Niagara College – Toronto

Integrating Niagara College’s Satellite Campus into an Iconic Neighbourhood

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Niagara College – Toronto

Reimagined Use for a Heritage Building

The rise in hybrid work has driven many organizations to downsize their office space, leaving vacancies in our towns and cities. A problematic hangover from the pandemic for some has become an opportunity for others, including schools, who are able to open satellite locations in dense, highly desirable urban areas. Case in point: Niagara College recently opened a satellite campus in Toronto’s newly revitalized Mirvish Village. Opening a satellite campus in a heritage building offers a sustainable option that can save money on materials while maintaining the character of a neighbourhood. But it’s not without its challenges. Serving a new function for new user groups means originally intended architectural features may not be suited for what’s to come. Experiential graphic design (EGD) plays an important and affordable role toward repurposing a heritage building. To meet this challenge, Entro developed a vibrant graphic program that builds on the college’s brand identity to locate and define different learning spaces while welcoming students into an energizing, collaborative environment.
  • Client

    GUS (Global University System) – Niagara College, Toronto School of Business

  • Location

    Toronto

  • Sector

    Educational

  • Discipline

    Experiential Graphics, Wayfinding, Placemaking

  • Interior Designer

    MCM

  • Developer

    Westbank Corp.

  • Photography

    Karl Hipolito

Honouring an Iconic Neighborhood

Previously home to Honest Ed’s—a legendary department store containing a beloved neon marquee that ran across several city blocks—Mirvish Village has been an iconic neighbourhood hub in Toronto for over half a century. The new development seeks to create a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly community hub with a new park, food hall, music venues, retail, restaurants, and rental residences, while honouring the original character of the neighborhood by restoring over 20 heritage buildings.

Infusing the College Feel

Originally constructed in 1891, the heritage building housing Niagara College Toronto’s (NCT) new satellite campus presented a few interesting challenges. First, we needed to announce NCT on the exterior of what was once a mixed-use building with a storefront. We designed a cohesive series of branded banners, medallion signs, and graphics, to clearly communicate this is a school, not a store. A modest entrance originally designed for a small-business needed to be bolder, more visible and welcoming. We spread the graphic treatment out, extending over the windows, to give the college more prominence along the streetscape.

Secondly, we needed to ensure that Niagara College’s partnership with the Toronto School of Management was clearly presented on the exterior signage. Designing for a co-branded arrangement can be difficult when combining two disparate graphic identities. As well, some logos are easier to apply to the built environment than others.

 

Finally, we needed to abide by heritage guidelines, which include size restrictions and mounting techniques that avoid damaging or altering heritage surfaces. We also wanted to develop designs using shapes, colours, and materials that looked good with the architectural style of the building.

The Impact of Experiential Graphics

To really make an impact, we set out to create an EGD program that was instantly recognizable as Niagara College but with distinct flourishes to allow students to distinguish it as the Toronto campus. We extended the colour palette and used the NC brand’s circular dot/ball in a new way to make it seem as though they’re bouncing through the space, leaving a trail of colour and lines. This infused a sense of energy and motion while expressing the dynamics of how NCT teaches, how the students interact, and the colourful future they’re creating for themselves.

The result? The EGD program clearly delineates different areas, and its youthful feel makes the space come alive as a campus. Murals—presented as abstracted maps—enliven every level by focusing on locality and zeroing in on the campus' downtown neighbourhood and Canada as a whole.
Niagara College – Toronto IT Help Desk with wayfinding sign.

As the building is shared by other tenants, we used big, bright graphics to define the levels that belong to NCT.

The NCT wayfinding signage is derived from the program we designed for the whole of Mirvish Village, connecting the campus to the wider neighbourhood.

Niagara College – Toronto interior lounge space with large-scale mural depicting abstract map of Toronto.
Niagara College – Toronto interior corridor featuring large scale graphics for water staation and elevator directory.

The Niagara College – Toronto campus features three new buildings, with over 65,450 square feet of brand-new facilities. Stay tuned for wayfinding signage in Mirvish Village!

Take a virtual tour of the Niagara College – Toronto campus here.

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