2) Presence Build It And They Will Come - Seneca College

flaw in the theoretically high-sounding philosophy of the college system that
encouraged the colleges to be, as much as possible, all things to all people
and to endeavour to be as magnanimous in the service to the community
(Area # 7) and its many businesses as humanly possible. In this spirit,
Seneca’s Board elected (not unanimously) to recruit a consortium of
architects to pool their imaginations and their many talents in meeting the
service and pedagogical needs of an upbeat college in a modern community
at a progressive time in our history.
The immediate results recall the time-worn bromide about too many cooks.
John Andrews who had brainstormed the avant garde Scarborough College
joined with Mathers and Haldenby and John C. Parkin and the late journalist
and civic politician, Mr. Colin Vaughan, then in his architectural incarnation,
was enlisted as the go-between from firm to firm and college. Board
meetings of the day were held in the cramped quarters of the Sheppard
Campus. It was there that one of the members of the consortium, armed
with topographical survey representations of the site, was to demonstrate to
the Board that holes bored at the Finch Avenue site indicated that the slope,
the water levels and the presence of an underground stream would render
the land unsuitable for the project which Seneca had in mind.
It was at this point observed that, although the prospect of construction of a
Seneca campus was a much cherished project, it was a project rendered
regrettably unachievable as demonstrated by the map. It would later come to
light that the bearer of these sad tidings had learned that the Conservative
government was re-thinking its funding of all these expensive new campus
buildings; that the winning of the Seneca contract may just be a mixed
blessing at best. On the Seneca Board at this time were the Mayor and
deputy-Mayor of North York, James Service and Dr. Basil Hall who, having
together shepparded the growth of billions of dollars of construction in North
York over this period of soaring growth were all too familiar with the testing
procedures and with how many more holes than were shown that day were
standard procedure for determining the suitability of land for construction.
Further study, insisted upon by Hall at that time, was to show that;
• the problems raised were, in fact, intermittent, isolated and susceptible of
simple resolution; and
• the rumour that the premier was going to withhold or cut back capital funds
for new campus locations at this time was just that, a rumour.
ii) Phase One
And so it came to pass that the “consortium” as such was disbanded and the
task settled upon Mathers and Haldenby who were instructed that the new,
Phase 1 campus building comprise just over 100,000 square feet of usable
space and be basically simple in its external structure in order that it might
blend in naturally with those successive buildings which would be
107