I’m back at work now, and I had a chance to do some field work up in the northwest quadrant of the city, in an area widely undiscovered to me. I have never been to York Uniersity before, and to be honest, I wasn’t very thrilled about going initially, just because I assumed that it would jus tbe another suburban campus like Waterloo.

But seriously, I was surprised how completely beautiful the campus is! The views are astonishing from the campus centre Student Common. The whole campus itself has the tranquil feeling of a suburban campus, without the feeling of being dead and mundane. The architecture doesn’t resemble a dated institutional look, and it reflects those cool lifestyle retail centres.

Vari Hall, the campus focal point, similar to U of T’s University College, proudly stands outlooking a beautiful expansive space in front of it.

Waterloo’s focal point, arguably the Dana Porter Library, is without any grandeur and stands almost timidly behind South Campus Hall, which to me is the awfully the worst building on campus in its interior and exterior.

Despute York holidng the record for having the largest university campus in Canada, the buildings at York are highly concentrated in the centre of the campus. A recent massive capital expansion of university facilities brings very exciting times for York.

Not only are they building plenty, they’re building well. In fact, an active streetscape of modern glass structures is quickly emerging on the east portions of Ian MacDonald Blvd. Above is the expanded Schulich School of Business.

While there was a major controversy many years ago with York selling its southern property to private townhouse developers, I believe that the development complements well with that urban lifestyle character of the neighbourhood. Though stacked townhouse would be my ideal density for the area. Above is a picture a typical New Urbanist facade at the Village at York University.

Oh yes, how can I forget about the York Lanes Mall and the adjacent Student Centre. It’s very cool. It is great to actually have shops and restaurants in the centre of campus. Waterlosers, could you imagine perhaps the University Plaza in a indoor shopping complex in campus, instead of being just outside it? That would rock. The neatest thing about the Student Centre is the peripheral canopy that helps connect Vari Hall to York Lanes. From what I understand, the horizonal glass panels are raised up during the summer months to extend the outdoors, and they are pulled down during the winter mto shelter students from the elements.

I hear that the Student Common area is a transit nightmare. But because it is already the Spring term, I couldn’t experience it. Too bad. But just looking around, I could sense the madness, since the TTC takes up the entre north side of the York Blvd Loop, where each route has its designated bus stop, while GO Transit takes up the entire south side of the loop. The TTC alone operates six routes: 60C/F Steeles West, 35E Jane, 106 York University, 196 York University Rocket, 41/B Keele, 107 Keele North, and 35E Jane.

I also forgot YRT/VIVA, which operates on-street on Ian MacDonald Blvd.

York U is transit crazy, and good on them for being green! And look how cordially York students line up for the bus!

Lastly, I have to give major kudos to York’s wayfinding signs. It is clearn, modern, consistent, and are all over campus! Their logo is embedded on all signage and brings about an appealing visual identity for the campus.

I love the campus so much! I am just so amazing at how well it was able to reverse its suburban dullness that was so prevalent in post-war universisties into something much more grand and captivating. If it’s any indication, the original campus ‘ring road’ network and the bisecting Black Creek is almost identical to Wateroo. Given that Waterloo and York was constructed under similar plans, why has York done so much more for themselves? I guess it helps when you have a campus with 50,000 students…

York University - [yorku.ca]
York University - [wikipedia.org]