Moses Jeanfrancois featured New Vic in an article published in The Architect’s Newspaper.
McGill University is known as the “Harvard of Canada”. The Montreal university, which enrolls 38,000 students annually, will expand in part with the help of Diamond Schmitt/LemayMichaud. 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.
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.
“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 Diamond Schmitt principal Don Schmitt.
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.
Read the full article in The Architect’s Newspaper here.
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