OISE unveils transformed 5th floor community spaces after long renovation

Professor Glen A. Jones knows well how special the 5th floor open space can be at OISE.

“I remember sitting out on the patio when I was a graduate student many years ago and it was a great pleasure to read and catch a bit of sun,” recalls Jones, a former OISE Dean.

The roof space has been closed for two decades because it did not meet city codes. The space has now renovated and re-visioned as the OISE Roof Community Garden & IEN Social and Cultural Practice Space, a community gathering area that is officially opening to the community this fall.

The patio and the new lounge will provide additional space for members of our community to meet, work and relax. The new Indigenous social and cultural practice space will contribute to OISE’s ongoing mission to furthering Indigenous education.

Renewing this space – on the south and west decks on the 5th floor at 252 Bloor Street West – is part of OISE’s ongoing commitment to support the well-being and mental health of community members, a commitment to Indigenization, and to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion – three of the focusing themes of the Academic Plan for 2017 when Jones served as Dean. 

“It is great to see this space being used again,” he said. “My hope is that students will enjoy the new interior lounge space as well – since it will provide new options for students looking for a place to have lunch or meet with others.

“These sorts of spaces are great for building a sense of community.”

The lounge and student space were identified by OISE leadership and a Space Planning Committee as a core priority for renewal – a committee formed by Helen Huang, OISE’s Chief Administrative Officer, who developed the design concept, undertook feasibility studies, worked with the University governance processes, and managed the procurement and relationship with the architects – Gow Hastings Architects. Forrec was commissioned to execute the landscape design.

Huang, and later with Leah Scherk, OISE’s Director, Space Planning & Management when she assumed her role, took on the task of reimagining the roof space when she assumed the role in 2012. “By the time I got here, the space was closed,” she recalled, “I was asked, ‘If you can revitalize that, that would be great.’ 

“I took that on – it took us many years but it’s here.” 

In their findings, the committee found that 252 Bloor West was severely short of student space. So, for Huang, the focus of the work was on the student. “That has been my focus – to really improve the student and community space.”

The task at hand

The new space was conceived of in three main parts. The OISE Roof Community Garden & Lounge (including interior rooms 5-220 & 5-210), the inaccessible East & West Gardens, and the IEN Social and Cultural Practice Space.

“The previous academic plan placed considerable emphasis on building community at OISE and the transformation of the 5th floor was a natural follow-up to the development of the new lobby with the living wall on the ground floor,” explained Jones. 

The old patio had been unusable for almost two decades, but all involved knew that the space had huge potential, he says. “The project was initially designed to create a public garden space on the patio, and then it expanded to include a large interior student lounge to address the shortage of community space, especially for students in the Masters of Teaching program.” 

The space was designed with the needs and traditions of the Indigenous Education Network (IEN) at its centre – integrating Indigenous elements into the design concepts. Conversations within the Dean's Advisory Committee on Indigenous Education identified the need for  outdoor learning space that would be physically connected to the offices of the Indigenous Education Network (IEN). 

“IEN is pleased to celebrate the opening of the OISE Terrace,” said Professor Jennifer Wemigwans, the IEN faculty co-chair. “Having access to outdoor spaces is crucial for mental health and wellbeing, especially given the fact that OISE does not have enough student space available. 

“These rooftop terraces offer a community space for our students, faculty and staff to contemplate and think through their work and ideas in a good way.”

Gow Hastings, a Toronto-based firm, previously worked with OISE to renovate its ground floor lobby at 252 Bloor West and the Tkaronto Circle Lab – a space contained within the Department of Social Justice Education. The firm’s OISE lobby project won the 2023 Value of Design Awards (VODA) for Merit.

For Scherk, the end of a construction project is always focussed on deficiencies – what needs to be fixed, “and it takes a while to zoom back out and see the project as a whole,” she says. 

“There were some fun technical and logistical challenges on this project. We had to figure out how to add exiting capacity and how to get all the new materials on to the roof,” says Scherk.

Scherk loves the Forrec’s landscape design, the way they created sloped garden beds with plenty of height – that makes the roof feel like “an immersive landscape up in the sky.”

“Opening the roof to the community and seeing how much they enjoy it is so fulfilling!” she adds, “and seeing the before and after pictures for the videos your team is preparing is such a great reminder of what a transformation this project made!”

A gift to Professor Jones

Jones says his involvement in this project was limited to initial discussions, preliminary design, and ensuring that money was put aside to support the construction – before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project leaders, Huang and Scherk, were crucial to its success he says.  

“These two supervised every step of the final design and construction, and we owe them a huge debt for their hard work,” he says. “Several of our Indigenous faculty and staff played huge roles in advising on the design of the new IEN social and cultural practice space on the south patio. “The project would never have been completed without the outstanding leadership of Dean Erica Walker and Acting Dean Creso Sá.”

His modesty aside, OISE leadership have added an outdoor table that includes a dedication to Jones and his contributions to OISE – a small gift in his honour, says Huang. 

“We agreed at the time he finished his Deanship as a gratitude gift for all he has done for OISE and for the 5th floor patio,” said Huang. “Glen was my partner in going through all the earlier critical approval and review processes when he was the dean”

“He is extremely supportive and eager to get the roof back to the community,” she added.