New College, designed by Macy Dubois and built in two phases during the 1960s, was and remains one of the finest buildings on the University of Toronto campus. Within the housing field, it is, like Massey College, a landmark building, which broke away from the then current principles of modernism by respecting the context of the street and by providing enclosed outdoor spaces.

New College is graced by well-detailed, curvilinear facades built in a warm-coloured brick that has an almost sensual materiality. New College’s design is indebted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Baker House and Aalto in general, especially in the detailing of the interior spaces, which have large, natural-wood profiles and exposed brick (the same as on the exterior). The building has aged exceptionally well and is still in very good repair, with few changes made to the original design.

The only negative aspect of the College is a curious muteness towards Spadina Avenue: windowless walls on Spadina and Classic avenues appear rejecting and dull. This was by design, because at the time of planning, the proposed Spadina Expressway threatened to destroy the residential character of the neighbourhood, and the architect wanted to turn the active part of the building away from noise and pollution.

The Spadina Expressway was never built and, in recent years, Spadina has been transformed into an attractive tree-lined boulevard. Fortuitously, New College is presently looking at possibilities to enlarge its residential capacity. After forty years, the College may be able to reconsider its relationship to Spadina Avenue. A study conducted last year by the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, with Macy Dubois’s concurrence, concluded that it is feasible to add rooms to the west and north sides, thereby opening up the blank walls and giving the College a much better civic face to the boulevard.

Klaus Dunker