The Centennial College Library and Academic Facility creates a new sense of arrival at Ontario’s first community college. It is also a striking landmark visible from Highway 401 in Scarborough that serves as an architectural rebranding of Centennial’s public profile. This LEED Gold candidate facility combines a library, classrooms and offices configured around an atrium with a four-storey biofilter living wall. The use of quality materials and detailing impart a message that this institution respects students and their pursuit of knowledge. Custom wood screen panels in mahogany and limestone stairs continue indoors what is proclaimed on the exterior in black granite, robust iron-spot brick and copper cladding on a circular auditorium. Copper is similarly used to striking effect on a sequence of projecting vertical bays that extend across the roofline to harvest daylight and expose 75 percent of the floor plate to natural light. Centennial’s new front door building frames a new courtyard and connects via a pedestrian bridge to existing facilities.
