTURAL LAYER

A light, gestural layer of support elements – fountain, timber credenza, garden and cloister benches – is played against the quiet, deferential new masonry architecture of the courtyard wall.

BMA/KPMB TRANSITION

Woodsworth College is one of two key transitional projects that enabled KPMB to rise successfully from Barton Myers Associates as a new firm in its own right.