By Victoria Surla

Renderings by Moriyama & Teshima Architects

Three years ago, George Brown College (GBC) developed a plan to construct a tall wood building at the institution’s Waterfront Campus in Toronto. Now, renderings of the environmentally sustainable, state-of-the-art structure have been released, and some are saying it could be one of Toronto’s most beautiful student buildings yet.

Located at Queen’s Quay and Sherbourne, “The Arbour” is a ten-level public assembly building designed to run on natural and electric district energy systems. Using zero fuel-fired equipment, it is able to naturally temperature control and power itself, through organic methods such as deep-water cooling from Lake Ontario.

With solar chimneys, natural ventilation systems, and sustainable energy systems, the zero-carbon structure is a full decade in advance of Toronto’s 2030 targets, according to Carol Phillips, partner at Moriyama and Teshima Architects in Toronto.

The $130 million dollar project is a joint venture collaboration between Toronto’s Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“We had to be innovative as a firm to figure out how to design, detail, and construct a building type that had never been done before in the world,” says Russell Acton, partner and co-founder of Acton and Ostry Architects.

“Quite literally, it had never been done before.”

GBC’s Arbour building will be home to the School of Architectural Studies, Centre for Arts, Design, and Information Technology, and the Early Childhood Education program in collaboration with the city of Toronto. That being said, the building is meant to be transferable to other disciplines over time.

“The building is designed in such a way that over time, it can be transferred to other departments,” says Phillips. “We are looking at making a 100-year building. 50 years ago, George Brown used to teach watchmaking. Who knows what will be taught even in the next ten or 15 years, as new technologies and disciplines emerge? The building is meant to be flexible and transferable.”

Along with an abundant number of classrooms, the building will also incorporate several social learning and study spaces. These will include a “learning landscape”, atrium-like space that terraces up through the first three floors of the building, as well as “breathing rooms”, and a “green roof” with views of the lake up top.

“For George Brown students, it’s going to be first-class learning environments. We’ve designed all of those spaces so they will work very well for the faculty and the students,” says Acton.

The Arbour also features a “tall wood institute” designed for GBC architecture students to interact with research on tall wood buildings happening around the world. Wood-based buildings use less energy and emit fewer greenhouse gases and pollutants over their life cycle than traditional, energy-intensive construction materials.

“We’re talking about a new and really emergent technology,” says Phillips.

Moriyama & Teshima Architects is neighbour to GBC’s Centre for Hospitality & Culinary Arts at the St. James Campus, and authour to city monuments such as the Ontario Science Centre and the Toronto Reference Library.

“When you talk about our involvement with GBC, it’s like you are our office cafeteria. Some of our most valuable technicians we have hired from GBC,” says Phillips.

“We do not care about authourship or all of that kind of stuff. This is in our backyard. If there’s a place I want to have a voice to make a difference, it’s in Toronto. Especially, I think, for George Brown students, it’s important to know that these are homegrown solutions, that they can envision themselves being part of.”

Construction of the Arbour building is set to begin in April 2021 and be completed by Spring 2024, according to Phillips.