The Centre for Urban Innovation (CUI) at Ryerson University, a 65,000 ft2 state-of-the-art research facility space, officially opened its doors on Thursday, February 14th, 2019. It is the university’s newest building and the first building on campus dedicated solely to research and innovation, focusing on solutions for critical urban infrastructure issues such as food, water, energy, data analytics and transportation.
LEA was proud to contribute our structural design expertise to the project that included elegantly weaving in a new structure between a historic façade and the existing timber framed structures.
The project preserves and integrates the original three-storey historic heritage building with two new additions fitted with green roofs and joined with sky-lit open spaces. The majority of spaces within the building, including the original 19th century lecture hall, were designed to LEED Silver standards, retained and adaptively reused to reduce the construction footprint. This resulted in significant savings in below grade walls, shoring and above grade walls. The estimated savings are approximately 777,000 kg of CO2, which is equivalent to 338,000 litres of gasoline consumed by private cars (NRC).
Congratulations to Ryerson University, Moriyama & Teshima Architects, and everyone else involved in this amazing project!
Video provided by Ryerson University.