The skyline of U of T’s downtown campus could get more cluttered yet. That is, if a proposed expansion of the Rotman School of Business gets the nod.
The proposed building could be as tall as ten storeys, and would be built on the parking lot south of the existing Rotman building. At an estimated to cost of $100 million, the project would allow Rotman to nearly double in size over the next seven years, adding much-needed space for students and profs.
“We’re bursting at the seams as we speak,” said Rotman vice-dean Peter Pauly, who co-chaired the committee that proposed the new building. Rotman could grow from 978 students today to 1,755 in 2014, according to the project planning report.
That report was discussed at a meeting of the Governing Council’s Academic Board last week. It will be submitted to the Governing Council for approval next month.
The planning of Rotman’s new digs could be done by the end of the year, said Pauly. The target completion date at this point is 2010. One selling point is that Rotman anticipates the expansion project will require virtually no funding from the university. Most of the cash will come from the government and private donations.
Pauly identified three hurdles for the project. The first is the fact that the city has set limits on building density for “Site 11”-as the proposed building’s location is dubbed in city planning parlance. These limits are contained in the U of T so-called “part II plan,” which sets out what the university may build and where.
Another complication is that the university must conserve the facades of two historic St. George Street homes. “One option would be to build it in a way that would be similar to the Bahen Centre,” said Pauly.
That building, at the south end of St. George Street opened in 2002, and was built around the historic Varsity House, this newspaper’s erstwhile home. The house’s interior was refurbished, and it now hosts some offices and student space for the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering.
The third problem is finding new space for the occupants of those historic homes: the CIUT radio station and the Sexual Education Centre at 91 St. George St. and the Department of Classics at 97 St. George St.
Alicia Ho, executive director of the Sexual Education Centre at 91 St. George St., said that her group first heard that it might have to relocate last year. One idea that has been floated is to move CIUT and SEC into a proposed student centre on “Site 12.” That project, perpetually in the early planning stages, would require a successful student levy referendum to go ahead.
Residents’ groups have mixed feelings about the Rotman expansion. David Powell, president of the Huron-Sussex Residents’ Organization, is concerned about the destruction of old homes on St. George Street, and the removal of old, large trees. He is also concerned about the architecture of the proposed building.
The project planning report acknowledged the difficulty of matching the clashing architectural styles of the Newman Centre to the south with the modern look of the existing Rotman building. It recommended “a sensitive approach.”
“A lot of the buildings that have been built recently by the university [are] too boxy,” Powell said. “The height changes the character of the street.”
Other community leaders also worry about the planned building’s height.
“On first blush, it seems high,” Rory Sinclair, the chair of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association, commented in an email. They and other residents’ groups will get to voice their concerns at a future meeting of the U of T Liaison Committee, not yet scheduled.
That committee, co-chaired by city councillor Adam Vaughan and U of T assistant VP Elizabeth Sisam, is the forum where all university activities that affect the surrounding communities are discussed.
Powell said that other players within the university might also influence the new Rotman building’s ultimate design. One such group, he speculated, might be Trinity College.
“They were instrumental in blocking the Varsity Stadium,” in 2004. Powell said. “They could have quite an influence on what goes on at Rotman-probably more than we do.”
