In response to growing demand for innovation programs and increasing enrolment at Trent University Durham Greater Toronto Area, the campus saw the addition of a new six-story building featuring residence spaces – the first for Trent’s Durham campus – as well as classrooms, common areas, study spaces, walkways, green space, and a lecture hall.
The building focuses on student living, academics and learning, as well as the surrounding natural environment in a versatile format which promotes student living, play and study in a balanced light.
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Features
The new building is a student’s dream: bright and contemporary, with full integration of both living and learning spaces. Features include:
- Continuing in the long-standing Trent tradition of collegiate communities, the building will fully integrate both living and learning spaces, creating an environment for students, faculty and staff to connect and learn from one another;
- The addition of 200 on-campus residence spaces means future students will be able to live on campus and experience all that Trent Durham has to offer 24/7 – each floor of residence space will feature common rooms with a kitchenette and on-site laundry;
- State-of-the-art academic spaces will feature prominently in the new space, including a 100-seat tiered lecture hall and two 64-seat classrooms, bringing the Trent Durham academic experience to the next level;
- Group study spaces for students to creatively engage with and learn from one another through group work, case studies, and discussion-based learning;
- Expanded hands-on learning spaces for faculty and students to conduct research in new and innovative ways, including laboratories built for interdisciplinary discoveries and office space for conducting research;
- Public forum space to celebrate the rich community culture on campus for events, common meeting space, and engaging social space;
- Central outdoor green courtyard – a vibrant outdoor space for all members of the community to enjoy, this might just be your favourite spot to catch up with friends, have a snack and study, or just enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.
- Expanded parking to accommodate our growing campus will also be featured in the plans…and it’s still free!
- A convenient pathway and link to the current Trent Durham building which, itself, will see expanded dining facilities.
- An outdoor seating area named in honour of Doug & Mary Kirk, for their support and leadership on the Campaign for Trent Durham GTA.
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Awards
Urban Design Award from the City of Oshawa
In 2022, the new Durham residence and academic building became the second building on the Durham campus to receive the Urban Design Award from the City of Oshawa. In 2012, the Thornton Road Campus building received the award for its bright, welcoming design. Both buildings were designed by the architectural firm Barry Bryan Associates.
2020 Ontario Concrete Award
Recognizing the talent and innovation of the best designers, contractors, suppliers and owners in the province, the 2020 Ontario Concrete Awards honoured Trent Durham’s expansion as winner of the mid- to high-rise residential precast project architectural category.
Together with Campus Living Centres (CLC), many other partners came together to make the new residence and academic building at Trent Durham a reality, including London Property Corporation, design architects Barry Bryan Associates, and materials supplier Stubbe’s Precast, who nominated the project for the award.
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Building A Renovation
As the Durham GTA campus opened the doors to the new residence and academic building, the original campus building also underwent renovations to open a new eatery, Indigenous student space, prayer and meditation room, quiet study area and a renovated student lounge.
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Funding and Philanthropic Support
The new student residence and academic building was supported by the Campaign for Trent Durham GTA, which raised $6.6 million to enhance the growing campus and support student success.
The University exceeded its $5 million goal in Phase One of the campaign by raising $5.6 million to create the state-of-the-art residence and academic building. In Phase 2, a further $1 million was raised to support Trent students through scholarships, bursaries and new experiential learning opportunities.
Strong partnerships and collaboration between local government and community partners were key to the campaign’s success. The City of Oshawa supported the expansion through a donation of 1.8 acres of land, while the Region of Durham gifted $1.42 million.
Doug Kirk ’70, president of Durham Radio and campaign co-chair, launched the campaign with a $500,000 gift and helped close the campaign, inspiring others to double their impact by matching donations, which resulted in more than $220,000 of support to complete this phase of the campus expansion.
Honorary campaign chair Dr. Katie Taylor, one of Canada’s most influential and powerful citizens and the first woman to chair the board of a major Canadian bank, also played a lead role. The overall success of the Campaign for Trent Durham is also tied to the generosity of numerous donors across the local and Trent communities, including business leaders and community members, as well as Trent Durham staff and faculty.
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Project Team
Builder & Funder: Campus Living Centres
Campus Living Centres was founded in 1989 with the purpose of assisting universities and colleges with the planning, design, financing, and management of student housing and conference facilities. As the largest operator of student housing in Canada, Campus Living Centres (and its affiliated companies) has a portfolio of approximately 23,000 beds, which includes a combination of both managed and/or owned student housing developments. Campus Living Centres uses an integrated service delivery approach to student housing management that improves financial performance of housing operations, while enhancing the student experience. As a result, they have been identified as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, a mark of excellence for Canadian owned and managed companies.
Trent University is working with Campus Living Centres to develop, construct, finance, and operate a mixed-use building containing a 200-bed residence and academic space on the Durham GTA campus. Trent had previously partnered with Campus Living Centres on the development of a 500-bed student housing complex in 2011 on the Peterborough campus.
Architect: Barry Bryan Associates
Barry Bryan Associates, Architects, Engineers, Project Managers (BBA) was founded in 1985 by local Architects and Engineers to specialize in innovative building architecture, structural engineering, heritage consulting, and project implementation. BBA’s successful practice has grown through the efforts of motivated and dedicated professionals working closely with clients to develop high quality, cost effective design and construction. As a multi‐disciplinary team of design professionals, BBA is driven to strive for solutions that extend creative boundaries and seek new ways to challenge the conventions. They don’t focus their talents into a single sector, but use the depth of their capabilities across a wide range of projects to enhance our ability to provide cross-functional thinking.
BBA is the award-winning architect behind Trent University Durham’s Thornton Road Campus, which opened in 2010.