What is Ryerson planning for upcoming campus expansions?

By Sherina Harris

When the study rooms are booked and the sixth floor of the SLC is packed, it can be challenging to find space on campus to study.

The Eye sat down with Glenda Mallon, assistant vice-president of Facilities and Management Development (FMD) and Molly Anthony, director of real estate for FMD, to learn more about what Ryerson has  planned for the future.

Have you heard concerns on- campus that made you look into construction projects?

Anthony: “We’ve heard a lot of concerns around the lack of space, and it’s something that we’re quite aware of…We work closely with the scheduling units and academic faculties and departments. We’re aware that there’s more space needed. The 202 Jarvis St. site was purchased specifically for expansion uses, and that was done back in 2013. It takes a lot of time to plan for use but it’s definitely been part of the expansion plan from the get-go.”

What are the updates on the 202 Jarvis Street project?

Anthony: “The next step is waiting for formal feedback from the city…We’ve started to receive some comments back, but we expect to have a full set at some point this month. A preliminary report is going to council March 19, and we’ll continue to get feedback after that and have lots of discussions with the city about any of the comments that they have. Following that, we expect there to be a large public consultation to all of the neighbours.”

When will the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing open?

Mallon: “There’s so many users that are going in there, there’s a schedule where they will move in starting probably at the end of May, early June, through the summer, so it’ll be ready and open probably in July but certainly it’ll be up and running in September when everybody comes back to campus.”

What else is in the works?

“[Yonge Street Living], we’ve partnered up with Crestford for the three floors in that building and that’s pretty exciting. We’re looking at 111 Bond St. which is just across the road here, and that will be redeveloped and adding a bit of density to it but it’s mainly as a pedestrian connection into the new Church street building. 101-111 Gerrard St. is also a site that we’ve identified as development potential, and there’s O’Keefe House which will be reimagined soon.

Aside from those, there’s [Ted Rogers School of Management], where the university has purchased the air rights to build a vertical expansion on top.

The university is undertaking an update to its campus master plan and through that process we will also be looking at not just what development sites we have in buildings that we already own, but what else is around us.”

Does Ryerson face any unique challenges in building?

Mallon: “We absolutely have unique challenges. We’re totally landlocked and we’re landlocked by some of probably the most expensive real estate in Canada.”

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.