Bayview Glen Lower School Addition and Renovation

Location: Toronto, Ontario
Client: Bayview Glen

ward99 architects is working collaboratively with Bayview Glen on a
redesign of its Lower School Campus. After the successful completion
of the Addition and Renovation to the Upper School across the
road, Bayview Glen determined that establishing physical and visual
connections to the Lower School would help create a campus feeling to
the two disconnected sites. By reorienting the Lower School building so
that one enters the site and building from Moatfield Drive (as opposed
to Duncan Mill Road), the school would establish its presence on
Moatfield Drive as its primary address thus allowing clearer pedestrian
and vehicular access and routes between the two sites.

The existing building is undergoing a renovation to upgrade its Mechanical and Electrical systems including a removal of a transformer vault connected to the school to be replaced with a new pad-mount transformer. The building envelope of the existing building will receive new windows including operable windows to improve air circulation and introduce fresh air intake for the classrooms which they currently don’t have. The existing building, clad in brutalist precast concrete panels, was constructed in the 1960s as an office building and was never retrofitted to accommodate the needs of a school. The renovation and addition offered an opportunity to dramatically change the aesthetics of the existing building and improve its building energy performance.

New cladding will be introduced to create visual connectivity between the building addition and the existing building and will improve the overall performance of the envelope, thereby reducing operating costs for the building. The interior renovation of the existing school will accommodate improved exiting and connections to the new addition. The new entrance and lobby to the Lower School, off of a new entry court, will enable visual connections to the central atrium and Lower School stage, thus engaging school visitors with the activities of the Lower School students and their frequent performances.

The 24,800sf Addition will house a new indoor pool, gymnasium, and associated support spaces such as exit stairs, washrooms, change rooms, offices, and a parent-staff viewing gallery for the pool. Many site alterations were also included as part of the scope including removal of existing pools and hydro vault, new parking lot, new entrance plaza, exterior play spaces connected to the interior pool, as well as provision of new transformer and pad.

The site, much like the Upper School, addresses sustainable issues such as water management on a site which borders on ravine lands. One such measure introduced to the project is a cistern to collect run-off from the site as well as the integration of permeable paving. Working with both Toronto Water and the City of Toronto on implementing both the Toronto Water requirements as well as the Toronto Green Standards, yielded some additional changes to the design, such as the addition of a sampling port for testing discharge water, fritted glass on windows backing onto the Ravine, as well as a green roof over the new entrance canopy and vestibule. A new entry court designed as part of the reorientation of the building will offer shade, seating, teaching circles, as well as interactive sculptural art.