MVRDV, Diamond Schmitt Architects, and Two Row Architect are designing a 390,000-square-foot extension to the University of Toronto’s Medical Sciences Building. 

The extension is called the Temerty Building and will host research and teaching spaces for the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Department of Cell & Systems Biology. It will be connected with the existing Medical Sciences Building’s corridors to facilitate seamless connectivity.

The new building will replace an existing wing of the Medical Sciences Building completed in 1969. The goal is to replace the wing with a more flexible and modern one to better serve users.

“The Temerty Building’s design is about bridging worlds,” said Diamond Schmitt principal Donald Schmitt. “It prioritizes functionality and durability, but also ensures the building will be warm and inviting. Its lower floors form a crossroads for the wider university community and opens to the surrounding landscape for the first time in 50 years.”

Renderings show the building as having multiple recesses and chamfered corners. In a statement, MVRDV shared that the shapes of the building’s massing pull from the “escarpments” or steep cliffs of the Toronto region. 

The facade will be made of glass and sandstone. Striations in the facade are meant to evoke nearby gothic and neoclassical campus buildings.

The basement level will have a district energy nodal plant, so the building can run on renewable energy. 

The ground floor’s voluminous communal hall facing King’s College Circle is designed to be open and welcoming, and washed in natural light. The communal hall echoes architecture of Haudenosaunee longhouses. 

The triple-height space will be defined by large spans of glazing complemented by thick wood columns. The large windows face the King’s College Circle, drawing connection with nature. 

“We are designing with the land, not on it, guided by the original laws and teachings that shape how we live and care for one another,” said Erik Skouris of Two Row Architect.

Flexible classrooms and seminar rooms are interspersed throughout the ground floor, and labs are on the seven floors above. The lab floors are broken into three areas: the wet laboratory, dry laboratory, and open social space. Elsewhere in the building will be the University of Toronto’s Elders and Knowledge Keepers. 

“While thoughtfully integrating with the rest of the Medical Sciences Building,” MVRDV founding partner Nathalie de Vries added, “the Temerty Building brings a new atmosphere to this portion of King’s College Circle: it is transparent, open, and welcoming to all, allowing campus life to thrive at the heart of the university.”