When students return to school this fall after a year or more away from U of T, they may be surprised by some changes in the landscape across all three campuses.
The Varsity broke down all the current construction projects across the three campuses.
Landmark Project
The Landmark Project will turn Front Campus into a green walking space, along with revitalizing surrounding buildings and walkways. New seating areas and greenery will also be added to Back Campus.
The project will also introduce an underground parking garage for 60 electric cars and more than 300 bikes, as well as a geothermal field under Front Campus.
The project’s last update in July stated that construction was largely in the excavation and paving stage. In an email to The Varsity, a U of T spokesperson stated that “The aim is for the King’s College Circle quad to be accessible for the public again in the second half of 2023.”
Robarts Common
Robarts is working on a five-storey glass building connected to the ‘peacock’ by bridges.
The project will add 1,200 study spaces for students, increasing the servicing capacity to 6,000 students at one time.
The inside of Robarts is unaffected by this construction, save for prohibited access to the loading dock. The new extension is intended to open this year.
Spadina-Sussex residence
Demolition began on the new 23-storey Spadina–Sussex residence in late 2020, which spans from 698 to 704 Spadina Avenue and will provide housing for 511 students. The brick building will match the heritage building that makes up part of its three-storey podium.
Construction also includes 10 townhouses, which will be available for faculty and renters, as well as retail spaces on the lower levels of the residence. This project is slated to be completed in 2024.
Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus
Construction is well underway on College Street for the first phase of the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus, replacing the 1954 Best building and taking up 250,000 square feet along College Street to house the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society as well as the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in its 12 storeys.
Eventually, the neighbouring building will be demolished to add 500,000 more square feet to the Innovation Campus.
According to the Schwartz Reisman Institute’s Twitter account, the building will be occupied by 2022–2023.
FitzGerald building revitalization
This heritage building — built in 1927 — is located between the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. Previously used for research and labs, it will be transformed into office space for the university’s president and central administration.
Construction was ongoing as of May 2021. Originally anticipated to be completed in October 2020, it is unclear when the new opening date will be.
UTM New Science Building
The Centre for Medicinal Chemistry and the forensic science program, along with wet labs and a computing data centre, will have a new home at UTM. The New Science Building will span almost 170,000 square feet and is nestled between the William G. Davis Building and the Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex.
The project is currently under construction. The latest estimated date of completion published online is 2024.
UTSC Instructional Centre 2 (IC2)
IC2 is poised to be the newest student hub at UTSC, at the northern end of the campus on the corner of Military Trail and Pan Am Drive in the place of a former parking lot.
The five-storey building will include nearly 200,000 square feet of academic and social spaces for students. Several academic and student services departments will be based there.
IC2’s opening date is slated for late 2023. UTSC’s Twitter account announced that construction was “about to begin” on June 4, 2021.
New residence at UTSC
This nine-storey residence building on Ellesmere Road in the northern part of the UTSC building, scheduled to open in fall 2023, will include 750 beds in single- and double-occupancy rooms.
Alongside student spaces, dining, and a rooftop garden, it will also contain student housing and residence life offices. Construction started in November 2020.
