A 22,000SF community centre and 15,000SF future Theatre, involving consensus building between multiple stakeholders: Community/Ratepayer Groups, Ward Councilors, and various City of Toronto staff departments. Programme includes: combination-crafts and children’s playrooms with an outdoor play yard, a multipurpose gymnasium (divisible), a multipurpose community room (divisible), an exercise room, a snack bar, an indoor square, administrative offices, washrooms with showers, and parking facilities. A new JJA-developed waveform roof, and a 3D Vierendel truss-system roof are featured. Activity Pavilions float on glass, giving sense of playing outdoors, maximum overlook and built-in security. (Winner of Best Institutional Masonry Building in Greater Toronto Area)

  • Beauty on a budget …this is a building whose very obvious utility is raised to elegance through nothing more than the power of architecture. Inside and out, Ellesmere is a striking essay in architectural simplicity and clarity.

    Christopher Hume Architecture Critic, The Toronto Star
  • But the apparent simplicity of the parti belies the depth of the larger architectural aspirations. Throughout the project, Jacobs employed three main design strategies. The first was a metaphorical reference for the architectural expression; the second was lightness and harmony; and the third, a clear celebration of the structural systems.

    Architectural Design, London