Ryerson University has announced a new mixed-use building will be constructed on Church Street, just north of Dundas Street, on what is currently a parking lot adjacent to the School of Interior Design.
“Thanks to financial support from the provincial government, the new Church Street Development will help further the innovative, entrepreneurial teaching and research Ryerson is known for,” says Julia Hanigsberg, vice-president, administration and finance at Ryerson. “This building, along with the newly opened Mattamy Athletic Centre, Ryerson Image Centre, Image Arts building, Student Learning Centre and our planned student residence on Jarvis Street, reaffirms our dedication to city building and to fulfilling the commitment we have to our Master Plan.”
The Church Street Development will house four health sciences programs from the Faculty of Community Services: the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, the School of Nutrition, the School of Occupational & Public Health and the Midwifery Education Program.
“This new building will foster excellence in inter-professional education and experiential learning while enhancing our student study space,” says Usha George, dean of the Faculty of Community Services. “The design of this new building will reflect advances in learning, teaching, and technology creating an exceptional environment for study, research and innovation.”
The ground floor of the building – which is aiming to be LEED Silver compliant — will have retail space, particularly food services, as well as study space for all students further enhancing the streetscape and bringing pedestrian energy and activity to this area of Church Street. The floors above will feature lecture halls, classrooms, shared teaching labs, meeting rooms, eight new modular labs for research initiatives, state-of-the art clinical experience suites, a dedicated high-fidelity simulation suite, and additional clinical skills labs.
To help address the need for more residence space and to optimize density on the site, the building plans include approximately 250 student residence spaces in keeping with the university’s goal to provide an additional 2,000 new residence spaces by 2020. Ryerson is actively seeking a private sector organization to partner with to develop the residence portion of the project.
The estimated cost of the academic portion of the project is $84 million, of which the Ontario government has provided a $56.4 million grant. A request for qualifications for architect services is underway. The date of construction is still to be determined.