[DTGeek]

Thanks for the pics, but I have to say, that is the most barren and depressing looking university campus I have ever seen! Not a human being in sight, and yet isn't it getting close to finals? I know it's a weekend, but... WOW. Some parts of it could easily be mistaken for a prison.

Most of the buildings look nice though. I like the atriums and airy indoor spaces. Hopefully someday it will attract some students and start to look more like a real university.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

It looks more like a suburban high school than a university.

 

[Zephyr]

I have to say, that is the most barren and depressing looking university campus I have ever seen!.

Maybe you need to see a few more. I think this is not nearly as bad as some I've seen over the years.

But again, there are the overly severe exteriors. placed inside an apparently uncreative campus palette. The barren aspects might be partially ameliorated by summer foliage and leafy trees, and I have this feeling the brick buildings will use a heavy application of vines before too long. Will any of these do the trick? Who knows.

 

[JasonParis]

A recent article about the campus in Canadian Architect can be found in this thread.

 

[yin_yang]

I agree, OW, though I think the York parallel can be taken further: while the campus may look better now, people still curse the insanity that put it in that terrible location.

it's placed pretty well! what is your reasoning for saying otherwise? maybe you're trying to say it's a sprawling piece of scrap campus, but the location of it is pretty great. the only place better would probably be downsview just for the subway, but YU is getting one anyway now. it's located right inbetween two major highways, near a subway, practically in York. what could improve?

 

[Observer Walt]

Agreed, the location is not bad at all. I'm not sure where a better location would hae been, given the amount of land needed. The problem with York has been that there was no consideration given to the layout of the campus itself. Buildings were just plunked down in the middle of fields, with no thought as to how they would relate to each other, and no architectural vision. I think that's why it looked pretty desolate. Only in the last few years has this begun to change, with a couple of nicely designed newer buildings and some attempt to place them in an overall context.

 

[CDL.TO]

Indeed. Plus, it's primarily surrounded by industrial parks and parkland. If your primary concern is easy car access, it's a great location. But it's a university campus, not a big-box shopping complex. If your concern is utilizing a university as one of the greatest urbanizing and community-building forces out there and providing access to the housing stock and commercial uses that students require, it's a terrible location.

Basically, the campus has failed to provide for the needs of a university and the location has also failed to provide for those needs. You can travel a block away from York and you would never know that you're right beside a university.

 

[adma]

Leave it to the Harris regime to create such an utterly dispiriting place.

And it's in Jim Flaherty's federal riding, too.

 

[rdaner]

Another new structure for this campus. No architect yet.

http://www.durhamregion.com/communi...-for-100-million-research-building-in-oshawa/

 

[westernontario]

Nice, clean, uniform campus!