Hariri + Pontarini - University of Toronto Faculty of Law

Alone among Canada’s law schools, we believe that the University of Toronto Faculty of Law
has the potential to emerge as one of these critical backbone institutions, a true peer of the very
best law schools in the world.
-Stepping Up To 2010
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Development Study October 2007
H A R I R I
P O N T A R I N I
A R C H I T E C T S
Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509-1510
Fresco, 500x770 cm
Vatican City, Apostolic Palace
Horses and Carraige in front of Flavelle House
A Great Law School
The design of the new Faculty of Law aspires to create
a place of enduring quality in the city and in the global
context in which it is academically positioned. It must
conjure a noble and enduring image that will carry it far
into the 21st century, inspiring equally those who have
gone before and those who will be tomorrow’s leaders,
with its convergence of civic gravitas, collective spirit, and
a deep sense of connection to both city and landscape.
It is designed to build strong community and lifelong
networks. It must create an image of quiet excellence in
the city, a powerful connection to its incredible landscape,
and unify the Faculty. The magnetic ability to draw and
inspire faculty and students to the institution resides in
the design’s DNA, from the broadest gestures of the plan,
with its principle of creating a new Law Forum, down to
the “perfect”proportions of the faculty offices and state-ofthe-art classrooms.
It must say,
“This place speaks to the highest ideals of learning and teaching the law.”
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At the broadest level, we set out with the
following design objectives:
Create a sophisticated presence that position the
Faulty amongst North America’s premier law schools
Develop a major presence recognizing the Faculty’s
prominence on one of Canada’s great heritage
campuses
Create a central social Forum to which all other
program relate spatially
Respect the pedestrian scale of Philosopher’s Walk
Leave Bora Laskin Library essentially intact rather
than rebuilding it
Take advantage of the remarkable views to the two
parks adjacent to the site
Respect University Open Space (UOS) property lines
so the sacred ground of Philosopher’s Walk
is respected
Initial Concept Sketch
Create a great place to work and study, a place
that dignifies the daily life of students, faculty,
administration and staff
Closely follow city zoning so that any varriances are
minor and can be handled through a committee of
adjustment, minimizing lead time to construction
Andre Kertesz,
Washington Square, 1954
Photograph
Diagram Exploring Gentle Curves
Respecting Current Zoning
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Pavilion
Forum
Crescent
Model view looking North-East
Model view looking into the West Courtyard
Context Plan Diagram
Crescent, Pavilion and Forum
Recognizing the Law Faculty’s privileged position poised
between two parks, the design responds with three simple
gestures: a crescent-shaped classroom and office wing,
the retention and conversion of Bora Laskin Library into
a luminous pavilion, and the addition of a unifying Law
Forum to bring a new heart to the Faculty.
The crescent-shaped five to six-storey building (containing
faculty offices and classrooms) converses with the convex
form of the Finance Building at the southeast edge of
Queen’s Park to create a strong identity and urban edge
along the fast-moving Hoskin Avenue.
Bora Laskin Library is reconceived as a transparent
pavilion, its interior is reconfigured and exterior re-clad
and its base carved away to open up to the landscape of
Philosopher’s Walk.
From the exterior (significantly, from Philosopher’s
Walk), the library takes on the countenance of a
pavilion in a park. Through this transformation into
a transparent pavilion, the Faculty finally realizes the
potential of its relationship to one of the city’s most
beloved park spaces.
The space between these elements, the Law Forum, is
the dynamic social heart of the Faculty and the open,
democratic interior space from which all other elements
of the program emanate.
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fo·rum (fôr’em)
a. Rom. Antiq. The public place or
market-place of a city; the place of
assembly for judicial and other
business
b. A place of or meeting for public
discussion
The Law Forum is the dynamic central gathering place
and the heart of the Faculty of Law, and it is the central
driving design idea. This view shows how the Law Forum
would look standing entering from the Flavelle house
entrance and looking southwest towards the new entrance
connecting it to Philosopher’s Walk.
Working from the insight that the quality of social network
and unified sense of community are the most important
advantages a law school can confer upon its students,
the Law Forum answers the need for a galvanizing social
space to bring students and faculty together in a singular
gesture. It permits the Faculty to function as a unified,
coherent community.
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From Bloor Street
via Philosopher’s Walk
All Roads Lead To The Forum
From the Subway
From Victoria
University
Forum
As all roads proverbially led to
Rome, so too all routes pass
through the Forum: it is the focal
point of all social activity, circulation
and passage, the animated heart
for events and celebrations, and the
open centre that links old and new.
Like its ancient Roman precedent,
the Forum is a place of animated
conversation, debate and laying the
foundations of the social networks
that are the informal basis of a
broad humanist education and
understanding of systems of justice.
From Queen’s Park
From Hoskin Ave.
via Philosopher’s Walk
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Ground Floor Plan
1
Entry
2
Lobby
3
Forum/Central Place of
Gathering
4
Reception
5
Exhibition
6
Feature Stair
7
Cafe
8
Student Mail
9
Washrooms
10
75 Seat Classroom
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110 Seat Classroom
12
Open to Below
13
Reference/Circulation Desk
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Group Study
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Reserve Stacks
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Reading Room
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Library Admin.
18
Study Carrols
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60 Seat Conference Room
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20 Seat Conference Room
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Conference Reception
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Conference Kitchen/Staging
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Courtyard
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Prayer Room
25
25 Seat Classroom/Seminar
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20 Seat Meeting Room
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Soft Reading Lounge
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Receiving
29
Service Elevator
30
Main Entry Gate
31
Iron Gate
32
Bennett Gate
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Sectional Drawing North-South
This Section looking East literally cuts through the
building to show the procession of spaces from the
formal entry through the historic gates and portico (left
side of the drawing), through Flavelle space to the threestorey volume of the Law Forum, through the Grand Hall
leading to the new access to Philosopher’s Walk, the end
of the journey once again bracketed by the history, in this
instance the main south gate of Philosopher’s Walk. This
drawing expresses the design intent to weave together
elements of history and contemporary construction,
and describes the sense of passage and procession that
happens in the main entry, passage and gathering spaces
of the Faculty.
Feature Stair
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Site Plan
The new site plan strengthens the organization and
character of the landscape, enhancing the role
landscape plays in the physical experience and the
programmatic life of the Faculty of Law. The challenge is
to create a landscape that feels uniquely part of the school,
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The West Courtyard
The informal landscape sweeps into the West Courtyard,
making it feel much more a part of Philosopher’s Walk.
The grade is raised at the portico to Flavelle and at the
Bora Laskin Library, creating a wider space, free of the
existing concrete retaining walls, which can be used for
events and tent set-up.
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2
The Arrival Court
Bordered by a new circle of trees with bold plantings
of evergreen azaleas below, and repaved in stone,
the new court creates a formal and celebratory arrival
experience.
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The East Garden
Already a popular outdoor place, the East Garden is
enhanced with new lilac plantings and flowering bulbs in
the lawn. A new entrance at the rear of Flavelle, and four
sets of double doors that extend out from the Rowell
room will bring more use to this garden.
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The South Terrace
A new entrance terrace at the south of the building
creates the opportunity for a new landscape that is
an extension of Philosophers Walk, and enhances the
improvements already made with the new gateway at
Queen’s Park Crescent.
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Reunion with Philosopher’s Walk:
View looking North-West to West portico, Bora Laskin Library pavilion and new Crescent wing from Philosopher’s Walk
This view shows how the history and future of the faculty
are also rebalanced in the view from Philosopher’s Walk.
The base of the library is exposed and re-clad (containing
a new reading room that, by virtue of its intimacy with
Philosopher’s Walk, is destined to become on of the
great rooms on campus), upon which the softly scalloped
form of the re-clad Bora Laskin Library pavilion conveys
lightness and transparency.
This pavilion complements the now-visible portico of
Flavelle House, whose façade is further restored to its
status as a building on the hill by softening the landscape
leading to the Western Courtyard (left side of image). The
scale along Philosopher’s Walk is deliberately kept low,
with most of the density and new program is borne by the
Crescent wing, seen in the background right of this view.
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Lower Ground Floor Plan
1
Entry
2 Feature Stair
3
Moot Court - 300 Seat Lecture Hall
4
Moot Court - Robing
5
Moot Court Complex Committee Room
6
Moot Court Complex Committee Small Office
7
Storage
8
Light Well
9
110 Seat Lecture Hall
10 Washrooms
11
Social Space
12 Lockers
13
Clubs Office
14 Aboriginal Law Student Assoc.
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Student Law Society
16 Student Journals
17
Student Clubs Mtg. Room (8-10)
18 Student Clubs Mtg. Room (20-25)
19 Quiet Study
20 Reading Room
21 Multi-Functional ActivitiesArea/
Technical Services
22 Stacks
U
O
S
lin
23 Mail Room
e
24 Conference Kitchen
25 Food Services
26 Service Elevator
27 Utra Vires Office
28 Casebook Store
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Sectional Drawing East-West
This Section looking North cuts through the Bora Laskin
Library pavilion (far left of image), through the Grand Hall
and the six-level Crescent wing which contains naturally
lit raked classrooms on the first three levels, and faculty
offices above. This drawing expresses how literal and
direct the relationships become to the Faculty’s two
bracketing green spaces: Philosopher’s Walk at the left of
the image, and Queen’s Park to the right.
Library Interior Rendering
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Faculty Offices
Level Two Plan
Classrooms and Mezzanine
Level Three and Attic Plan
Faculty Offices
Level Four and Five Plan
Faculty Offices
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3
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5
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14
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Clinical Office Spaces
Conference Room
25 Seat Classroom
Feature Stair
Open to Below
Forum Bridge
Washrooms
Student Mail
75 Seat Classroom
110 Seat Classroom
Study Ledge
Study Carrols
Information Commons
Group Study
Multi-Purpose
Resource
Library Offices
50 Seat Meeting Room
Reading Space
Photocopy/Printing Room
Group Study (20)
Feature Stair
Open Seating/Servery
Open to Below/Forum
Meeting Room
Dean’s Office
Dean’s Mtg. Room
Dean’s Office Files Storage
Faculty Offices
LLM Group Carrol Space
Staff Lounge
Photocopy/Storage
Washrooms
Roof Garden
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Feature Stair/Servery
Faculty Offices
Carrols
Graduate Student Lounge
(Fourth Floor)
Faculty Lounge
(Fifth Floor)
Photocopy/Storage
Washrooms
Meeting Room
Roof Garden
Forum Skylight
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Material and Model
Materials express timelessness, dignity and quiet
excellence. In a contemporary expression of the language
of pillars, so eloquently expressed in the porticos, the
Crescent introduces an elemental palette of oversized
panes of glass punctuated by vertical nickel fins sitting
upon a stone base of dry-laid Wiarton limestone - a
material whose softly figured, dove-grey patina works
beautifully with the gold-tinted silver hues of the nickel.
The glass panels of the re-skinned Bora Laskin Library
Pavilion sandwich a layer of brass mesh, giving it its own
warm expression as seen from Philosopher’s Walk.
East Elevation
Rendering of glass, stone, wood & nickle facade
One to One Model
Exterior materials composition
Model View from South
Rough Stone
Proposed for base
Model View from South-East
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First Impressions:
View of Flavelle House Entry from Queen’s Park
The first impression of the Law School balances the
contemporary and the historic: this view illustrates
how the beloved portico of Flavelle house remains the
entrance, and the imbalance of the historic composition is
“corrected” through the introduction of the new Crescent
wing along Queen’s Park. Where the Crescent projects
forward to establish a new contemporary presence on
University, it respects the scale and the massing of Flavelle
House, carefully in under its eve while extending over
Rowell Room.
North Elevation
This stone, glass and nickel-finned building bridges
over the Rowell Room to create a strong contemporary
image that respectfully balances the north elevation. Just
as the scales of justice represent a moral compass for
students and practitioners of law, this representation of
the convivial balance between new and old announces the
Faculty’s ability to balance visionary, forward thinking with
respect for its past.
An experiment in mirroring to study the bilateral symetry
demanded by the classical portico, revealing a more
balanced composition for Flavelle house.
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