The brand-new Academic Resource Centre, or ARC as it is being called, finally opened its doors on Monday after a week’s delay. The late opening was reportedly due to the province-wide blackout a few months ago, although the exact reason was not certain. It will still take another three weeks for the library portion of the complex to be ready for use, but classes are now being held in the enormous 500-seat auditorium.
The eye-catching building sports an exterior paneled with sheets of copper, a counterpart to the titanium paneling of the soon-to-come Student Centre, which will open next year. The structure cost $22.56 million to build, and forms part of the numerous additions to the campus still being constructed, including the Student Centre and a new gallery.
When fully open, the ARC will house one of the first digital libraries in Canada, including electronic information systems as well as the old UTSC book library that has been in storage for the past year.
