Dome

Tight view along the south elevation; Graduate House at the University of Toronto is a student residence specifically for graduate students. The new facility is located on the western edge of the campus, on the north-east corner of Spadina Avenue and Harbord Street (address 60 Harbord St, Toronto, ON, M5S 3L1), near the Harbord Street streetcar stop. The building, with its large sign, marks the main western entrance to the campus. "Completed in November 2000, Graduate House was designed by Thom Maine [sic] and his team at Morphosis Architectural Firm, in conjunction with Toronto architect Stephen Teeple and his firm Teeple Architects Inc. This team won the university's design contest in 1998, no small feat given the university's budgetary constraints and the considerable demands and restrictions placed on the design by the city. The design for Graduate House earned the team a number of awards, including the Progressive Architecture Award, the Canadian Architecture Award, and the American Institure of Architects Award. Thom Maine [sic] has since won the Pritzker Prize, the top award in Architecture, for his design career. The deconstructionist design of Graduate House combines the heaviness of concrete and metal with the lightness of glass. Though it is not readily apparent from the street, Graduate House's exterior is made up of nearly 70% glass. Ribbon windows line the street-side faces, and the two-story glass and metal cantilever acts as both sign and western gate for the university." Source: University of Toronto [website]; http://www.utoronto.ca/ (accessed 2/3/2008)