What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
ThatPainter is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The Daniels Building by NADAAA is the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at One Spadina Crescent. Its defining move is not replacing the existing neo-Gothic landmark, but joining the restored historic building to a new northern addition so studios, public events, fabrication and research become part of one legible academic setting.
Classes began in September 2017, the official opening was held on November 17, 2017, and the Faculty identifies spring 2018 as the completion date. That distinction matters: the opening took place while the project was still described as nearing completion.
#1 Best Overall
What the Daniels Building is
The Daniels Building is a faculty building, not a standalone museum or commercial office. It occupies the western edge of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus at One Spadina Crescent in Toronto. The building houses the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, whose teaching and research cover architecture, landscape architecture and urban design.
The project combines two architectural conditions: a renovated heritage structure and a contemporary addition at the north end of the circular site. The University describes the original as neo-Gothic. The new work extends the faculty’s usable area while keeping the older building as the visual and cultural anchor of the site.
The Faculty presents One Spadina as a public-facing place for education, research and outreach. That public role is expressed through an event hall, a design gallery and shared circulation, rather than through a separate visitor pavilion.
Design team and project chronology
NADAAA principals Nader Tehrani and Katherine Faulkner led the design. The credited project collaborators were Adamson & Associates as architect of record, Public Work as landscape architects and ERA as heritage architects.
| Milestone | Date and qualification |
|---|---|
| Classes began at One Spadina | September 2017 |
| Official opening | November 17, 2017 |
| Completion identified by the Faculty | Spring 2018 |
The University of Toronto’s opening announcement supplies the event context, while the Daniels Faculty fact sheet separates the start of classes from the later completion season. Treating those as one date obscures how the building entered use.
Rank #2
How the historic and contemporary parts are joined
The retained neo-Gothic landmark
The original building is characterized by Victorian Gothic gables and turrets, with yellow brick, stone and slate. Its recognizable silhouette gives the circular site a strong historic identity. The adaptive-reuse strategy retains that identity instead of treating the old structure as a façade to be discarded.
The northern addition
The addition is deliberately contemporary. A 2019 Blueprint feature describes its material language through curtain wall, polished concrete and dark-grey concrete panels. Those surfaces do not imitate the older masonry and slate. The visual difference allows visitors to read where the intervention begins while still experiencing both parts as one faculty building.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →A contrast designed to be legible
The relationship is therefore neither a pastiche nor a sealed historic artifact. The old and new portions retain different forms and materials, but their circulation and academic program are interdependent. The design makes the act of adding to a landmark visible enough to study, while keeping the daily life of the faculty connected across the seam.
In the 2019 Blueprint account, Nader Tehrani calls the building “didactic” and “a pedagogical tool.” In that sense, construction details, material changes and movement through the building are part of what students encounter. The same feature says the building embodies the institution as well as housing it: the architecture communicates how a design school thinks about history, technology and public life.
The 2014 City of Toronto City Planning Division Staff report to the Preservation Board, quoted in the Daniels Faculty fact sheet, commended the University, NADAAA and ERA Architects for achieving “something that is very difficult: designing a bold, modern addition to a landmark heritage building with subtlety and elegance.” That is an assessment of the heritage approach, not a claim that the addition disappears.
Rank #3
What is inside: spaces that make the program visible
The building’s organization turns the faculty’s activities into a sequence of shared rooms, production areas and public destinations. The Faculty’s published descriptions identify the following principal components.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →| Space or facility | Published figure or description | Source attribution |
|---|---|---|
| Studio space | 30,000 square feet | John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, undated fact sheet |
| Public design gallery | 8,000 square feet | John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, undated online tour page |
| Main hall | Expansive room for lectures and public events | Daniels Faculty fact sheet |
| Library | On-site academic library | Daniels Faculty fact sheet |
| Digital fabrication laboratory | Advanced prototyping facility with digitally controlled equipment | Daniels Faculty fact sheet and online tour page |
Studios and the graduate connection
The 30,000-square-foot studio figure refers to the Faculty’s studio provision, not to the total floor area of the entire complex. Studio work is linked to the rest of the building through visible circulation and shared gathering areas, so design production is not isolated from lectures, exhibitions or informal discussion.
The atrium as stair, amphitheater and meeting place
The Faculty fact sheet describes the atrium as both a stair and an amphitheater connecting toward the graduate studio. This dual role changes how a circulation route is used. It can carry people between levels, provide stepped seating and create a place from which to observe activity. The Faculty also describes it as an informal gathering and observation space, making the movement zone part of the social infrastructure of the school.
Main hall and public gallery
The expansive main hall supports lectures and public events, giving the faculty a room capable of hosting audiences beyond individual studio cohorts. The 8,000-square-foot public design gallery provides another outward-facing program. Together, these spaces support exhibitions, talks and reviews that make the school’s work available to visitors and the wider city.
Library and fabrication laboratory
An on-site library supplies a dedicated resource for research. The fabrication laboratory extends learning from drawings and digital models into physical prototypes. The listed equipment includes routers, rapid-prototyping systems, a color 3D printer, laser cutters and a vacuum former. These are digitally controlled tools for making and testing components, models and assemblies; their presence also explains why the building needs robust shared infrastructure rather than only conventional classrooms.
Rank #4
Why the project is an adaptive-reuse case study
Adaptive reuse is often reduced to the question of whether an old building survives. At One Spadina, the more useful question is how the retained structure and the addition alter one another. The historic building supplies identity and continuity. The new wing supplies contemporary floor area and a material vocabulary suited to present-day teaching. The joined complex then supports studios, public programs and fabrication that the original building alone could not easily accommodate.
For students of architecture, the project offers several study points:
- Retention: the neo-Gothic building remains an active part of the faculty rather than a detached monument.
- Differentiation: curtain wall, polished concrete and dark-grey panels distinguish the addition from yellow brick, stone and slate.
- Connection: shared circulation and the atrium tie the two building conditions into daily use.
- Publicness: the hall and gallery give lectures, exhibitions and outreach a visible place in the complex.
- Pedagogy: the building itself demonstrates how a contemporary intervention can meet a heritage context without copying it.
Sustainability: what is documented and what is not
The Daniels Faculty lists rainwater harvesting, daylighting, bicycle parking, a green roof, resilience, adaptability and future photovoltaic integration among the project’s sustainable design practices. These statements document features or intentions described by the institution. They do not, by themselves, establish the building’s measured energy use, carbon emissions or post-occupancy comfort.
A 2013 Daniels Faculty project announcement reported that calculations at the design stage suggested an approach could make the building “up to 30 degrees Celsius cooler on a hot, sunny day, without the use of air conditioning.” The figure is a projected maximum from a calculation, not a measured operating result. It should not be rewritten as proof that occupied rooms achieved that temperature reduction.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
No named quantitative post-occupancy study or evaluation is identified in the available project accounts. A careful description can therefore discuss the intended environmental strategies and the 2013 cooling estimate, but cannot claim verified operational performance.
Awards and recognition
The Daniels Faculty’s online tour page says the building received almost two dozen awards. The page names three 2019 examples:
- Paul Oberman Award for Adaptive Reuse
- Toronto Urban Design Award
- AIA Education Facilities National Award of Excellence
The phrase “almost two dozen” is the Faculty’s broad count; the source does not enumerate every award behind it. The named awards indicate recognition in adaptive reuse, urban design and educational facilities, but they should not be expanded into a complete awards list.
How to read the building on a visit or drawing set
Start with the circular site and identify the historic neo-Gothic volume before studying the northern addition. Look for the change from yellow brick, stone and slate to curtain wall, polished concrete and dark-grey concrete panels. Then follow how people move between the parts: the atrium is especially important because it combines circulation, seating and visual connection toward graduate studio space.
Next, map the public sequence. The main hall and design gallery are not incidental amenities; they position lectures, exhibitions and outreach within the faculty’s architectural identity. Finally, locate the production spaces—studios, library and fabrication laboratory—and ask how the building lets making, research and public presentation overlap.
This reading method avoids treating the project as a photograph of an old building with a new object attached. Its central architectural idea is organizational as much as visual: heritage fabric, contemporary construction and an active design-school program are made mutually legible.
Useful comparison criteria for other heritage additions
The Daniels Building can serve as a reference point when comparing other additions, without pretending that one project settles every heritage question. Use these criteria:
- How much historic fabric is retained? Identify whether the original building remains occupied and structurally meaningful or functions mainly as an exterior shell.
- How clearly are old and new distinguished? Compare materials, massing, detailing and the degree to which the addition avoids imitation.
- How does the intervention change public connection? Examine whether galleries, halls, landscapes or entrances make the institution more accessible to the surrounding city.
- How is learning expressed spatially? Look for shared stairs, review areas, visible workshops and gathering spaces rather than counting classrooms alone.
- What evidence supports environmental claims? Separate listed design features and projections from measured post-occupancy data.
The essential takeaway
The Daniels Building by NADAAA is best understood as an occupied lesson in adaptive reuse. At One Spadina Crescent, a neo-Gothic heritage building remains recognizable while a northern contemporary addition supplies the space and infrastructure of a modern design faculty. Studios, an atrium-as-amphitheater, a public gallery, event hall, library and fabrication laboratory make the institution’s work visible. The project’s sustainability story is strongest when stated precisely: the Faculty documents several strategies and a 2013 design-stage cooling projection, but the available accounts do not establish measured post-occupancy performance.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
