Place to see: The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Toronto, Canada

About this place:

Toronto has some great architectural masterpieces that you should take a look at. The Ontario College of Art & Design's (OCAD) Sharp Centre building is controversial. It is admired by some and hated by others. No matter what you might think of the design, you have to check it out.

Ontario College of Art & Design's $42.5 million campus redevelopment, completed in September 2004, features the Sharp Centre for Design, designed by acclaimed British Architect Will Alsop, of Alsop Architects, in a joint venture with Toronto-based Robbie/Young + Wright Architects Inc..

The Sharp Centre for Design, named after the lead benefactors Rosalie and Isadore Sharp, is a unique "table top" structure which has quickly become one of the most exciting architectural landmarks in Toronto. The Centre houses OCAD's Faculty of Design programs, and allows for expanded facilities for the Faculties of Art and Liberal Studies.

The remarkable 'table top' superstructure, that takes the form of a parallelepiped (9m high, 31m wide and 84m long), with striking black and white pixellated skin, stands 26 metres above the ground on 12 multi-coloured legs. The structure provides two storeys of studio and teaching space and is connected to the existing facility below by an elevator and stair core that forms the central focus of the newly created entrance hall uniting the two halves of the existing university buildings at all levels.

The Sharp Centre for Design is innovative in that it is situated above the older main campus building, giving OCAD outdoor park space and reconnecting Grange Park with the McCaul Street neighbourhood. Aside from being suspended in the sky, it is actually a very conventional structure (essentially a box), with efficient use of space for classrooms, studios, offices, and student workspace.