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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 4 | 55 Humber Cultural Hub – Humber College P H OTO G R A P H Y BY TO M A R BA N /CO U RT E S Y D I A M O N D S C H M I T T A RC H I T EC T S HUMBER CULTURAL HUB – HUMBER COLLEGE by ROBIN BRUNET A destination for arts and cul- ture: that was the intent behind the development of the Humber Cultural Hub (HCH), a two-phase redevelopment of core elements of Humber Lakeshore Campus in South Etobicoke, Ontario. The recently completed first phase consists of a 245,000-square-foot building featuring a 140-seat recital hall with specialty teaching spaces for arts and cultural programs, includ- ing two recording studios, music practice rooms, classrooms, cafete- ria, and a 300-bed student residence addition. The second phase, sched- uled for completion in 2026, will include a 500-seat flexible perfor- mance hall for music and immersive media, film program spaces, as well as a comedy cabaret theatre. Equally important, the HCH is being developed under the Integrated Project Delivery process, which encourages deep collabora- tion between the client, contractor, consultants, and subtrades. Aiming for a host of sustainability achieve- ments, HCH has already been certified under the Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard v1 by the Canada Green Building Council and is also targeting LEED Platinum certification, as well as an energy use target below 75 kWh/m²/year. From a user's perspective, the HCH elevates Humber's programming to a new level of quality. "Before the con- struction of the HCH, our world-class music program was conducted in an old teacher's college built in 1958, which Humber acquired in 1972," says Scott Valens, director, capital develop- ment at Humber. "This building had limitations ranging from poor acous- tics to no accessibility challenges." The first phase of the redevelop- ment is located east of this structure. "The phase one building includes four academic levels and four levels on top of that of urgently-needed stu- dent residence spaces," Valens says. David Dow, principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects, says, "Developing a facility that defines the future of Humber's arts program involved a lot of analysis, consultations, re- evaluations, and healthy debate. The overall philosophy was to create social spaces for all the disciplines rather than segregating them, encourag- ing cross-disciplinary collaboration between the music and film students and faculty. Many examples of archi- tectural expression evolved, including the student residences being a mass timber structure sitting on top of the concrete academic podium." In addition to the music and film teaching environments, Diamond Schmitt designed the podium to include a new home for the Centre for Creative Business Innovation, student union spaces, study spaces, LOCATION 3199 Lakeshore Drive West, South Etobicoke, Ontario OWNER /DEVELOPER Humber College IDP TEAM MANAGEMENT Colliers Project Leaders / The Realignment Group ARCHITECT Diamond Schmitt Architects GENER AL CONTR ACTOR EllisDon STRUCTUR AL CONSULTANT Entuitive MECHANICAL /ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT Smith + Andersen TOTAL SIZE 365,000 square feet (both phases) TOTAL COST $228 million

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