Classroom

University College’s grandeur peeks through the swaths of plywood where renovations are currently underway – revealing close-up views of intricate stained glass windows and the storeys-high dome of the Croft Chapter House.

��Ƶ’s oldest building is undergoing a large-scale revitalization that seeks to bring the building, which is over 160 years old, into the 21^st century with the latest classroom technology, significantly improved accessibility and contemporary elements that will complement its heritage features.

The renovations, which are expected to be completed in early 2020, were made possible thanks to an increase in ancillary fees for UC students and donor gifts, including $3 million from Paul Cadario, U of T alumnus, former member of the Governing Council and a former manager at the World Bank, and a $2.5-million donation by Edmund and Frances Clark, who come from a multi-generational family of UC alumni. Edmund Clark is the former CEO of TD Bank.

The Clarks also gave $2.1 million to update the UC quad after the interior renovations are complete.

Donning a hard hat and protective boot coverings, University College Principal Donald Ainslie took U of T News around UC to see how the building is being transformed.

UC library's new East Hall location (photo by Romi Levine)

The centrepiece of the UC revitalization is the library, located in the East Hall. The room is anchored by archways on one side and a sleek, curved white staircase on the other, which leads up to a mezzanine that wraps around the room’s perimeter.

UC's vision for the new library, courtesy of Kohn Shnier Architects and ERA Architects

UC library’s new home isn’t actually new at all – it was where the library was originally located before a fire destroyed it in 1890. The accessible mezzanine is a nod to the one that existed before the fire – and allows for up-close views of stained glass windows that were installed in 1911.

The trio of stained glass windows (pictured below) commemorate the three U of T students who died in the Fenian raids.

“In 1866, the Irish nationalists who were U.S. Civil War veterans decided to attack the British Empire by staging incursions around the Fort Erie, Niagara Falls area,” says Ainslie. “The university had just finished exams so the students were called upon to go and fight to defend the empire.”

Ramps connect each new room in UC – making a building that used to be hard to navigate much more accessible.

“UC was created to be the college for everyone,” says Ainslie. When the college was created in the late 19^th century, it was founded on “the idea that everyone should be able to attend university,” he says. “We're constantly learning new ways in which we live up to that ideal.”

Work to make the building more accessible includes installing a new elevator, which can be seen from the quad, and adding an accessible entrance at the front of the building.

“That's a really important change and one that's central to what we're trying to do,” Ainslie says.

Inside the Croft Chapter House, the darkened dome is now a bright white (pictured above), with carved wood beams meeting below a halo of windows. This where the Paul Cadario Conference Centre will be located – a modular space allowing for different types of gatherings.

A glass wall will be installed near the entrance to the Chapter House, which will be inscribed with a line of poetry written by Anne Michaels, a UC alumna and outgoing Toronto poet laureate, and translated into 150 languages currently spoken in Toronto.

A massive fixture will be installed in the conference centre that is acoustically designed to reduce the echo caused by the room's high ceilings (rendering courtesy of Kohn Shnier Architects and ERA Architects)

Creating functional spaces was an important aspect of the revitalization for Ainslie.

“That was something I certainly realized when I started as principal, that the college had a lot of underutilized space,” he says. “Thus one goal of the revitalization is the development of new spaces that will bring UC students and the whole U of T community into this great building."

Those instrumental to UC's revitalization project, including Ainslie, Cadario, Michaels and U of T President Meric Gertler, were invited to write their names on the wall in the Chapter House – an Easter egg that will be permanently hidden behind its walls (photo by Romi Levine)

Two classrooms are being upgraded as part of the revitalization project, says Ainslie. Both will be “super smart and super flexible,” outfitted with multiple screens, allowing for two-way conferencing and designed for team-based learning.

UC partnered with the Faculty of Arts & Science and Academic + Campus Events to create spaces that are optimal for different ways of learning and teaching.

Learn how U of T is creating innovative, accessible learning spaces

A view of one of UC's many impressive stained glass windows (photo by Romi Levine)

While upgrades are important and necessary, honouring the heritage of UC was an important part of the revitalization project, says Ainslie.

“It's a national historic site and a core building of the university and so we are working very closely with our architects and heritage consultants.”

Room with a view: Once renovations are completed, this might be one of the most coveted offices in the building (photo by Romi Levine)

Classroom 2.0: How U of T is creating innovative, accessible learning spaces

Romi Levine — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Classroom 2.0: How U of T is creating innovative, accessible learning spaces

Romi Levine Tue, 02/05/2019 - 00:00

Cutline

Steven Bailey and Emily Ling of Academic + Campus Events in the Lee & Margaret Lau Auditorium (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Topic

Our Community

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Classroom

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Student Life

Undergraduate Students

Subheadline

Have your say about the future of U of T classrooms at events on Feb. 5, 6 and 7

When it comes to lecture halls, the ��Ƶ’s Lee & Margaret Lau Auditorium is the gold standard.

The room, located in the new Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, is outfitted with the latest technology – including a 60-foot-wide screen, believed to be the largest of any North American classroom.

But it’s the subtleties of its design that make the 468-person classroom special, says Steven Bailey, director, Academic + Campus Events (ACE) at U of T.

Instead of rows of chairs facing the front of the room, seats are arranged in groups of four around a rectangular table, with plenty of room for instructors, TAs and students to walk across the aisles.

“The focus of the room is not at the front like a typical lecture hall, the focus is actually at the table,” says Bailey. “This is where the important conversations and sharing of ideas is going to happen.”

The auditorium is a model for the future of teaching and learning – but at a nearly 192-year-old university with plenty of aging classrooms, replicating this brand new lecture hall gets a bit complicated.

That’s where Bailey and the ACE team come in. They’ve set out on an ambitious plan to renovate 174 classrooms on campus through the Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL) initiative.

“It's a beautiful hall, but it's expensive,” says Bailey of the Lee & Margaret Lau Auditorium. “We can't build everything to look like that but what we can do is to take elements of that and incorporate it into other spaces.”

Myhal auditorium's unique features (from left): plenty of aisle space and rectangular tables, built for collaboration; a microphone and video hookup at every table for easy class participation; a gigantic digital screen and enough room at the front of the class for a car (photos by Romi Levine)

Central to TIL is engagement with faculty and students on what they view as the ideal learning environment. Bailey and his team take that feedback and incorporate it into the design process for the classrooms.

“One of the tenets of design thinking talks about designing with, not designing for. That really resonated with us,” he says.

This week, ACE, in partnership with Student Life’s Innovation Hub, will be hosting events on the downtown Toronto campus, inviting the U of T community to share their input at What Makes a Classroom Great? Students, staff and faculty can test out different types of furniture and provide input on what they like.

“We can get an idea of how they can be combined or improved in a classroom setting to help their learning and teaching experience,” says Emily Ling, architect and classroom design and development officer at ACE.

by the numbers

42classrooms renovated

174classrooms to be renovated

6,000courses that will be impacted

Early feedback from students made it clear there needed to be outlets near seats to charge laptops and phones, and a solid wireless connection. But they also cared about how their classrooms were designed, says Bailey.

“They talked a lot about aesthetics of the space, about things like natural light, about creating an environment that was calm – somewhere you would want to spend some time in.”

This kind of design-forward approach is core to the TIL project, he says.

“We want spaces that are functional, but we also want spaces that are designed. We see the value in understanding that people react to spaces, not just as functional, but they react to them as human beings,” says Bailey.

Words that have rarely been used to denote learning environments have become central to the renovation project.

“We want colour. We want excitement,” says Bailey. “We have a lot of beige classrooms. Beige doesn't really do too much to a lot of people.”

Track TIL's progress and see before and after photos

TIL planners are also working closely with accessibility services at the university to ensure that classrooms are designed with inclusivity in mind – installing doors that are power operated and creating space for wheelchairs, while also providing a range of seat and table heights to accommodate additional needs.

“The idea here is you get to choose where you want to go in the room,” says Bailey.

While the TIL initiative only involves renovating classrooms on the downtown Toronto campus, U of T Scarborough and U of T Mississauga are taking part in the conversation while embarking on similar initiatives, says Bailey.

“Everyone is excited about what we're doing here and we're bringing the community together to work on this.”

#UofTBTS16: Classroom upgrades coming to a room near you

ullahnor — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 16:42:54 +0000

#UofTBTS16: Classroom upgrades coming to a room near you

ullahnor Fri, 09/09/2016 - 12:42

Cutline

Engineering students learn at one of many video screens in a newly renovated classroom (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Arthur Kaptainis

Author legacy

Arthur Kaptainis and Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Students returning to school may see wider seats, more writing space – and get this – electrical outlets within reach to charge laptops and phones.

This school year, a handful of classrooms at the St. George campus have the new amenities. In eight years, U of T administrators hope to have all of the classes retrofitted with new furniture and amenities that are timed to bring U of T into a new era of teaching and learning.

“Modern day learners need power, more comfortable seats and more writing space,” said Steve Bailey, director of Academic and Campus Events. “The intent is that in eight years, we’ll have gone through all the classrooms on campus, transforming the instructional landscape.”

As part of the program, the university is also looking at creating more active (also known as interactive) learning spaces. So, gone are the blackboards at the front of the classroom. You won’t see rectangular desks lined up in rows.

Instead, think of hexagonal shaped desks that invite more student collaboration. And video screens and whiteboards hanging on multiple walls that allow for students to display their work and more teacher-student interaction.

This year the university is piloting a second renovated active learning space at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education building on Bloor Street. There's a similarly retrofitted classroom at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering’s Sanford Fleming building.

Once they’ve solicited faculty feedback, university officials will see whether more classrooms like this should be created across the campus. Right now, the goal is to add to the active learning spaces planned for the new Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entreprenuership in the next two years.

“It’s about recognizing that instruction in the current form takes many capacities,” Bailey said. “For some people, lecturing is the way to do it. For other people, it’s not about lecture theatres. They want to do more active learning. We’re introducing these spaces to the teaching community and then getting feedback from them on what works and what doesn’t work.”

With the St. George campus alone home to 300 classrooms, some rooms over the years have been upgraded but more than 200 instructional spaces remain unchanged. Investments are planned over the next few years to upgrade and revitalize the rooms. The cost is estimated at $12 million, paid through both the operating budget and income generated from renting out university spaces.

The upgrades can’t happen all at once. They need to be spaced out, taking place mostly during the quieter summer months when not all classrooms are in use. There are more classrooms expected to be upgraded over the winter break as well.

In the eight upgraded classrooms located across St. George – at Galbraith, Health Sciences, McLennan Physical Laboratories, Medical Sciences, Ramsey Wright, Sanford Fleming, Sid Smith and OISE – students will see wider, more comfortable seats.

In smaller classrooms, stiff chairs have been replaced with comfortable bucket seats that can move. In larger lecture halls, the chairs still may be fixed but can swing around or have more room, making it easier for students to get in and out of their seat.

The small kidney-shaped desks have also been upgraded with in some cases flat tabletops, and in other cases wider writing surfaces – to accommodate laptops.

Where possible, for every seat in a renovated classroom, there is an electrical outlet.

Student feedback has made it clear that charging capacity is essential, Bailey said.

Along with the upgrades to the classroom, Bailey’s office is working with faculties on a new approach to classroom assignment – one that considers a professor’s needs in the classroom rather than focusing on their faculty assignment first.

“It’s a two-parter,” Bailey said. “We need a commitment to invest in our classrooms. But we also need a plan and direction on how we can get the right people in the right space.”