Sharp Centre for Design/OCAD Press Pack

Sharp Centre for Design/OCAD Press Pack
Contents
1. PRESS RELEASE
2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
3. WILL ALSOP THOUGHTS FROM OCAD
4. CREDITS – Project Team, Suppliers & Subcontractors
5. PHOTOGRAPHS – Completed Building, Construction shots,
6. DRAWINGS –Site Plan, Floor Plan, Sections, Will Alsop’s
Concept Paintings
7. STRUCTURAL DESIGN BY CARRUTHERS WALLACE LTD
8. BACKGROUND ALSOP ARCHITECTS
9. BACKGROUND ROBBIE/YOUNG & WRIGHT
ARCHITECTS
10. BACKGROUND ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Issued on behalf of: Alsop Architects
By: Stratton & Reekie
For more information please contact: Deborah Stratton
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7287 8456 E-mail: dstratton@strattonandreekie.com

1. PRESS RELEASE
ALSOP SOARS OVER TORONTO
Alsop Architects’ radical design for the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD ) in
Toronto will be complete in the summer 2004. Designed in collaboration with
Toronto-based architects Robbie/Young + Wright, the spectacular new building will
be known as the Sharp Centre of Design in honour of its main benefactors, Rosalie
and Isadore Sharp.
The remarkable ‘table top’ superstructure, that takes the form of a parallelepiped (9m
high, 31m wide and 84m long), with striking black and white pixellated skin, stands
26 metres above the ground on 12 multi-coloured legs. The structure provides two
storeys of studio and teaching space and is connected to the existing facility below
by an elevator and stair core that forms the central focus of the newly created
entrance hall uniting the two halves of the existing College buildings at all levels. This
new space comprises a new four-storey Entrance Hall, which is entered through a full
height glass façade, and a three-storey Great Hall on Level 2, where students and
artists can exhibit their work. This will be an important centre for social activity and a
valuable gathering space for events, with a gallery, auditorium, café and conference
centre immediately adjacent.
The unique landmark development ($42.5m) provides OCAD with an additional 6,215
sqm of space while at the same time creating a linkage between the College, the
street and Grange Park to the west. The park will also benefit from the area’s
regeneration and, it is expected, may eventually be home to more arts-related
events.
The Ontario College of Art & Design marked the completion of the project by
awarding an Honorary Doctorate to architect Will Alsop in June 2004.
ENDS
Issued on behalf of: By:
Alsop Architects Stratton & Reekie
For more information please contact
Deborah Stratton
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7287 8456
June 2004 E-mail: dstratton@strattonandreekie.com
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2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Introduction
For three years, Alsop Architects (Alsops) and Robbie/Young + Wright Architects
(RYWA) have been working in collaboration on the design of an 67,000 sq ft (6,215
sqm) addition and the majority of the 220,000 sq. ft (20,408 sqm) renovation project
for the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) in Toronto. The College’s campus
expansion project also includes 17,000 sq ft of existing space purchased by the
College. Commencing on site in May 2002, the project is scheduled for completion in
September of 2004.
Brief
A distinctive cultural force in Ontario, OCAD’s impetus to expand comes with the
Government’s double cohort initiative of 2003, where two years of students
graduated at the same time, which required a rapid expansion in educational facilities
across the province. A growing recognition in government of the creative industries
importance to Canada’s modern economy released $24 million in funding from the
Public Infrastructure Renewal (formerly the SuperBuild Growth Fund) for expansion
and renovations to the College’s existing campus buildings.
Site Location
The College is situated west of Toronto’s central business district, bordered to the
north by the Art Gallery of Ontario, to the west by the historic Grange Park, and
bounded by St. Patrick Street and Grange Road to the east and south respectively.
Most of the College’s seven buildings are on McCaul St.
Existing Building
Successive extensions to the College buildings over the years had succeeded in
expanding its facilities, but a lack of recent investment and funding had left it critically
lacking in good quality studio and gallery space necessary to meet the requirements
of today’s students. A surface parking lot immediately to the south of the main
campus 100 McCaul St. building had been identified as the site for a new addition to
house the Faculty of Design. A capital campaign was instigated to raise the
remaining funds from the private sector to complete the expansion and refurbishment
of OCAD’s campus facility.
Appointment
The College wanted an architect with a significant track record in the design of
cultural buildings of enduring effectiveness and appeal that could offer an iconic
representation of the client body as the school enters a new age. A chance reacquaintance
between two former students from the Bartlett led, in 2000, to Alsop
Architects appointment for the project in collaboration with RYWA of Toronto.
The team of Alsop and RYWA was attractive to the College for a number of key
reasons. First, Alsop brought to the project an international reputation for
successfully completing provocative urban projects predicated on commitment to art
education, urban renewal, and community consultation. Second, RYWA’s own
national and local reputation for completing demanding, fast-tracked projects, both by
themselves and in complex joint ventures, gave the College a comfort level that the
design team would be cognizant of the local needs and deliver a remarkable project
that would challenge and satisfy the needs of the College.
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Despite the physical distance between the two offices, Alsops and RYWA were able
to successfully harmonize their respective strengths into a seamless and focused
operation. With Alsops leading the project as Design Architect and RYWA, assuming
the role as Architect-of-Record, managing the production of all drawings and
specifications from concept design through to construction documentation, the teams
operating from offices in London and Toronto were able to deliver the project
effectively within the demanding project schedule.
Consultation
Following the appointment to the project, Will Alsop instigated a series of client
workshops in which early concepts were developed with college staff and students.
During this time, conventional ideas of teaching, learning and architecture were
explored as the group sought to re-define their new college of art and design. The
participants of the workshops exchanged sketches and ideas to investigate what their
future college should be.
Among the many opinions put forward, similar themes emerged. The College needed
to engage with the public and provoke interest, provide meeting places inside and
out, improve circulation within the main building, find new ways to show student work,
provide rough/tough studio spaces where students from different disciplines could
engage and collaborate with each other create flexible spaces that can be reconfigured,
as required, engage with the park, engage with local residents, and raise
the Colleges profile globally and nationally.
Schematic Design
Two strong ideas that emerged from the workshops were a) a cluster of towers
raised up off the parking lot site and b) a large box or ‘table top’ that was elevated
above the existing school and neighbouring residential properties, allowing Grange
park to re-engage with McCaul Street. The two schemes were presented to the client
group, who came to the conclusion that the ‘table-top’ solution best addressed the
ideas raised in the workshops.
The local residents and the City of Toronto were also included during the early
stages of the design process. They were invited to a presentation of the table-top
scheme given by Will Alsop at the College, followed by a discussion session where
views were heard and ideas exchanged. This not only helped to develop the design
of the scheme but also gave the local residents a sense of inclusion in the design
process and ownership of the scheme.
The idea to elevate the new addition nine storeys above the street on slender legs
proved popular with neighbours, as their views across the street to the park beyond
could, by and large, be maintained. It also allowed the former parking lot to the south
of the existing building to be landscaped as an extension of the park, to be
programmed with outdoor art exhibitions and other events.
The table-top proposal was outside the early massing study and maximum height
envelopes developed for the site. However, by raising the scheme up beyond this
envelope, the City quickly realised the benefit for local people by bringing the park
through to McCaul Street, creating a quasi-public space below and maintaining the
majority of views enjoyed by neighbours opposite.
During schematic design, the table top developed into a long box on legs, parallel to
McCaul Street, stretching 163m from the north property line, all the way to the south
property line. It had a double skin façade to naturally cool and heat the building, with
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a glowing polycarbonate soffit with pod like structures hanging below and a deck
space suspended between the existing building and the table top.
As the project progressed the scale of the project was reduced and the scheme
simplified, largely due to the challenges of designing within a tight budget and with a
limited palette of materials.
Design Development
These original ideas are embodied in the final scheme -- a flying, vividly patterned
‘table top’ with a pixellated skin of black on white raised nine storeys from the ground
and housing the new Faculty of Design.
The scheme makes imaginative and playful use of the limited palette of materials that
are affordable for the client and readily available in Canada.
By improving circulation in the existing buildings and providing new links in the table
top, the project succeeds in unifying the existing brick structures beneath, the park to
the west and McCaul Street to the east.
In addition to the teaching and administrative spaces the project also incorporates
gallery spaces, design and research centres, lounge and meeting areas, and design
critique spaces. Most important, the inefficient layout of the existing buildings was
dramatically improved by reorganizing the primary circulation around a new main
entrance and Great Hall, created by infilling an existing internal open courtyard.
In a climate of extremes, where the winters are very cold and the summers hot and
humid, it was important to create an environment that maximized available space and
was comfortable and useable throughout the year.
Construction
One of the main challenges faced during the construction period was ensuring that
the College could continue operating while the table top was being constructed
above them. Additionally, due to the compact nature of the site and the proximity to
adjacent buildings, the construction crew did not have the benefit of a large yard in
which to store materials and setup equipment. As such, large steel members – some
as large as 20 tonnes – were immediately hoist and set into place as they were
delivered to the site. The whole construction process offered a unique opportunity to
pedestrians and on-lookers as they were able to see all the work happening before
them and above them.
Due to the unique nature of the structure and the challenge of erecting the splayed
columns, PCL Constructors, the general contractor for the project, set about
constructing the building in the same way that a suspension bridge would be
constructed. The concrete core, containing the elevators and stairs, was erected first
and then the steel structure followed. Upon completion of this core the contractor
systematically worked north and south from the core, first erecting the splayed
columns and then framing these into the super-structure of the table-top. From the
delivery of the first pair of legs to the site, in the first week of July 2003 to the
completion of the framing of the table top in October the erection of the steel was
completed in eighteen weeks.
The legs were fabricated off-site. Due to the oversized diameter of the steel sections
used in the legs, it was necessary to use steel pipe commonly available to the oil
industry, for the fabrication of the main columns. The fabrication process included
priming and welding individual sections that were then fireproofed and painted in a
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specially constructed tent structure at the steel yard. The finished legs, 29m in
length, were placed in pairs on tractor-trailer rigs similar to those used in the logging
industry, and hauled to site in Toronto, 120km away.
The table top’s exterior cladding, affixed on site, consists of a field of white aluminum
and a random pattern of black squares and rectangles that create a pixellated effect.
The design and placement of the windows and arrangement of the black pixels
intentionally blurs the distinction between floor plates and play with ideas of scale.
The pixilation wraps round to the underside of the building, helping the box to read as
one element balancing on long slender legs.
The table top was designed as a rigid steel box. A grid of steel verendale trusses run
in the north-south direction and east-west direction, occupying the depth of he box
itself.
Due to the unconventional way in which the main building structure is raised above
the ground plane, the structural engineers were further challenged by the effect of
wind on the underside of the building. It was determined, following a series of windtunnel
tests that under certain wind conditions, the continuous air-flow below the
table-top would cause the super-structure to react in a similar manner to an airfoil.
As a consequence of this empirical testing, it was necessary to design secondary
structure in the soffit that counteracted this effect.
The table-top is supported by the core and six pairs of legs. The splayed legs, the
building’s main structural columns, touch down at ground level in an apparent
random fashion. Although all the multi-coloured legs are the same diameter, five are
finished in black to give a ‘slimming’ appearance; The optical illusion is further
emphasized, when, at night, the black legs being less visible, seem to disappear,
adding to the dynamic effect of the building composition.
The distinct bright red diagonal element located to the south end of the underside of
the table contains an enclosed existing stairway. Conceived originally as a
translucent coloured element that would be lit from within at night, the final cladding
to this stair is an opaque custom red aluminum. As an object the striking red colour
is an appropriate visual foil to the random black and white pixilation of the underside
of the soffit.
Fundraising
The Ontario Provincial Government, under the banner of the SuperBuild Growth
Fund, was the main sponsor for the project. The government provided $24 million in
funding toward the College’s capital campaign and the College was responsible for
raising the balance of the $42.5 million project budget.
Alsop worked in tandem with OCAD’s capital campaign, dovetailing talks, lectures,
and interviews with the fundraising program. The publicity generated has helped
OCAD with its fundraising targets, while simultaneously raising OCAD’s local and
global profile. The new building will mesh with the revived urban fabric, contributing
distinctive design and revived public areas, internal and external, to this quarter of
the city.
Future
Since Alsop and RYWA were appointed to design the College extension other
international architects have won high profile building projects in the city, most
notably Frank Gehry’s AGO extension next door, Libeskind’s extension to the ROM
(Royal Ontario Museum) and Norman Foster’s building for the University of Ontario
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Institute of Technology (UOIT). These series of commissions mark the beginning of a
new phase of reinvention for the City of Toronto, kick starting numerous debates on
the future of the city on a local, urban and global scale.
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3. WILL ALSOP THOUGHTS FROM OCAD
"Sitting on a deep windowsill, I stare out towards a sinking sun that
catches the planes as they descend to the airport.
The deep perspective of the view contrasts with the experience of the paper
I am working on. The opportunities in this new building for escaping from
our work are numerous and important. When working, there is nothing
precious in the architecture which might be inhibiting, no stylistic
fantasies to distract and no excessive architectural idea for theorists to
confirm or contradict their own views.
Often I sit in the landscape at the southern end under the table top and
listen to the local residents as they enjoy this new public space. I once
overheard the architect confide to someone that he thought this was his best
work to date. This is fortunate for Toronto!"
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4. CREDITS
THE BUILDING
Project name: Ontario College of Art & Design Campus Expansion
& Redevelopment
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Client: Ontario College of Art & Design
Address: 100 McCaul Street, Toronto
PROJECT TEAM
Architect: Alsop Architects in joint venture with Robbie/Young
+ Wright Architects.
Project Management: PHA Project Management Inc.
Structural Engineering: Carruthers & Wallace Ltd.
M/E/P Engineers: MCW Consultants Ltd.
Civil Engineer: Cansult Engineers & Project Managers
Landscape Architect: YWLA
Lightning Designer: Stephen Pollard Lightning & Production Design
Code Consultants: Hine Reichard Tomilin Inc.
General Contactor: PCL Constructors Canada Inc.
Cost Consultant: Hanscomb
Urban Deign: Sterling Finlayson
Geo Technical Consulting: Shaheen & Peaker Limited
Acoustician: Air Coustics
BUILDING FACTS & FIGURES
Total Square Footage: Building Expansion 67,000 sq ft (6,215 sqm)
Renovation: 220,000 sq ft (20,408 sqm)
Total Project Cost: $42.5 Million (Cdn), including new construction,
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Table top facts:
9 m high 31m wide 84 m long,.
Height: Stands 26 m above the ground on six pairs of 20 m
long multi-coloured legs
Number of storeys: Table top building is two storeys high.
PROGRAMME
Date Alsop commissioned:
Date start on site:
Completion:
November 2000
August 2002
August 2004
Occupation: The first students will move in September 2004
Other facts: OCAD is Canada’s oldest (established in 1876) and largest university
devoted to professional art and design education.
The Sharp Centre for Design is named after the lead benefactors Rosalie and
Isadore Sharp. Rosalie Sharp is an OCAD alumna, who has been a benefactor and
active volunteer at the College for more than 30 years. Her husband Isadore is
founder of the world-wide Four Seasons Hotel chain, based in Toronto.
Architectural Project Team:
Alsop Architects:
Will Alsop, Jonathan Leah, Isabel Brebbia, Oliver Blumschein, Christian Harrup,
Anthony Murray, Stephen Swain, Lilli Pschill, Sven Steiner.
RYWA:
Iman Ajlani, Sean Boucher, Vladimir Carelli, Brody Carrick, Paul Dimartino, Sara
Elliot, Andra Hayward, Eric Johnson, Chris Kerr-Strefford, Yew Thong Leong, Lisa
Ljevaja, Ray Makimoto, Cathy Misiaszek, Ricardo Maturana, Suresh Patel, Jacek
Pryzgodzki, Zubair Qureshi, Caroline Robbie-Montgomery, Ronny Sepulveda, Karl
Wong, Greg Woods, Jamie Wright, Rod Robbie.
OCAD Project Steering Committee
Peter Caldwell, Executive VP (Chair); Ron Shuebrook, President; Sarah McKinnon,
VP Academic; Lenore Richards, Dean, Faculty of Design; Catherine Wild, Dean
Faculty of Foundation Studies; Peter Sramek, Assoc. Dean, Faculty of Art; Katherine
Shailer, Dean, Faculty of Liberal Studies; Peter Fraser, Director Finance; Peter
Lashko, Director Plant Services.
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SUPPLIERS & SUBCONTRACTORS
Structural system
Concrete: JDR Construction
Masonry: Clifford Restoration
Metals: Walters Inc. – Structural Steel
Other: Carboline – Intumescent Paint Finishing System
Exterior Cladding
Metal/glass curtain wall: Global Architectural Metals
Metals: Flynn Canada - Corrugated Alum. Siding Systems
EIFS, ACM, or Other: Eternit – FRC Panel System
Roofing
Built up: Bakor – Mod-Bit System
Glazing
Glass: Prelco Laminated Glazing with Vanceva Coloured Film
Global Architectural Metals
Doors
Metal doors: Newport – Hollow Metal Doors
Other: Kawneer Aluminium Door Frames
Hardware
Locksets: Schlage
Hinges: Stanley
Closers: LCN
Exit devices: Von Durpin
Other: CBH – Door Pulls
Interior Finishes
Panels: Decoustics Perforated Vinyl Acoustical Panels
Paints and stains: ICI Dulux, Benjamin Moore, A.R. Monteith
Flooring: L.M. Scofield Co. – Lithocrome Chemstain, Duochem & Tremco – Floor
Slab Waterproofing
Carpet: Interface
Special surfacing: 3M – Perforated Windom Film
Other: Olympia Tile
Furnishings: General Storage Systems – Lockers
Lightning
Downlights: Metalumen, Cooper
Specialty Lightning: Encapsulite – Color Lites
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5. PHOTOGRAPHS
List of shots and captions
• Completed building – high resolution
• Construction shots
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6. DRAWINGS LIST
• East Elevation
• Level 5 Floor Plan
• Level 6 Floor Plan
• Landscape Plan
• North Elevation
• Building Soffit Reflected Ceiling Plan
• South Elevation
• West Elevation
• Table Top Roof Plan
• Transverse Section Through Table Top
• Longitudinal section
• Typical Wall Section Through Table Top
• Site Plan
• Will Alsop’s Concept Paintings
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7. STRUCTURAL DESIGN BY CARRUTHERS WALLACE LTD
The structural engineering concept of the building was developed directly from the
architectural ideas developed by Alsop Architects for this facility. These ideas
included the concept of a linear two-level table-top studio and office space, a twolevel
table top building supported on a series of sloped, slender, tapered and
randomly distributed support column structures. Access was to be by means of a
single ventricle core that would include elevators, stairs and mechanical systems.
The table-top structure is approximately 30 metres by 85 metres in plan dimension
and included two levels, each approximately five metres in height from floor to floor.
The structural concept of the table top is based a system of linked transverse and
longitudinal structural steel trusses that form the linear box-like shape of the table
top. The two floor levels use a conventional framing system of steel columns,
beams, steel and a concrete floor deck that is in turn supported by the primary steel
truss system. The entire two-level truss system is braced horizontally at the floor
levels to provide horizontal rigidity to the table top.
Vertical support between the table top and the ground level is provided by a
combination of 12- 900 mm diameter 28 metre long tapered steel columns and the
central core that was designed as a ventricle reinforced concrete cantilevered
structure. The entire structure is supported on a series of reinforced concrete drilled
caissons that extend approximate 18 metres to sound rock.
Critical to the structural design of the suspended table-top structure, was the design
of the suspended table top to resist lateral loads from both wind and seismic effects.
A wind tunnel test was undertaken to confirm wind load pressures on both primary
structures and cladding elements. The wind tunnel testing verified a significant
negative pressure condition on the underside of the table top due to an increase in
wind velocity in the space between the underside of the table top and the roof of the
existing design school structure. Both seismic and wind lateral loads are resisted by
the triangular tied frame action of the pairs of the support legs, the cantilevered
concrete core and the horizontally rigid table-top frame.
Structural redundancy is provided in the design of the table-top structure. This
redundancy provides alternative load paths through the structural frame in the event
of a catastrophic failure of, for example one of the primary steel support legs.
A comprehensive three-dimensional computer model of the complete structural frame
was developed. This model included all steel framing members, the reinforced
concrete core and foundation elements. The model investigated vertical loads from
the self-weight of the structure, user loads, lateral loads from wind and seismic
effects and temperature effects on the exposed steel columns. This model predicted
that maximum horizontal displacements of the table top due to wind loads were in the
range of approximately 8 mm at the south east corner of the table top.
Written by Chris J. Andrews, Carruthers Wallace Ltd, Toronto; 416-789-2600,
candrews@cw-eng.com.
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8. BACKGROUND ALSOP ARCHITECTS
Alsop is a leading European architectural, urban planning and multimedia practice
based in London and Rotterdam, with additional offices in Toronto, Singapore and
Shanghai. The studio is led by Professor William Alsop OBE RA with a team of
directors and a cosmopolitan staff of over 100, including architects, urban planners,
multi media artists, modellers, graphic designers, filmmakers and fine artists.
Alsop is committed to architecture of delight and enjoyment, reached through a
process that involves the building users, the client and the local community.
Community involvement is seen as a vital ingredient in the design process. In
addition Alsop’s buildings are known for their bold and often dramatic incorporation of
art. Close collaboration with artists is often reinforced by an innovative use of new
materials and a bold use of colour.
Over the last twenty years the award-winning practice has built extensively across
Europe and in Russia and established an international reputation for buildings that
bring merit to their location and joy to their users. The Practice’s significant
experience in regeneration projects includes the £97m Regional Government
Headquarters in Marseilles; The Cardiff Bay Visitors’ Centre; North Greenwich Tube
Station; Peckham library (named Building of the Year as winner of the RIBA’s Stirling
Prize 2000) and the 18-storey Colorium Tower on the Dusseldorf waterfront.
The last two years has seen a tremendous expansion in the spread and type of
commissions awarded to Alsop throughout the UK and overseas. In the UK the
Practice has become increasingly involved in complex urban design and “visioning”
studies for a number of Northern towns in need of regeneration, notably Barnsley,
Bradford, Halifax, Stoke on Trent, Middlesborough and Walsall. In addition there are
new build projects in Manchester and the commission for the Fourth Grace in
Liverpool, won by the Alsop consortium in December 2002 following a high profile
and hotly contested competition. Construction of The Public (formerly known as
c/PLEX) a new arts lottery project in West Bromwich finally got underway last
summer.
In London, an innovative medical school for Queen Mary College in Whitechapel and
a new campus for Goldsmiths’ College in South London are both under construction
and due for completion this year.
In Holland where Alsop has been working for several years and now has a busy
office, there is a mixed use development in Mauritsweg currently in design, a housing
development in Groningen in development and, due for completion this summer, a
new urban entertainment centre in the Polder city of Almere which is part of a multi
million pound development project.
In addition to this extensive range of work in the Europe, Alsop is also working
internationally – on the studio’s first project in North America, with the new College of
Art and Design in Toronto, currently under nearing completion. In the Far East, there
has been a significant growth of work including the re-development of Clarke Quay in
the historic quarter of Singapore, started construction in 2004. The project will
provide an animated combination of new public/ leisure facilities and commercial
office space next to a revitalised waterfront. In addition Alsop is currently involved in
design proposals for major new schemes in China, both in Shanghai and in Beijing.
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While Alsop operates as a sophisticated international organisation, the practice
approach to design remains essentially open minded and non prescriptive. Each new
project is approached afresh as a voyage of discovery and exploration. The essential
objective remains, as Will Alsop puts it “to make life better through architecture.”
For more information on Alsop Architects please contact:
Deborah Stratton, Stratton & Reekie. Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7287 8456
E-mail: dstratton@strattonandreekie.com
9. BACKGROUND ROBBIE/YOUNG & WRIGHT ARCHITECTS
Robbie/Young + Wright Architects Inc. provides specialized programming,
architectural, urban design and planning, facilities and project management services
to private and public sector clients. With over 20 years experience, the firm is skilled
in the design of the entire range of building types, with specialization in teaching and
research, hi-technology and manufacturing, entertainment and recreation, and
commercial and residential buildings. The practice is international in scope, with
projects all across North America, Europe and the Middle and Far East.
For more information on Robbie/Young & Wright Architects please contact:
Marcia McClung, Applause. Tel: +1 416 217 0700
E-mail: applause@idirect.com
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10. BACKGROUND ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) is Canada largest university of art and
design, with a specialization in creativity and innovation. Established in 1876 by the
Ontario Society of Artists, the College was originally known as the Ontario School of
Art, and was incorporated as the Ontario College of Art in 1912. The College was the
first of its kind in Canada to be dedicated exclusively to the education of professional
artists in fine and commercial art. In 1996, it was renamed the Ontario College of Art
& Design. Today, OCAD is the third largest of the approximately 40 professional art
and design universities in North America.
Throughout its distinguished history, OCAD has been shaped by many of Canada’s
leading figures in art and design. One of its earlier principals, celebrated painter
George A. Reid, designed its first purpose-built home on Grange Park, a beautiful
Georgian building, which remains to this day part of the College campus. Arthur
Lismer and J.E.H. MacDonald, of the Group of Seven, were once vice-principal and
principal, respectively. Many other famous Canadian artists have taught or studied at
OCAD, including Fred Hagan, Jock Macdonald, Michael Snow, Graham Coughtry,
Gordon Rainer and more recently, Colette Whiten, Joanne Tod and Barbara Astman,
and designers such as Clair Stewart, Carl Dair, Allan Fleming, Theo Dimson, Ken
Rodmell and, more recently, Debbie Adams, Helen Kerr, and Scot Laughton.
In 2002, OCAD received official status to confer the degrees of Bachelor of Fine Arts
and Bachelor of Design via the new Ontario College of Art & Design Act, passed by
the Government of Ontario. Its university status has led to a number of significant
changes such as a renewed curriculum, a new professorial structure for faculty, a
research mandate, a new system of governance, and preliminary groundwork for
future graduate programs.
The changes now make OCAD even more distinct in Ontario’s educational sector.
Students acquire critical thinking and writing skills, as they do in a liberal arts
program at a traditional university. Unique to OCAD, however, this liberal studies
education is integrated with a studio program that is more comprehensive than any
other fine arts program in Canada. As well, the largest faculty of its kind in Canada is
comprised of many leading art or design practitioners and scholars. The result of
OCAD’s educational experience is that students gain an in-depth knowledge of the
history and theory of visual culture, as well as the analytical skills to execute powerful
ideas within the studio context.
OCAD students also enjoy a one-of-a-kind learning environment that is dedicated
exclusively to visual culture, and best understood as a creative “hothouse”.
Innovations and creative work are inspired by a vibrant community life, which will be
even more dynamic as students begin to work in the university’s renewed campus
facility. The critically-acclaimed $42.5 million expansion and redevelopment,
featuring the Sharp Centre for Design, will be a catalyst for creative risk-taking and
new collaborations.
OCAD’s reputation continues to be shaped by the high calibre of its graduates, who
are recognized for their broad skills in creativity and innovation, and for their ability to
change the world in ways large and small. It is OCAD’s aspiration that they will
become an increasingly-valued creative force in the future, enriching our country’s
culture, and adding value to the economy and everyday lives of Canadians.
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For more information on Ontario College of Art & Design please contact:
Jessica Goldman, OCAD. Tel: +1 416 977 6000, ext 327.
E-mail: jgoldman@ocad.on.ca
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