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McGill University is known as the “Harvard of Canada”. The Montreal university, which enrolls 38,000 students a year, will expand in part with the help of Diamond Schmitt and Lemay Michaud. The project, called New Victoria, will restore parts of the Royal Victoria Hospital, a historic Canadian landmark.
The hospital was originally designed in 1893 and consists of three free-standing pavilions in the Scottish Baronial style. While it was important to the architects to preserve and even highlight the details of its historic facade, the design of New Vic today strives to bring more natural and artificial light to the building through skylights, interior courtyards, and LEED Gold and WELL Gold-level environmental protection standard.
The new VIC will serve as an international center for interdisciplinary research, hosting McGill’s academic programs in sustainable systems and public policy. Much of the building’s transformation will be achieved through the reuse of the building’s heritage wing with an actual 350,000 sq. ft. addition that will fit seamlessly into the original site.
McGill University offers more than 100 sustainability courses each year, so this expansion is an example of efforts to maintain climate awareness both inside and outside the classroom. “We were inspired by a sense of urgency to design a center dedicated to solving the most critical issue of our time: healing the planet,” said Donald Schmitt, founder of Diamond Schmitt. Schmitt has been an outspoken advocate for sustainability responsibility. and continue to practice its ideals.
The space is designed to follow a living lab model, categorizing spaces by activity rather than department. The driving force behind the reorganization enables flexibility and adaptability among groups and researchers to share ideas and collaborate on knowledge.
There is also a vision to use the roof as a seasonal teaching space. Diamond Schmitt’s renovation makes the entire area accessible and includes green roofs and gardens overlooking the McGill campus and surrounding city. The design itself will expand on the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, the locally beloved designer of Mont Royale Park, who believed in the importance of architecture, cities and Create harmony between its surrounding natural terrain.
The project aims to reduce carbon systems and emissions, with the strategic deconstruction and balanced reuse of the former building. Diamond Schmidt will work closely with SQI and the Ministry of Culture and Communications to address the new reorganization of the heritage building and its master plan. In a world with melting ice caps, these considerations are more important than ever for the design profession and higher education as a whole.
The 500,000-square-foot renovation is expected to open in 2027.
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