As part of the planning process for East Bayfront, Waterfront Toronto identified the need for a post secondary institution whose students and employees would help create a vibrant waterfront neighbourhood all year round. With construction now underway, George Brown College is helping to revitalize the area with its state-of-the art Waterfront Health Sciences Centre campus.

The campus is located next to Sherbourne Common on a 0.83 hectare (two-acre) parcel of land on the south side of Queens Quay. With students starting their first semester at the new campus in September 2012, George Brown will bring more than 3,500 full-time students to the waterfront.

Designed by Stantec Architecture and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in a joint venture, the new campus will be a cornerstone of the community. It will be among the first in Canada to be purpose-built for an integrated approach to health care education where students from different professions learn together to support the province’s increased focus on collaborative team-based care.

The campus will house the schools of Dental Health, Health and Wellness, Nursing and Health Services Management. In addition to creating space for new students, it will also free up room across the college’s existing campuses.

Phase one of the two-phase project will add more than 300,000 square feet to the college and will include clinical health care services, a campus bookstore and food services that are all available to the general public.

Like all new construction in East Bayfront, the campus is raising the bar for excellence in architecture by creating a beautiful and modern learning environment with informal learning spaces, rooftop terraces and a strong relationship to Sherbourne Common and the water’s edge. The building also incorporates the sustainability best practices outlined in Waterfront Toronto’s mandatory green building requirements and is targeting LEED Gold Certification.