Construction started on historic U of T campus revitalization project

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KPMB Architects,Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) and Urban Strategies – tasked with restoring and beautifying the central spaces of the University of Toronto's St. George campus – have revised their master plan. The consortium won the Landscape of Landmark Quality competition in December based on preliminary designs shared with the public in the fall of 2015. Updated design proposals were presented to the public at an open house held on April 12,2016 in the East Common Room of Hart House. The updates follow consultations with U of T’s Community Liaison Committee and Design Review Committee as well as other stakeholders and university neighbours. Pictured: proposal for Med Sci Plaza.

Ontario Construction News staff writer

Construction is well underway on the University of Toronto’s Landmark Project, which will revitalize the historic core of the St. George campus and accelerate the university’s ambitious climate action goals.

Crews began preparatory work at Front Campus and King’s College Circle last month, removing soil for testing, erecting fencing to protect trees and bringing backhoes, trucks and other equipment to the site. The preliminary work – done with COVID-19 safety measures – will lay the groundwork for a three-year construction project that will make Front Campus more pedestrian-friendly, create new greenspaces and improve accessibility.

excavation work u of t
Construction on the Landmark project begins on King’s College Circle at the St. george campus of the University of Toronto. (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

The Landmark Project , the most significant open space project in the university’s history, will also enable the installation of a massive underground geoexchange field that will help reduce U of T’s greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 15,000 metric tons per year – a key component of the university’s Low Carbon Action Plan.

Scott Mabury, U of T’s vice-president, operations and real estate partnerships, says the goal is to complete as much of the soil excavation and drilling work as possible while the campus remains sparsely populated due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“For the excavation, we have a backhoe on the site that will reach out, scoop out dirt, put it in the truck and the truck drives away – it’ll be good to have as much of that disruptive and noisy work done while campus is largely absent of students, faculty and staff,” Mabury said.

“There are very few people on campus and there are hundreds of trucks that need to come and go, so we’re going to try and take advantage of this condition to the extent possible.”

In an effort to protect trees and gardens, more than six kilometres of protection fencing will be installed across the various sites involved in the Landmark Project. That includes Front Campus and King’s College Circle as well as the Medical Sciences Building, Hart House, the Sir Daniel Wilson Residence and Back Campus.

Measures are also being taken to prevent soil compaction caused by construction vehicle activity – which can affect trees’ roots and their overall health.

“Tree protection is both a city requirement as well as a university one, in that trees are an important part of our landscape and the improved landscape to come,” Mabury said. “We’re going to be adding new trees, but we’d like to not lose existing trees as well.”

The three-year construction project will make Front Campus more pedestrian-friendly, create new greenspaces and improve accessibility, designed by KPMB Architects, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) and Urban Strategies.

Once the identified trees are suitably protected, drilling rigs will excavate four feet into the existing topsoil, creating a platform from which more than 420 geo-exchange boreholes will be dug to a depth of around 240 metres. The boreholes will allow surplus heat generated by mechanical systems in the summer to be stored underground for use in the cold winter months – effectively using the Earth as a thermal battery.

“This is a significant step in reducing our carbon emissions and meeting the goal we have set for ourselves by 2030, as well as more ambitious goals beyond that up to the year 2050 to be as close to carbon neutral as possible,” said Mabury, referring to U of T’s goal to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 37 per cent from 1990 levels by the year 2030.

Mabury said he doesn’t expect guidelines around physical distancing and other matters to cause delays in the current phase of work.

“It’s easier to maintain safety protocols in the current scenario where the activities at play are removing dirt and drilling holes because it’s a fairly small number of people –

Prior to construction, leaders from U of T’s Indigenous community conducted a ceremony to acknowledge the impending changes to the land, which represents a direct connection to ancestors. Shannon Simpson, director of Indigenous initiatives, and Michael White, director of First Nations House, Indigenous student service, made an offering of berries and tobacco.

“We’re reclaiming the landscape and, in particular, the relationship of our community to the landscape and the heritage buildings that ring King’s College Circle,” he said. “These buildings are true gems – U of T has the greatest ensemble of heritage buildings anywhere in the country.

“The relationship between the individual, the buildings and the landscape will be reclaimed.”

He hailed the geo-exchange project as something that will not only help U of T achieve its emissions goals but will also allow the university to save money on its utility bill “that can be directed into the classroom and into further carbon reduction strategies.”

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