The winning design team of Moriyama & Teshima Architects + Acton Ostry Architects has been selected by George Brown College to design The Arbour — its tall wood campus building on Toronto’s waterfront. This moves the project one step closer to construction of Ontario’s first tall wood, low carbon institutional building.
Poised to transform the Toronto skyline, the team’s eye-catching design for the planned facility features breathing rooms — using solar chimney systems to capture and harness light and air for sustainable natural ventilation. The building design also offers flexibility of learning spaces, enabling walls to expand and contract as needed, as well as a “Made in Canada” approach using nationally sourced mass wood components.
The Arbour, a 12-storey mass timber building at our Waterfront Campus, will mark an important step forward in Canadian mid-rise wood structures and will be the first project of its kind in Ontario.
Toronto-based Moriyama & Teshima Architects has received more than 200 awards, including six Governor General’s Medals for Architecture, Canada’s highest architectural honour. Award-winning Acton Ostry Architects, based in Vancouver, recently completed the Brock Commons Tallwood House, an 18-storey student residence at the University of British Columbia.
“Our team is thrilled and honoured to have our design for the Arbour selected for this transformative project. The Arbour comes with tremendous responsibility and we are ready to embark on this exciting journey with George Brown, Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto. We look forward to ushering in a new era in Canada’s design and building industry for our collective low-carbon future,” said representatives from Moriyama & Teshima Architects + Acton Ostry Architects.
Construction of this $130-million building is scheduled to begin in 2021 at the southeast corner of Queens Quay East and Lower Sherbourne Street, across the street from the Daphne Cockwell Centre for Health Sciences at Waterfront Campus. The Arbour will serve as an educational and research hub, and will also be home to a new child care facility to serve the growing East Bayfront community.
The Arbour will be home to Canada’s first Tall Wood Research Institute and will also house house George Brown’s School of Computer Technology.
