Buildings - Honourable Mention

Eric Arthur Gallery
Address: 230 College St.
Architect/Urban Designer: Kohn Shnier Architects
Owner/Developer: University of Toronto

Pat Bollenberghe
Opening up the building is a great gesture, both to the street and from the street back to within the school. The building has always felt very inward and this new glazed porch has provided a welcoming public face to the street. The next opportunity may be a better connection at street grade.

Alex Krieger
The power of one simple, bold gesture: a window unto the world of the street for those inside and a monitor allowing a glimpse into the school for those passing by. Part picture window, part shop front, it is all the more appealing for its confident, contemporary architectural tectonics inserted into the traditional facade. A great urbane 'carbuncle' that wonderfully enhances (rather than disrespecting) the older building.

Bruce Kuwabara
The Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, & Design at the University of Toronto occupies a heavy masonry building on College Street that was once the School of Dentistry. By breaking open the façade, the architects have created visual connections between a new gallery, the library, and the street. The bold new window, with its large sheets of glass, changes the scale of the building projecting the new identity of the school of design to the city.

Lisa Rochon
The first cut is the hardest. But this glass volume is an intervention that is clean and instructive, important for allowing students to look up and out and passers-by to catch a glimpse inside Canada's first architecture school gallery. The exhibition space expands to become a double-height volume that connects to the library located above. To stand beyond the original columns on the cantilevered floor is to stumble upon a secret.