Université de l’Ontario Français Campus

Occupying 50,000 square feet of a mixed-use building in downtown Toronto, the Université de l’Ontario français (UOF) is one of Canada’s newest universities focussed on the mobilization and creation of French-language education in Ontario. Gow Hastings Architects designed a fit-out renovation to transform the entire second floor podium into the inaugural UOF campus. The challenge was to embrace the building’s unique base building elements, including 25-foot ceiling heights, an irregular floorplate, and floor to ceiling windows, while introducing a new vision for academic design that encourages flexible student-faculty interaction. The final campus design is characterized by open, collaborative assembly areas and integrated audio-visual technology, which facilitate learning outside of the classroom, and connection with students and faculty across the world.