Learning Resources

Abstract: The Valley Land Trail at the University of Toronto connects the main upper campus to its ravine and valley lands below. This gently sloping trail winds past trees before climbing above the ravine floor to reveal dramatic views and then ultimately negotiating a 19 meter drop to the forest floor where it meets a city-maintained path. The trail was conceived as a truly accessible pathway that brings our community of all abilities closer to nature and opens up options for teaching and research directly within the lands we occupy.

Abstract: Discover how Passive House design was incorporated into the design of UTSC’s 750-bed residence hall and dining facility; helping the University to meet its sustainability and health & wellness goals. Embracing this high-performance design protocol for student residences of any size will align three goals for any campus: sustainability, student health, and bottom-line financial performance.

Abstract: Planners are being asked to define programs earlier to facilitate the public-private partnership (P3) selection process for increasingly complex build types. This session will focus on how University of California Merced defined an academic and research science program for an unknown group of scientists to allow for a selection process, the resultant design dilemma faced by the architects, and how the team took on the challenge of modifying the generic laboratories.

Abstract: Public-Private Partnership (“P3”) procurement models for built infrastructure serving higher learning institutions started to gain attention in North America in the late 1990s—mostly as an alternative approach to adding student housing at select universities and colleges. More recently, P3 models have been applied to a diverse range of higher learning projects, with some serving core academic and research functions.

Although many institutions are considering P3 approaches among their options to address emerging pressures to expand or update their facilities, their implementation is not yet common. The researcher’s intention was to better understand P3 models and learn how they have performed, possibly generating some useful lessons for how P3 models can be applied with desired outcomes.