This 140,000 s.f. secondary school/arts centre is an important new building in the re-development of the historical and storied Lakeshore Grounds in South Etobicoke. Once the site of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, it’s heritage buildings have been sequentially transformed for various cultural, educational and recreational uses. This revitalization was triggered by a 1990’s Ontario Municipal Board ruling in support of institutional development, and spawned a coordinated public partnership strategy. Beginning with the renovation of the site’s heritage buildings, this secondary school is the first new building in the Lakeshore Grounds, and occupies a prominent central position to complete the west end of the Humber College quadrangle. In keeping with the existing “cottage” scale buildings, the school’s volumetric form was conceptualized as a series of extruded pods that pinwheel around a central public forum. The plan arrangement also creates three exterior landscaped quadrants that are then linked to renewed park space and retained natural features such as the historical apple “Orchard”.
