The Instructional Centre will be a major, publicly accessible building at UTSC and will integrate community life with the campus. The building will house high-quality classrooms; research, teaching and computer labs; staff and faculty offices; and study spaces. The site selected for the Instructional Centre — the intersection of Military Trail and Ellesmere Road — will become the core for activity on an expanded north campus. Planned mixed-use facilities located at the street level and near-by will include: retail shops, restaurants, cafés, an athletics complex, and a stop for Light-Rail Rapid Transit (LRT), creating a highly animated street front that will be attractive to students as well as to the community.
This major infrastructure project provides UTSC with an opportunity to commission a permanent, public artwork to be installed in the four-storey atrium of the building. The atrium itself, and the public space surrounding it, will be a meeting point, study area, and a spatial organizer for the building. The project budget is 175,000 USD, which includes all fabrication and installation costs and fees. Construction of the building is underway and is expected to be complete by March 2011.
This inaugural, major public art commission furthers UTSC's ongoing commitment to contemporary art. As evidenced by the recent announcement of UTSC's participation in the 2015 Pan and Parapan American games, the University of Toronto Scarborough continues to reach an increasingly international audience.