Building Place!—the Engage-Design-Build show designed to highlight the cultural identities and stories of the many ethnic groups that call Toronto’s Little Jamaica home—will end this Sunday (July 30) with an exhibition wrap party.

Located in a storefront gallery at 1476 Eglinton Avenue West, Building Place! opened on July 16. The exhibition features community-based artwork and urban furniture by students from York Memorial Collegiate Institute and the Daniels Faculty.

It was coordinated by faculty and students in the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program through Engage-Design-Build, a partnership between the Daniels Faculty and the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) aimed at connecting city high schoolers with the community around them through hands-on design and building projects.

One of the main goals of the experiential-learning initiative, which is funded by U of T’s Access Program University Fund (APUF), is to open pathways for youth who are underrepresented in the design professions because of economic or racial barriers to careers in architecture, design and planning.

Engage-Design-Build, say its organizers, a group led by Assistant Professor Michael Piper and Sessional Lecturer Otto Ojo, “connects with multiple course streams, with the aim of creating collaborative cross-curricular projects at multiple scales.”

They do this, they add, by engaging with “multiple stakeholders to broker a dialogue between the school and the community, fostered through multiple field trips and youth participation in community events. This interchange informs and shapes the student projects.”

On Sunday, the wrap party will be held between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., but the exhibition itself can be seen from noon to 6:00 p.m. Visitors can also take in Building Place! on Thursday (July 27) from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

For more information on Engage-Design-Build and its projects to date, click here.