ISC / SCI Conference - 2009
Congrès de la SCI / ISC - 2009

The University of Toronto

Founded in 1827 as King's College, the University of Toronto can claim pride of place as one of the world's great post-secondary institutions. Its international reputation for research is founded on the legacy of achievements in all fields, from the discovery of insulin to recent breakthroughs in genetics. In the turbulent postwar era, Northrop Frye and Marshall McLuhan helped cement U of T's stature as "the Harvard of the north." (In fact, U of T stood in for Harvard in the 1973 motion picture The Paper Chase, much of which was filmed on the main campus!) U of T's library holdings rank only behind those of Harvard and Yale in size, and its scholarly press is world-renowned. Pictured: Drs. Charles Best (left) and Frederick Banting on the roof of the U of T medical building with a diabetic dog to whom insulin had been successfully administered.

U of T occupies three campuses in the Toronto area: downtown (St. George), Scarborough, and Mississauga. Twelve colleges, as well as many specialized academic institutions ranging from St. Augustine's Seminary to the Institute for Aerospace Studies, are federated or affiliated with the university. In addition, ten teaching hospitals in the metropolitan Toronto area are affiliated with U of T. University of Toronto Schools, a preparatory school affiliated with U of T and teaching Grades 7 to 12, is located on the downtown campus.

The St. George Campus
Attempting to take in all of this sprawling downtown campus could entail at least a week's worth of walking – although U of T is more than happy to give you a campus tour (or a virtual tour to take in the comfort of your own home). If you're interested in checking it out yourself, we have divided the campus into more manageable sections, starting with King's College Circle and each of the colleges. Information on architecturally significant buildings has been given based primarily on Patricia McHugh's comprehensive (and portable) Toronto Architecture: A City Guide (Toronto: Mercury Books, 1985). Quotations below are from McHugh unless otherwise stated.

King's College Circle • Colleges • Robarts Library Complex • St. George Street
Queen's Park • Bloor Street • Spadina Avenue / College Street • Read More About It!

King's College Circle
Buildings described below are listed in order of their location, starting with University College, to allow you to take a tour around King's College Circle.

Please note: Two buildings – the Canadiana Gallery and the McMurrich Building – are located slightly east of the circle on Queen's Park Crescent, and require a bit of walking to access. In addition, several important and/or historic buildings in the science and engineering realms are located south of King's College Circle along College Street. These are described below in the section on Spadina Avenue / College Street.

• University College (15 King's College Circle, adjacent to Hart House, pictured at right): The architectural centrepiece of the university, epitomizing the traditional college building of medieval days. Designed by Frederick Cumberland, working with William Storm, and opened in 1859, it is a fascinating example of the Romanesque Revival style built boldly from rough-hewn Georgetown stone.

  The college was devastated by a fire in 1890, but brought back to life through the restoration work of David B. Dick. From the famously asymmetrical tower with its one turret to the arched main entrance, said by Eric Arthur to be "one of the most photographed pieces of architecture in Toronto," University College is a familiar icon. The interior is itself a treasure trove of detail, from the geometric pattern of the floor tiles (imported from Maw & Co. in England) to the gargoyles carved into the West Hall roundels, the magnificent stained glass windows, and of course the dragon who guards the east wing staircase.

  Behind the college is a quadrangle with the colonnade of the "cloisters" on the west side and the Laidlaw Library wing on the north. The library wing also houses the University of Toronto Art Centre, a hidden gem established in 1996. The centre's holdings include the Malcove Collection of Byzantine art, as well as works by the Group of Seven and many works of contemporary Canadian art. On the west side of University College is the Croft Chapter House, an unusual round structure that originally served as the laboratory of chemistry professor Henry Holmes Croft. Built in 1857, the roundhouse was in fact the first part of University College completed, and because of its location emerged unscathed from the fire of 1890. A history of the Chapter House, as well as a biography of Croft, can be found on the UC Web site.

  Did you know ...? Like many heritage buildings, University College has its own story of a ghost. It goes like this: Two stonemasons, Ivan Reznikoff and Paul Diabolos, became involved with the same woman. She and Reznikoff were apparently planning to marry when Diabolos persuaded her to go west with him – taking Reznikoff's money along with them. A confrontation between the two workmen, both armed with weapons, led to Reznikoff's death; his body was then thrown into the well over which the spiral staircase to the top of the tower was built. Years of ghostly sightings came to an end when Reznikoff's bones were discovered after the fire and he was given a proper burial. It is said that one of the two gargoyles located on chimney supports at the west end of the college was carved by Diabolos, who used Reznikoff's face – "more like a baboon than a man," according to an account in a history of University College – as a model. The merits of this assertion may be discussed over a cup of joe at either Reznikoff's Café, in the Morrison Hall residence, or Diabolos', the student-run coffee bar in the college's Junior Common Room.

• Hart House (7 Hart House Circle): This student centre, a true landmark of the main campus, was a gift to U of T from the Massey Foundation and is named for Hart Massey (grandfather of former Governor General Vincent Massey). Designed in the Late Gothic Revival style by the firm of Henry Sproatt and Ernest Rolph, it was completed in 1919. Its main level interior is dominated by the magnificent Great Hall, with its marble floor, expanses of stained glass, and vaulted, oak-timbered ceiling. Facilities include the Hart House Theatre, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and the Gallery Grill restaurant, as well as a 150-acre farm in the Caledon hills that has been operated by Hart House since 1949. Athletic facilities, including a swimming pool and archery range, are located in the basement. Concerts of all types are held all year; the famous Sunday Concerts have been a tradition since 1922. And the Hart House gallery is not the only place to see art; works from the centre's permanent collection – valued at some $20 million – hang throughout the building. The numerous Hart House clubs include those devoted to amateur radio, chess, debating, music, and photography, while there are committees for everything from art and literature to sustainability and social justice. Virtual tours of Hart House can be viewed on its Web site.

  

• Soldiers' Tower (pictured at right), also the work of Sproatt and Rolph, was added to Hart House in 1924 to commemorate those students and alumni who lost their lives in the First World War (and later the Second World War). It is probably this familiar and beloved tower that has turned Hart House into one of the most recognized buildings both on campus and in the city of Toronto. Serving as the venue for the university's Remembrance Day ceremonies, it is also architecturally felicitous, allowing a smooth transition from the Romanesque style of University College to the Gothic Revival of Hart House. The tower's clock and 51-bell carillon were added in 1927. More information on Soldiers' Tower, including the Memorial Room with its beautiful stained glass window, can be found on the U of T Alumni Web site.

• Students' Administrative Council (SAC) Building (12 Hart House Circle): This "charming Victorian miniature" began its life as the Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory, one of three in the world established by the British government to carry on geodetic surveying. Designed by Frederick Cumberland and William Storm and built in 1857, it was originally located south of King's College Circle but disassembled and moved to its present site in 1908. The east façade features Gu Xiu Hei's artwork Broken Bicycle Tiananmen Square, a tribute to the student protestors killed in Beijing in 1989, which was commissioned by the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.

• Gerstein Science Information Centre (7 and 9 King's College Circle): The university's science and medicine library comprises two sections: the original U of T library (7 King's College Circle) and its postwar neighbour (9 King's College Circle), originally home to both the undergraduate and science and medicine collections. The original library, designed by David B. Dick and completed in 1892, is a splendid example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture with "a crispness of detail" that links it to the style of the earlier University College. At one time, 7 King's College Circle also housed both the English and French departments. Its modern neighbour, built in 1953-54 and originally called the Sigmund Samuel Library, was renamed in 1997 to honour the Gerstein Charitable Foundation. An addition to the library, the Morrison Pavilion, opened in 2003. It was designed by Diamond + Schmitt, architects of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, who are also undertaking restoration and renovation of 7 King's College Circle. A history of the Gerstein Library can be viewed on its Web site.

• Canadiana Building (14 Queen's Park Cres. W., just east of the Gerstein Library): Formerly the home of the Sigmund Samuel Canadiana collection, which was part of the ROM but housed in a separate structure. This elegant edifice, constructed in 1951 and designed by the firm of Mathers and Haldenby, features striking wall sculptures of Champlain, Simcoe, Wolfe, and Brock by Jacobine Jones. The building is now home to two U of T departments, the Centre of Criminology and the School of Public Policy and Governance, while the Canadiana collection has been moved to the ROM itself.

• Medical Sciences Building (1 King's College Circle): Like Robarts Library (see entry below), an example of Brutalist architecture – but perhaps more felicitous, according to Patricia McHugh: "The sculptural pick-up-sticks of precast concrete that enliven the façade have mellowed gracefully with time." Designed by Peter Goering and completed in 1969, the edifice was constructed on the site of the old medical building where Drs. Frederick Banting and Charles Best carried on the research that would lead to the discovery of insulin. Ted Bieler's 1971 sculpture Helix of Life, a representation of the "double helix" structure of the DNA molecule, stands at the entrance to the building.

• McMurrich Building (12 Queen's Park Cres. W.; just east of Medical Sciences Building): Begun in 1912 and completed 10 years later, this example of "latter-day Romanesque" by Toronto architects Frank Darling and John Pearson was originally the university's Anatomy Building. Named after James Playfair McMurrich, a professor of anatomy from 1894 to 1939.

• Mechanical Engineering Building (5 King's College Road): This structure is actually two buildings in one: the original yellow brick Romanesque edifice of 1909 designed by Darling and Pearson, and the new wing of 1947-48, facing the street and designed in the Bauhaus style by Allward and Gouinlock. Naturally, this is the home of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.

• Sir Sandford Fleming Building (10 King's College Road, adjacent to Convocation Hall): Completed in 1907, this example of Second Classical Revival is another of the high-profile university buildings designed by Darling and Pearson. Originally home to the physics department, then the McLennan Laboratories, the building now houses the Engineering and Computer Science Library, as well as the offices of the computer science department. Named after the Canadian (Scottish-born) engineer, surveyor, and inventor who introduced the concept of standard time.

• Convocation Hall (31 King's College Circle): Also designed by Darling and Pearson and completed in 1907, this university landmark has hosted classes, concerts, and of course convocations. Although modelled on the Great Ampitheatre of the Sorbonne in Paris, it has not appealed to all critics; Canadian Architect and Builder magazine noted in a contemporary review that it was "not particularly in harmony with the University." Still, this is the place where generations of students have gone to celebrate their graduation – making for a lot of Kodak moments.

  Did you know ...? On February 21, 2007, Convocation Hall was the place to be in Toronto as Al Gore arrived to speak on climate change and to show his film An Inconvenient Truth. The frenzy for seats was so great that the university's online ticket office crashed under the weight of the demand; tickets were sold out in about an hour.

• Simcoe Hall (27 King's College Circle): Built in 1923-24, this distinguished neoclassical structure designed by Darling and Pearson houses the university's administrative offices (including, of course, that of the president). Below the imposing pediment is an elegant entrance flanked by Corinthian columns which McHugh calls "one of the most inviting portals on campus."

• Knox College (59 St. George St. to 23 King's College Circle): Established in 1844, this Presbyterian college was given its degree-granting charter by the Ontario government fourteen years later. The college would eventually federate with U of T in 1890. Its first principal, Dr. Michael Willis, founded the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, as well as the Buxton Mission, a community for those who escaped slavery in the U.S. and fled to Canada. The college moved to 1 Spadina Crescent (see below under Spadina Avenue / College Street) in 1875, then relocated to its present venue – a distinguished Gothic Revival structure designed by Alfred Chapman and Robert McGiffin – in 1915.

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Colleges (listed alphabetically)

• Emmanuel College (75 Queen's Park Cres.): Founded in 1928, this is the theological college of the United Church of Canada, a constituent college of Victoria University within the University of Toronto (the other being Victoria College). The Late Gothic Revival structure that houses Emmanuel was built in 1929-31 by Sproatt and Rolph as an addition to their Birge-Carnegie Library, which opened to students in 1910. Funded by Andrew Carnegie and Canadian steel magnate Cyrus Birge, the library building has housed the United Church of Canada Archives since 1972.

• Innis College (2 Sussex Ave. at St. George, immediately north of Robarts Library): This small college was founded in 1964 and named after Harold Innis, the political economist whose writings and teachings on communications and media directly influenced Marshall McLuhan. The modest orange-brick building forms quite a contrast to its neighbour, Robarts Library, and not surprisingly. As Patricia McHugh notes, a number of factors – including the public outcry over the construction of Robarts, "neighbourhood agitation about continuing encroachment," and the inevitable budgetary concerns – combined to make this a more "thoughtful" architectural work. Designed by Jack Diamond, working with Barton Myers, and completed in 1975.

• Knox College (59 St. George St. to 23 King's College Circle) – see entry above

• Massey College (4 Devonshire Place, at the corner of Hoskin): An interdisciplinary graduate residential college established in 1963, and originally open to men only (it has been co-ed since the mid-1970s). Architect Ron Thom updated the idea of the medieval quadrangle into an elegant modern design that sets just the right tone at the corner of Hoskin and Devonshire, next to St. Thomas Aquinas Church. The Robertson Davies Library honours the legendary Canadian author who served as the first Master of Massey College, while the main dining hall is named after Sir Christopher Ondaatje, a Senior Fellow and benefactor. St. Catherine's Chapel provides an ecumenical place of meditation.

• New College (300 Huron St. at Willcocks): Founded in 1962 and built in two phases (1964 and 1967) to accommodate the growing student population, this contemporary college provides another take on the traditional quadrangle. The rectilinear exterior gives way to curvy interior walls reminiscent of Alvar Aalto's Baker House at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Architect Macy DuBois, a native of Baltimore, originally came to Toronto when he and his teammates were among the semi-finalists selected in the competition to design Toronto's new City Hall. Although the design was not selected, he chose to relocate here, and New College was his first major project.

• Regis College (43 Queen's Park Circle at Wellesley): Originating in 1930 as the Jesuit Seminary / College of Christ the King in downtown Toronto, Regis College added a theology curriculum in 1943 and became affiliated with the university in 1969. For many years the college has been located on St. Mary St., east of Bay St. In a controversial move, however, the Jesuit Fathers of Upper Canada sold the property to a developer, which will put up a 44-storey condominium tower on the site. The new home of the college will be Christie House, originally the residence of biscuit magnate William Christie, which is located diagonally across the street from the Ontario Legislature.

• St. Michael's College – see Venue and Accommodations

  

• Trinity College (6 Hoskin Ave., just west of Queen's Park Cres.): One of the three grand old religious colleges within U of T (the others being St. Michael's and Victoria), this venerable Church of England institution was founded by Bishop John Strachan and opened its doors in 1852 – but not on Hoskin Avenue. The original building, designed by Kivas Tully, was located on Queen Street West on the site of what is now Trinity Bellwoods Park. (Although the college itself was eventually demolished, the striking stone and iron gates still remain at the southern entrance to the park.) After the college federated with U of T in 1904, finding a new location on the university campus became a priority. The land on Hoskin Avenue was purchased in 1913, but construction did not commence until 1923, and the new building – a copy of Tully's original designed by Darling and Pearson (pictured at right) – opened in 1925.

  The Trinity College chapel, adjacent to the main building, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and completed in 1955. Patricia McHugh describes it as "built of bright, crisp stone with luminous clear glazed ornamentally leaded windows sparked by brilliant touches of colour." The "beautifully sited and landscaped" Gerald Larkin Building, located just around the corner on Devonshire Place, was built in 1961; it houses the George Ignatieff Theatre, which was added in 1979. Trinity's latest addition, opened in 2000, is the Munk Centre for International Studies. It is located in Devonshire House, a restored heritage building which is also home to the John W. Graham Library. The transformation of Devonshire House, the former men's residence designed by the firm of Eden Smith and Son and built in 1908-9, was undertaken by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB).

• University College (15 King's College Circle) – see entry above

• Victoria College (73 Queen's Park Cres.): The history of Victoria College goes back to 1829, when the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada voted to set up a committee to look into the establishment of a seminary. The cornerstone of the new institution was laid three years later in Cobourg, Ontario. In 1890, the college federated with U of T, and a year later another cornerstone was laid, this time for the new building in Toronto. The massive Richardsonian Romanesque structure, designed by William Storm, opened in 1892. Its red towers a familiar presence to all who travel along the curve of Queen's Park Crescent East, "Old Vic" (pictured below right) welcomes visitors with the words "THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE" carved above its arched entranceway.

  Old Vic shares space with two modern buildings, the "exquisitely terraced" E.J. Pratt Library and Northrop Frye Hall. Both designed by Adamson Associates, the library was built in 1961 and Northrop Frye Hall (originally called the New Academic Building) in 1967. Patricia McHugh describes the two buildings as "quiet, immaculate 1960s boxes floating in space, never obtrusive to the grand mansion that still towers over the elegant ensemble."

  In addition to Old Vic and the buildings of Emmanuel College, the campus boasts a historical and architectural treasure in Annesley Hall, the first university residence in Canada built for women. Located on Queen's Park Crescent next door to the Gardiner Museum, this Jacobethan structure – built in 1903 – is a National Historic Site. A more recent addition to the Victoria campus is the Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles St. W.), which opened in 2001. And special mention must be made of the Lester B. Pearson Garden for Peace and Understanding, which honours the former Prime Minister, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Vic graduate. Designed by landscape architect Paul Ehnes, this beautiful water garden is located in the courtyard adjacent to the Pratt Library.

  Did you know ...? Former Prime Minister Lester Pearson was closely associated with Victoria College for his entire life – as a student, teacher, and later chancellor (from 1952 to 1959). His father had attended Vic, and he met his wife, Maryon, while teaching at Vic. "Mike" was also an avid sportsman, and played or coached many sports, from baseball to tennis. For a young teacher at Vic, this involved what we would now call "multi-tasking." As he wrote in his memoirs: "I was on the athletic association board and found myself becoming actively engaged in teaching football and hockey as well as history. During my first year I coached the Victoria College football team to the interfaculty championship, and helped during the winter with the hockey and basketball teams." He then moved up to the U of T level in hockey, football, and lacrosse, and coached the Varsity Blues hockey team to two championship seasons (taking over from the previous coach, Conn Smythe!).

• Woodsworth College (119 St. George St., just south of Bloor): Founded in 1974, this college serves the needs of the university's many part-time students. It is housed in one of the few remaining Victorian homes on the street, the former residence of Alexander MacArthur, which was built in 1891. A modern addition, including classrooms, study space, and a café, opened in 1992; Woodsworth Residence opened in 2004 at the southeast corner of Bloor and St. George. The college is named after James Shaver Woodsworth, the clergyman and pioneering social activist who served as a Member of Parliament from 1921 to 1942 and helped found the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the forerunner of the NDP.

• Wycliffe College (5 Hoskin Ave., across from Trinity College): Founded in 1877, this Anglican seminary was founded on evangelical, Low Church principles. It was affiliated with U of T in 1885 and became a federated college four years later. In 1891, the college moved to its present location, a distinguished red brick Romanesque Revival structure designed by David B. Dick. (Ironically,the college sits directly across the street from its High Church cousin, Trinity.) Later additions to the building (the dormitory wing, dining hall, principal's lodge and chapel, and Leonard Library) were consistent with the architectural style of the original. Founders' Chapel features stained glass windows with distinctly Canadian motifs, including an igloo and a birch bark canoe.

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Robarts Library Complex (120 - 140 St. George St.)
An imposing example of Brutalist architecture, the Robarts complex takes up a whole block of land from Sussex Ave. (north) to Harbord St. (south), and from St. George St. (east) to Huron St. (west). The 14-storey John P. Robarts Research Library ("Fort Book") is the central unit, with the Faculty of Information on the north side and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library on the south.

Some 100,000 cubic yards of concrete were either precast or poured on site to create this structure, which opened in 1973. Its design has prompted such adjectives as "arrogant" and "intimidating" ("still brutal after all these years," according to the Torontoist Web site). But the Robarts Library is a Toronto treasure for students, researchers, and book lovers alike. Almost 10 million items are housed within its walls, making it the largest book repository in Canada.

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St. George Street (Bloor Street south to College Street)

• Woodsworth College (119 St. George St.) – see entry above

• School of Continuing Studies (158 St. George St., north of Sussex): Renovation of the existing building, which reopened in 2004, was done by the firm of renowned architect Raymond Moriyama.

• Max Gluskin House (Department of Economics) (150 St. George St., north of Sussex): Another renovation of an existing structure, this time a Victorian house, plus construction of a three-storey addition. Designed by the Toronto firm of Hariri Pontarini, which also did renovation work on the Faculty of Law's Flavelle House.

• Innis College 2 Sussex Ave. at St. George) – see entry above

• Robarts Library Complex – see entry above

• Rotman School of Management (105 St. George St., across from Robarts): Opened in 1995, this high-profile business school will soon be adding facilities to the original building designed by the firm of Eberhard Zeidler (co-designer of the Eaton Centre).

  Did you know ...? The land on which the Rotman building sits was previously a parking lot, but before that it was the site of a historic structure, Long Garth, the residence of Sir Byron Edmund Walker. As president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, Walker made his mark on the world of finance, but it was as a patron of the arts that he should be remembered, for he helped found the National Gallery of Canada, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario (whose Walker Court is named after him). He facilitated Ontario government funding of the University of Toronto, to which he was also a generous donor, and led Trinity College into federation with U of T. Other institutions supported by this remarkable man include the Toronto (now Royal) Conservatory of Music, the Mendelssohn Choir, and the Champlain Society.

• Newman Centre (89 St. George St. at Hoskin, across from Robarts): Originally the home of businessman Wilmot D. Matthews, this red brick-and-sandstone edifice was built in 1890-91 and is a classic example of the "Annex house." Its decorative terra cotta panels are a particular feature of the exterior, as is the familiar Queen Anne-style tower. The house, which is now home to the university's Roman Catholic student centre, was granted heritage status by the province in 1977, one of the first Toronto structures to be so honoured. In fact, as noted on the Newman Centre Web site, it "continues to be one of the few buildings to have been granted heritage status for the interior, as well as the exterior, of the building."

• St. Thomas Aquinas Church, immediately adjacent to the Newman Centre on Hoskin Avenue, was built in 1926-27 on the site of a coach house that was originally part of the Matthews property. As noted on the Newman Centre Web site, the problem of the limited space available for the new structure was solved by building "a church rectangular in plan with its long elevations perpendicular to the street." Designed "in the style of 15th century Gothic architecture," the church is constructed of Credit Valley and Indiana limestone, with the interior roof structure made of British Columbia fir.

• Ramsay Wright Laboratories (25 Harbord St. at St. George, directly south of Robarts): Built in 1965, this structure is home to the Department of Cell and Systems Biology. Named after Robert Ramsay Wright, who in 1874 gave up a spot on the Challenger expedition – the first worldwide oceanographic expedition – to teach natural history (later biology) at U of T.

• Sidney Smith Hall (100 St. George St., south of the Ramsay Wright building): Academic building named for a former U of T president who later served briefly as Canada's Minister of External Affairs in the Diefenbaker government. Designed by John B. Parkin Associates and opened in 1961.

• Macdonald-Mowat House (63 St. George St., south of Willcocks): Built in 1872 by a Toronto iron founder named Nathaniel Dickey, this handsome Second Empire-style house (pictured at right) was home to both a Prime Minister of Canada and two Premiers of Ontario. Sir John A. Macdonald lived here from 1876 to 1878, and owned the property until 1886. Ontario premier Oliver Mowat bought the house in 1888 and owned it until 1902. During part of that time (1897-98), Mowat leased the house to his successor, Arthur Hardy. The building, which houses the offices of the School of Graduate Studies, is thought by some to be haunted by the ghost of Sir John A.

• Bahen Centre for Information Technology (40 St. George St., south of Russell): Centre for information technology education, serving the computer science department as well as electrical and computer engineering. Designed by Diamond + Schmitt and opened in 2002, the centre includes a heritage building – the E.M. Chadwick house, a handsome yellow brick residence with red brick banding and decoration, built in 1878.

• International Student Centre (originally Pendarvis; 33 St. George St. at College): This beautiful house was the residence of architect Frederick W. Cumberland, who built his home at the same time as he was working on the iconic University College. Constructed in 1859-60, Pendarvis – which was the first building on St. George Street – later became the official home of Ontario's lieutenant-governors before they acquired living quarters in the Legislative Building.

• Koffler Student Services Centre (214 College St. at St. George, across the street from the International Student Centre): "One of the best Second Classical Revival buildings in Toronto," this yellow brick structure was Toronto's public reference library until the current library opened on Yonge Street north of Bloor. Designed by Toronto's Alfred H. Chapman with the firm of Wickson & Gregg, it was renovated in the mid-1980s by Chapman's son Howard, also a distinguished architect. The Koffler Centre houses the U of T Book Store in addition to a variety of other services. Named after pharmacist and philanthropist Murray Koffler, founder of Shoppers Drug Mart.

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Queen's Park (Bloor Street south to Wellesley Street)

• Lillian Massey Department of Household Science (157 Bloor St. W. at Queen's Park, across from the ROM): "A very distinguished example of Neo-Classical Revival," this striking edifice – completed in 1912 – was originally built to house home economics classes for young women. The handsome exterior, constructed from Indiana limestone, was matched by an interior with "fittings of marble and oak ... with the domestic training suite outfitted with Limoges china." The basement swimming pool is still extant, hidden under a false floor. In recent years, the building was home to the provincial Ombudsman's office; its current occupants are the Department of Classics (on the Queen's Park side) and Club Monaco (on the Bloor Street side).

• Faculty of Music (80 Queen's Park, north of Hoskin): Nestled to the west of the old McLaughlin Planetarium and the Faculty of Law is the Edward Johnson Building, designed by Gordon Adamson and opened in 1961. Named for one of Canada's greatest opera singers and a former director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the building houses several important facilities, including the MacMillan Theatre, Walter Hall, and the Music Library. The MacMillan Theatre, a venue for opera, concerts, and recitals, features one of the largest stages in the city; Walter Hall, designed for chamber music performances and solo recitals, is considered one of Toronto's finest small auditoriums. The Music Library is home to an archive of some 180,000 sound recordings donated by Sam Sniderman ("Sam the Record Man").

  

• Faculty of Law (Queen's Park, north of Hoskin): The law faculty buildings on Queen's Park include two neighbouring heritage structures – Falconer Hall (1901) and Flavelle House (1902). Falconer Hall started life as Wymilwood, the home of financier Edward Rogers Wood, and was later donated to Victoria College for use as a women's residence (a new Wymilwood was later built on Charles St. W.).

  Flavelle House (pictured at right) started life as Holwood, the residence of meat packing baron and financier Sir Joseph Flavelle. This Second Classical Revival edifice is described by Patricia McHugh as "a spirited tour de force and probably the most publicly grand mansion in all of Toronto." Its interior is no less magnificent, highlighted by the Georgian Hall with its Art Nouveau ceiling, painted by Gustav Hahn. An extension to the building houses the Bora Laskin Law Library, which was opened in 1991 by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

  
  

  Did you know ...? Edward Rogers Wood, who owned Wymilwood (later Falconer Hall), is also connected with another familiar academic residence: Glendon Hall, which now serves as the principal's home at York University's Glendon College. Wood and his wife built Glendon Hall in the early 1920s and moved there in 1924. The connections with York University don't end there; Falconer Hall was the original home of the fledgling university between 1959 and 1961.

• St. Basil's Church – see Venue and Accommodations

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Bloor Street

St. George Street east to Queen's Park

• Admissions and Awards Building (315 Bloor St. W., east of St. George): Originally the Dominion Meteorological Building, this handsome structure was designed by architects Edmund Burke and John Horwood and completed in 1908.

• Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) (252 Bloor St. W., west of Bedford): OISE was established in 1965 as a graduate and research facility for educational studies, and merged with U of T's Faculty of Education in 1996. The OISE building opened in 1970 and featured the work of such artists as Jack Bush and Sorel Etrog.

• Varsity Centre (299 Bloor St. W. at Devonshire Place): Phase I of this ongoing project to replace the original Varsity Stadium and Varsity Arena was completed late in 2006. Facilities include an eight-lane track built to international specs, and a new 5,000-seat stadium where fans can cheer on the U of T Blues.

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St. George Street west to Spadina Avenue

• Rochdale College – now Senator David A. Croll Apartments (341 Bloor St. W. at Huron): Opened in 1968, Rochdale College was – in the words of the CBC – "the University of Toronto's first co-op residence, Canada's first free university and, before long, the country's most notorious den of iniquity." What started out as "an experiment in co-operative living and student-centred education" spiralled downwards and out of control as the high-rise building became a haven for everyone from drug dealers to draft dodgers. Street people came and went freely; bikers were members of the building's security force. In 1975, the college was closed down and the last residents forcibly carried out by police.

  That, of course, is one side of the Rochdale story. The other side is an extraordinary cultural and creative legacy that continues to live on in Toronto today. Among the entities born or nurtured at Rochdale are Coach House Books and the House of Anansi Press, Theatre Passe Muraille, the Toronto Dance Theatre, and the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy (which originated as the Spaced Out Library). American-born author Judith Merril – who moved to Canada during the Vietnam era – was a resource person at Rochdale, along with Anansi co-founder Dennis Lee, who would go on to win the Governor General's Award for poetry. Also active at Rochdale was the fledgling Aboriginal rights movement, with the Institute for Indian Studies – located on the seventeenth floor – becoming the Nishnawbe Institute, a First Nations cultural organization.

  The Rochdale building was designed by Elmar Tampõld and John Wells, who also designed the nearby Tartu College residence (the Estonian-born Tampõld named Tartu College after a town in his native country). Rochdale is now an apartment building for seniors (with a handy supermarket on the ground floor), but a memento of its former life is the striking bronze sculpture Unknown Student (pictured above right), created in 1969-70 by Dale Heinzerling and the students of the Rochdale Sculpture Shop.

  Did you know ...? David A. Croll, who is commemorated in the building that was once Rochdale, was a tireless social reformer and a distinguished parliamentarian at both the provincial and federal levels. He became the first Jewish Cabinet minister in Canada, holding three portfolios under Ontario Premier Mitch Hepburn; after several years as a Toronto MP, he was appointed to the Senate in 1955. Croll first entered public life as mayor of Windsor during the Great Depression, and insisted that the city run a deficit to provide relief to the poor and unemployed. His 1971 Senate report on poverty led to an increase in the family allowance and the institution of the Child Tax Credit in 1978.

• University of Toronto Schools (371 Bloor St. W. at Spadina): The highly competitive University of Toronto Schools (UTS) was founded jointly by U of T and the province of Ontario in 1910 to provide practice teaching for Faculty of Education students. Admission to the school, which teaches Grades 7 to 12, is based solely on merit. When the Ontario government withdrew funding from UTS in 1993, resources were mobilized to raise funds and to ensure that all students who qualified would be able to attend the school. UTS became a non-profit corporation in 2004, meaning that it was no longer a unit within the university and OISE, although it maintained affiliation with U of T. The building which houses UTS was designed by the prolific team of Darling and Pearson, and is now also home to the Department of Sociology.

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Spadina Avenue / College Street (south on Spadina from Harbord to College, and east on College from Spadina to Queen's Park)

• Graduate House (60 Harbord St., at northeast corner of Spadina): This graduate student residence opened in November 2000, but not without controversy. Critics, students, and area residents found it just plain ugly, with the giant "University of Toronto" sign at the top – of which only the last "O" is visible – seeming to add the crowning touch. Nevertheless, the building won a number of awards, while architect Thom Mayne went on to win the Pritzker Prize in 2005. Graduate House is located just down the street from Robarts Library, so you may want to take a look and judge for yourself.

• Warren Stevens Building (55 Harbord St., at southeast corner of Spadina): Constructed in 1980, this familiar building across the street from Graduate House is home to the Faculty of Physical Education and Health, as well as the U of T Athletic Centre. Warren Stevens, who is commemorated here, was the first full-time director of university athletics in Canada, and established the phys ed and health department – the first such degree program in the Commonwealth – in 1940.

• New College – see entry above

• Earth Sciences Building and its neighbours: A cluster of buildings located immediately south of New College, between Spadina Avenue and Huron Street, with Willcocks Street on the north and Russell Street on the south. This group is dominated by the Earth Sciences Building (33 Willcocks St.), built in 1989, which houses the forestry and geology departments, the Centre for Environment, and the Noranda Earth Sciences Library. Also in this area are the venerable Faculty Club (41 Willcocks St.), designed by Benjamin Brown and Robert McConnell and built in 1920, and the Graduate Students' Union (GSU) (16 Bancroft Ave.), also built in 1920. Last but certainly not least is Bancroft Hall (originally the Robert Brown house, 4 Bancroft Ave.), a classic example of both Richardsonian Romanesque and the Annex house style. Built in 1890, it was originally located on Huron Street and later moved to this site.

• 1 Spadina Crescent (formerly Knox College): Built in 1875 and situated in a small circle of land on Spadina Avenue just north of College Street, this Gothic Revival building with its familiar central tower was the original home of Knox College. When the college moved to its present location, the building was used as a military hospital, then later acquired by Connaught Laboratories. U of T bought the building in 1972, and it has since hosted a variety of uses, including offices of the Fine Arts department.

  Did you know ...? The great aviatrix Amelia Earhart worked briefly as a nurses' aide at 1 Spadina Crescent in 1918.

• Architecture Building (230 College St. at Huron): Completed in 1908, this building – originally the School of Dental Surgery – has been home to the Faculty of Architecture (now Architecture, Landscape and Design) since 1961. The faculty's Shore + Moffat Library opened in 1998, while the Eric Arthur Gallery – named for the distinguished architect, professor, and author – was added in 2001.

• Koffler Student Services Centre (214 College St. at St. George) – see entry above

• Wallberg Memorial Building (184 - 200 College St.): An early project by the firm of Page and Steele (later involved in such projects as the O'Keefe Centre and Commerce Court), this distinguished building was built in 1947-49 and opened by the Governor General, Lord Alexander of Tunis. It is home to two departments: Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, and Materials Science and Engineering. The building was funded with a gift of $1 million from Ida Wallberg, who left the money to U of T in 1933. Under the terms of her bequest, an engineering building was to be built, and called the "Wallberg Memorial Building" as a tribute to her brother, engineer Emil Wallberg.

• Mining and Haultain Buildings (170 College St.): Designed by Darling and Pearson and opened in 1904, the neoclassical Mining Building was financed by the Ontario government at a cost of $200,000 during an expansionist period for the university (the cornerstone of Convocation Hall was laid the same year). The Haultain Building, located at the rear of the Mining Building, began life as the one-storey Mill Building, designed by Frank Darling and Francis R. Heakes. Three storeys were added in 1930. Named after mining professor H.E.T. Haultain, the building is surrounded by other structures on all sides and is almost completely hidden from public view.

• Rosebrugh Building (164 College St., just north of the Mining Building): Another of the many campus buildings designed by Darling and Pearson, this structure was built in 1921 and later named after Thomas Rosebrugh, founding head of the electrical engineering department. Patricia McHugh calls it "one of the most delightful buildings on campus, with springy arches leaping all over the taut facçade in an eye-catching display of energetic brickwork." Home to the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, it is now the immediate neighbour of the Donnelly Centre (below), which has been respectfully integrated among its heritage neighbours.

• Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (160 College St.): A collaborative design by Toronto's architectsAlliance and Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, this award-winning building opened in late 2005. It is situated immediately south of the Medical Sciences Building, and well integrated between two heritage structures – the Rosebrugh Building to the west and the FitzGerald Building to the east.

• FitzGerald Building (150 College St.): Originally the Hygiene and Public Health Building, this red brick Georgian Revival structure was designed by Mathers and Haldenby and built in 1927. It honours John FitzGerald, founder of Connaught Laboratories, a public health pioneer whose department worked towards the eradication of diphtheria and other contagious illnesses. From 1937 to 1969, Canada's entire supply of insulin was produced here. Several departments now share this space, including the Departments of Nutritional Sciences and Anesthesia.

• Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building (144 College St. at Queen's Park Cres.): Opened in 2006, this is the first building in Canada designed by the legendary Sir Norman Foster. Its top seven storeys sit above a transparent five-storey atrium illuminated at night by a multicoloured lighting display.

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Read More About It!

Books

• Arthur, Eric. Toronto: No Mean City. 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974. 3rd. ed. rev. by Stephen A. Otto. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986.
• Byrtus, Nancy, Mark Fram, and Michael McClelland, eds. East/West: A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2000.
• Friedland, Martin L. The University of Toronto: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.
• McHugh, Patricia. Toronto Architecture: A City Guide. Toronto: Mercury Books, 1985.
• Richardson, Douglas S. A Not Unsightly Building: University College and its History. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press for University College, 1990.
• Sharpe, David. Rochdale: The Runaway College. Toronto: Anansi, 1987.

Web Sites

• City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties
• TOBuilt: A Database of Buildings in Toronto, Canada

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