State-of-the-art pharmacy building opens in Toronto

Foster and Partners’ Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building opened today at the University of Toronto. The new building provides state-of-the-art facilities for more than 1200 undergraduate and postgraduate students. It centralises all teaching, research and administrative spaces within a single, efficient structure. The building is divided into three parts: undergraduate lecture theatres at basement level; a five-storey colonnaded study area at ground level; and seven-storeys of postgraduate research space above. Lifted 20m-high, the colonnaded area aligns with the cornice heights of the nearby listed buildings. An atrium slot runs throughout the building providing visual connections between all floors and two dramatic ‘pods’, created from steel baskets hang within the atrium space. The larger of the two houses a 60-person lecture theatre and a reading room above. The other accommodates a smaller 24-person classroom with the faculty lounge.