U of T, city reach agreement on St. George campus student residence

TORONTO – The University of Toronto (U of T) has announced a successful completion to mediated negotiations with the City of Toronto over a proposed student residence for its downtown St. George campus.

The deal, announced Aug. 14, will see a reduction in scale from what the U of T originally planned. The residence will be 23 storeys over a smaller footprint and the university has agreed to add several townhouses, intended for faculty, said a release. It will also aim to limit the number of first-year students in the building to 60 per cent of the total occupants, with the remainder being upper-year and graduate students.

U of T has also agreed to devote 1,590 square metres to public green space on the site and permit local residents long-term access to an upgraded Robert Street Field, an adjacent playing field used by the U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

The residence, to be located at the corner of Spadina and Sussex avenues, will be the first new residence at the downtown St. George campus in a decade.

It will be constructed using brick and has a 2021 targeted completion date. The structure was designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects to incorporate a three-storey heritage building into the facade. It will accommodate 511 students.

DIAMOND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS – The University of Toronto has announced it has concluded mediated negotiations with the City of Toronto and will proceed to build a 23-storey student residence at its downtown St. George campus.

“We wanted to find the place where U of T’s obligation to students overlaps with the broader community’s interests so it’s a successful project in both the university and public realms,” said Scott Mabury, U of T’s vice-president of university operations, in the release.

Student common areas include study space, a music practice room, fitness studio and project room on the mezzanine level. Two dining halls and a multipurpose event space will occupy the second floor.

The Spadina-Sussex Residence is a partnership between the U of T and developer The Daniels Corp.

The university’s plan is to create housing on the main downtown campus for 2,300 additional students by 2020.

“This is the first of what we hope is a number of residential projects,” Mabury said.

Last year, the U of T had filed an appeal with the Ontario Municipal Board (now the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal) in the hopes of reaching an agreement with the help of the organization’s mediator, the statement indicated.