90 Queen's Park | Diller Scofidio + Renfro

90 Queen’s Park provides an urban and cultural hub, bringing together nine previously dispersed departments—including the School of History, Music, Law, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies and a home for the new School of Cities—into a single building.

Positioned at the intersection of Bloor Street and Queens Park, 90 Queen’s Park produces a new gateway into the campus and a connector between its neighboring buildings: the Royal Ontario Museum, the 1960’s era Edward Johnson Building and two historic structures from the 1900’s - Flavelle House and Falconer Hall.

The building responds to these site forces and diverse users with a dual identity: a smooth cohesive block of program containing faculty offices and workspaces to the North expresses the unity of the building, while the individuality of each constituent department is revealed by an erosion of the facade to the South, which is shaped by an imprint of the historic Falconer Hall.

At the heart of the building is a dynamic central atrium and stair linking clusters of lounge spaces, study spaces and meeting rooms. This public commons fosters access and views between the disciplines, promoting a culture of collaboration.

90 Queen’s Park will be a central gathering space receiving visitors from all directions. The design buries the access road under the building to create a generous new entry plaza with a terraced landscape, welcoming visitors from the South and Philosopher’s Walk. A cafe and restaurant extends from the inside-out with a gently stepped hardscape and softscape marking entry from the North. At ground level, the Centre provides direct access into the Edward Johnson Building and Falconer Hall. Located on the second floor, the school of Cities’s Urban Lab forms a canopy for the Southern entry with classrooms performing the same function at the North plaza. Floating above neighboring buildings within the erosion, the Centre’s 250-seat recital hall and a flexible event space provide larger gathering spaces where visitors can enjoy views of downtown Toronto.

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