The Sharp Centre for Design

OCAD U’s iconic Sharp Centre for Design, turns 10 this fall. The stunning, black and white “tabletop” structure, which was completed in 2004, stands above OCAD U’s main campus building on 12 multi-coloured steel legs. It’s named after benefactors Rosalie and Isadore Sharp and is home to OCADU’s Faculty of Design, with facilities for the Faculties of Art and Liberal Studies.

The award-winning facility was designed by acclaimed British architect Will Alsop in partnership with Toronto-based Robbie/Young + Wright Architects Inc., along with structural engineers from Caruthers & Wallace Ltd. And MCW Consultants Ltd.

View the Sharp Centre Flickr gallery 

Quotes in celebration of the Sharp Centre for Design:

“Will Alsop’s checkerboard-box-on-crayon-coloured stilts…helped Toronto usher in a new era of bold landmark architecture.” Design Lines

One of the “five most influential buildings” in Toronto. Christopher Hume, architecture critic

“Audacious and delightfully strange.” Azure Magazine

“The Sharp Centre is interesting because it literally hovers above the Main Building at 100 McCaul supported by long, colourful steel legs over a small parkette — making that park a great place to be during a rain storm, with the Sharp Centre acting like a giant umbrella.” Spacing Magazine 

“Its colourful exterior and surprising floating form lend it a vibrant intensity that stands in stark contrast to the surrounding environment.” The Canadian Centre for Architecture 

“The Sharp Centre celebrates both the collision of the old and new, and their institutional symbiosis.” The Globe and Mail 

“I had no idea I was going to do a box on legs, flying at that sort of height, but that’s what happened.”Will Alsop interviewed on Global News 

“Colour is refreshing. It aerates the city.” Will Alsop, quoted on CBC.ca 

 

Celebrate The Sharp Centre for Design with OCAD U

Will Alsop in conversation with Christopher Hume

Attend the Sharp Centre for Design Anniversary Exhibition