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| Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building opens in Toronto  Foster and Partners' Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building opened at the University of Toronto. The new building provides state-of-the-art facilities for more than 1200 undergraduate and postgraduate students. Currently the only pharmacy faculty in Ontario, it centralises all teaching, research and administrative spaces within a single, efficient structure, many of which were previously spread throughout the university campus. Located on one of the most prominent sites in the city, the building is at the south east corner of the University of Toronto campus on Queen's Park.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. These dynamic objects were designed and constructed with simple, efficient engineering techniques. Suspended by solid steel bars and wrapped in a silver skin, they appear to float within the atrium, allowing the eye to follow their elegant contours without detracting from the generous and unqualified volume of the space. At night, the atrium can be illuminated with varying colours of red, green and blue, and the image of the pods is repeated in the building's darkened glazing which generates a series of striking reflections. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |