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Graduate Studio Stairs

26.06.18 - One Spadina wins a 2018 American Architecture Award

The Daniels Building at One Spadina has received a 2018 American Architecture Award in the Schools and Universities category.

Organized by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, together with The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts Press, The American Architecture Awards honor "the best, new significant buildings and landscape and planning projects designed and/or built in the United States and abroad by the most important American architects and planners practicing nationally and internationally."

The Daniels Building was designed by Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner, principals of the internationally acclaimed firm NADAAA — in collaboration with Architect-of-record Adamson & Associates, landscape architects Public Work, and heritage architects ERA.

As NADAAA writes in the Project Description:

The design of this building presents a case where problems of pedagogy come face to face with a physical environment that is inhabited and tested daily by an audience of experts, critics, teachers, practitioners, and students, the very protagonists of the medium. It is perhaps one of the few occasions where the audience is engaging with the building and its authors at a higher level, making it an added challenge –and responsibility– to speak to architectural questions with a greater degree of nuance.
 

For more information about The Daniels Building, visit the About section of the Daniels Faculty's website.

24.01.18 - One Spadina's "Darwin's Hill" featured in Ground magazine

Ground, the magazine of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects, featured an article on the landscape surrounding the Daniels Building at One Spadina. Designed by the Toronto-based firm Public Work, a central feature of the outdoor space on the circular site is “Darwin’s Hill,” a 6.5-metre-high berm. The berm's western slope is planted native trees; its eastern slope is a vine wall, and its southern slope will eventually include concrete bleachers.

Writes Victoria Taylor (MLA 2008):

Darwin’s Hill is a provocative and important component of one of Toronto’s most anticipated building projects. This dramatic form is a poetic intervention that can be occupied by the public, a green barrier to a busy urban context, an experimental garden for the landscape faculty, a site fill depository, and a striking complement to the architectural changes at One Spadina Crescent led by NADAAA.
 

Ben Watt-Meyer (MLA 2012), one of the landscape architects at Public Work, described the hill as “an investigation and showcase of different slopes, soil stabilization techniques, and planting strategies.”

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Robert Wright told Taylor, “We wanted the berm to be a teaching moment. We asked ourselves what experiments can we imagine here, and how can we involve the students?”

The full article is available on the OALA website.

Photos by Peter MacCallum

One Spadina East view

14.01.18 - The Daniels Building receives an AIA New York award

The Daniels Building has received another award: a 2018 Design Award from AIA New York. Congratulations to NADAAA, who led the project at One Spadina together with Adamson Associates Architects (the architect-of-record), and ERA Architects (the preservation architects).

The winning projects were granted either an “Honor” or “Merit” award. The Daniels Building was recognized with an Honor award in the Architecture category. Winning projects were chosen for their design quality, response to context and community, program resolution, innovation, thoughtfulness, and technique.

For more information on the awards, visit AIA New York's website.

11.01.18 - PHOTOS: Students & alumni celebrate the official opening of the Daniels Building

On November 17, the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design celebrated the official opening of its new home — the Daniels Building — at historic One Spadina Crescent.

During the day, University of Toronto President, Professor Meric Gertler; Dean of the Daniels Faculty, Professor Richard Sommer; and Chair of the Governing Council at the University of Toronto, Claire Kennedy welcomed donors, alumni, faculty, students, and other esteemed guests to commemorate the Daniels Faculty’s new home.

In the evening, all students and alumni were invited to a party to celebrate. Photographer Harry Choi captured the event, which included dancing, eating, and tours of the new building. Thanks to all who joined us to mark this milestone in our Faculty's history.

More photos are available on the Daniels Faculty's Flickr page.

 

Graduate Studio Stairs

02.01.18 - The Daniels Building receives a Best of Year award from Interior Design magazine

The Daniels Building received a Best of Year award in the higher education category from Interior Design magazine. Winners of the Best of Year awards were announced in the magazine's December issue:

"Designing a space that will in turn inspire great design. That was the heady task that principals Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner undertook at this undergraduate and postgraduate facility. What they accomplished is a rich mix of old and new, patina and polish."

Designed by Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner, principals of the internationally acclaimed firm NADAAA — in collaboration with Architect-of-record Adamson & Associates, landscape architects Public Work, and heritage architects ERA — the Daniels Building at One Spadina includes dynamic, flexible learning and research environments for faculty and students, and will nurture the next generation of leaders in the field.

Other awards that the Daniels Building has received include:

One Spadina Hallway

02.01.18 - Globe and Mail columnist Marcus Gee cheers for One Spadina's makeover

2017 was a historic year for the Daniels Faculty, as we moved from our previous home at 230 College Street to our new location at One Spadina Crescent, one of Toronto's most iconic sites. The finishing touches will be put on our new building this winter and spring, when construction on some key spaces — including our Principal Hall and Architecture and Design Gallery — is scheduled to wrap up.

In the meantime, Torontonians, including Globe and Mail columnist Marcus Gee, are taking note of the new Daniels Building and its place in the city.

"The new home for the University of Toronto's architecture school at 1 Spadina Crescent is the kind of little miracle that makes it possible to believe that Toronto really can have nice things after all," writes Gee.

Following a generous donation from developer and U of T architecture alumnus John Daniels and his wife, Myrna, the school had been named the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Prof. Sommer told U of T leaders that moving to Spadina Crescent would give the school a striking new home and the university new visibility on its western flank. After another Daniels donation, the project got the green light. Architects Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner of NADAAA collaborated on the design along with heritage architects ERA and landscape architects Public Work.

The results are spectacular. The old Gothic revival building has been brought back to its former glory, its yellow-brick façade all cleaned up, its windows renewed, its wood floors sanded and polished. The school's new Eberhard Zeidler Library is there, with space for its rare-book collection. So is a new reading room, in the college's old refectory.

Behind the original building, at the north end of the site, stands a three-storey glass-walled addition with galleries, a meeting hall, high-tech fabrication workshop and a huge, airy design studio with views to the north.
 

Visit the Globe and Mail's website to read the full article.

Learn more about the Daniels Building at One Spadina here.

12.12.17 - Azure: " How NADAAA Saved One Spadina’s Amazing Ceiling"

The Daniels Building's most photographed and celebrated detail is the signature ceiling that spans the third floor graduate design studio. But did you know that the award-winning ceiling almost never came to be? Catherine Osbourne of Azure spoke to NADAAA's  Katie Faulkner to learn how she and Nader Tehrani proved that moving forward with this design feature — which brings light into the center of the building and provides an inspiration place of learning — wouldn't break the bank.

Writes Osbourne:

Given that the ceiling looked complicated, they decided to build a section at full-scale. “We sat down and wrote up a list of what we would need, and almost everything we wrote down we could get at Home Depot. So we went shopping.”

Within a week, they had constructed a metal frame covered with ¼-inch ply, a thinner-than-usual option that could bend a bit more than thicker plys. They built a surface with two end points that tip either up or down, and which demonstrated that over a long distance, the framing could accomplish the desired curvature using straight lines.

NADAAA’s hyperbolic paraboloid solution, says Faulkner, was significantly different from how the contractor was envisioning it.

Visit Azure's website to read the full article.

07.12.17 - PHOTOS: U of T celebrates the opening of the Daniels Building with an official ribbon cutting ceremony

On November 17, the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design celebrated the official opening of its new home — the Daniels Building — at historic One Spadina Crescent.

Located on the western edge of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus just north of College Street, the iconic neo-gothic building and stunning contemporary addition, currently nearing completion, is now poised to become an international focal point for education, research, and outreach on architecture, art, and the future of cities.

University of Toronto President, Professor Meric Gertler; Dean of the Daniels Faculty, Professor Richard Sommer; and Chair of the Governing Council at the University of Toronto, Claire Kennedy welcomed donors, alumni, faculty, students, and other esteemed guests to commemorate the Daniels Faculty’s new home — which the Globe and Mail’s architecture critic has called “one of the best buildings in Canada of the past decade” — with an official ribbon cutting ceremony and reception.

Above is a slideshow of images from the opening ceremony.

Click here to read the full press release.

One Spadina East view

19.11.17 - U of T celebrates the opening of One Spadina Crescent

November 17, 2017 — Today, the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design celebrated the official opening of its new home — the Daniels Building — at historic One Spadina Crescent.

Located on the western edge of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus just north of College Street, the iconic neo-gothic building and stunning contemporary addition, currently nearing completion, is now poised to become an international focal point for education, research, and outreach on architecture, art, and the future of cities.

University of Toronto President, Professor Meric Gertler; Dean of the Daniels Faculty, Professor Richard Sommer; and Chair of the Governing Council at the University of Toronto, Claire Kennedy welcomed donors, alumni, faculty, students, and other esteemed guests to commemorate the Daniels Faculty’s new home — which the Globe and Mail’s architecture critic has called “one of the best buildings in Canada of the past decade” — with an official ribbon cutting ceremony and reception.

Photo, top (left to right): graduate student Lydon Whittle, Dean Richard Sommer, undergraduate Student Farah Michel, Chair of Governing Council Claire Kennedy, Professor Ron Daniels, Myrna Daniels, John H. Daniels, President Meric Gertler, Mitchell Cohen, graduate student Mahshid Shahrjerdi

Referring to Canadian and international reviews of the building, President Gertler said, “This global standing ovation for the Daniels Building is contributing to U of T’s reputation as a world-leading centre for the study of architecture, landscape architecture, and design; as one of the world’s greatest universities, and as a city-building institution of the first rank. And it heralds a new era of local, national, and international impact on the part of our professors and students, whose work is already helping to re-define urbanism in the 21st Century.”          

The proceedings took place in the heart of the new building in the Faculty’s new Principal Hall, a prismatic, polychrome, multi-dimensional space, soon to become one of Toronto’s premier public venues for public discussion and events showcasing leaders in the fields of art, urbanism, and the built environment.

In addition to housing the Faculty’s expanded undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture, visual studies, landscape architecture, and urban design, the new Daniels Building will allow for enhanced interdisciplinary research and greater public outreach and engagement, elevating the role that the design arts and visual thinking can play in addressing the critical challenges of our time.

“Toronto, like many cities around the world, has to contend with unprecedented growth. How we develop a compelling set of visions for the future, stage better discussions and debate about how to grow, and model ways for a diverse set of actors to work together to realize these visions, is vital to the success of our city, and every city” says Professor Sommer. “Over its 127 –year history, our Faculty has made many creative and intellectual contributions to this city and the profession, but the school has never really had a home worthy of its ambitions. Thanks to our community of generous supporters, we now have a major platform.“

Mr. John H. Daniels, Mrs. Myrna Daniels, and Professor Ron Daniels | Photo by Lisa Sakulensky

Following the announcement of a historic $14 million benefaction in 2008 (the largest of its kind in Canada to a school of architecture) and another $10 million in 2013, John H. Daniels (BArch 1950, LLD Hon. 2011) and Myrna Daniels today witnessed the vision for U of T’s architecture and design students become a reality. The new Daniels Building is named in their honour.

Toronto architecture firms, development and business leaders, faculty, friends, and alumni have also come together to support the project through philanthropic gifts totaling more than $30 million. To date 85% of the fundraising goal has been met. With a number of naming opportunities still available, the Faculty plans to announce additional gifts from donors in the coming months. The project is part of the University of Toronto’s unprecedented 2.4 billion Boundless campaign.

Key spaces in the Daniels Building include the Graduate Design Studio, with a column-free span of over 34 metres that incorporates an undulating ceiling with 11 clerestory windows; the Eberhard Zeidler Library, with collections in architecture, landscape architecture, art, and urban design that are unrivalled in Toronto; an extensive workshop and double-height Fabrication Lab, and the Commons, an interior “main street” and gathering space that runs east-west through the center of the building, linking “town and gown.”

The Daniels Faculty’s award-winning Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) whose work helps inform the City of Toronto’s green roof standards, will open a second site on the roof of One Spadina, where it will study the integration of rainwater harvested on site, while a new 8,000-square-foot Architecture and Design Gallery — the only exhibition space devoted exclusively to architecture and design in Ontario — will be complete by next year.

Designed by Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner, principals of the internationally acclaimed firm NADAAA, in collaboration with Architect-of-Record Adamson & Associates, landscape architects Public Work, and heritage architects ERA — the building has already received broad critical acclaim. Former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto Ken Greenberg (BArch 1970) declared it “a remarkable feat of form-making, site planning, and city building,” in a recent review of the building in Canadian Architect. During Doors Open, the new Daniels Building was among the most popular destinations in Toronto, welcoming over 8,000 visitors.

Daniels students helped make the Building Opening event a huge success | Photo by Lisa Sakulensky

“A hinge between ideas and action, Architecture is as much a way of finding the world, as it is of forming it,” says Professor Sommer. “As we celebrate the opening of this spectacular new building — we are reminded about what better architecture, landscapes, and cities writ large should afford society. It is not just about the glass, steel, and concrete, but what we can and will do with these things — what more thoughtful and beautiful environments inspire. We have received a great gift in this new site and building, but this is just the start. “

The main phases of the One Spadina Project will be completed in 2018. Future phases/additions are planned. For more information, visit the Daniels Faculty’s website at www.daniels.utoronto.ca

Photo, top: by John Horner

29.10.17 - Canadian Architect’s cover story on One Spadina highlights the Daniels Building’s place in the city

The new home of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is the cover story of Canadian Architect this month. The article, written by former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto, Ken Greenberg (BArch 1970), looks at the place of One Spadina in the city.

“It is fitting that the urban design catalyst for the western edge of the campus should be an architecture school,” writes Greenberg of the new Daniels Building, noting the landscape, which includes a promenade that encircles the site, bike parking, and a raised belvedere that when complete will act as an outdoor event space with views down Spadina Avenue to the lake. “These convivial gestures speak to a new understanding of the university’s place in the city as committed steward and active contributor.”

Greenberg calls the Daniels Building “a remarkable feat of form-making, site planning, and city building.”

Designed by Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner, principals of the internationally acclaimed firm NADAAA — in collaboration with Architect-of-record Adamson & Associates, landscape architects Public Work, and heritage architects ERA — the Daniels Building at One Spadina houses the University of Toronto’s programs in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.

Visit Canadian Architect’s website to read the full article, available via an electronic copy of the magazine published via issue.

The Canadian Architect article is one of a number that have recently been published about the Daniels Building. The New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Abitare, Architectural Digest, and Toronto Life, among others, have reviewed One Spadina as it nears completion.

Read what people are saying about One Spadina.