Centennial College was the first of 22 colleges opened under then-Education Minister (and later Premier) Bill Davis's plan to establish an alternate post-secondary educational option to university in Ontario. Opened in 1966, Centennial was housed in an old munitions factory on Warden Avenue, with 500 students and 14 programs. Although the original Warden Avenue campus closed in 2004, Centennial now has four campuses in Toronto's east end (in Scarborough and East York), with 30,000 students in 100 full-time or 200 part-time programs. The largest location is the Progress Campus, on Progress Road near Markham Road and Highway 401. The other locations are at Ellesmere Road and Morningside Avenue (the Science and Technology Centre), Warden and Eglinton avenues (The Ashtonbee Campus), and Pape and Mortimer avenues (the Centre for Creative Communications). Visiting the Progress Campus, I really started noticing a common but powerful thread among many of Toronto's schools: they are located next to major highways (Humber's North Campus is off the 427, Seneca's Newnham Campus is just east of the DVP, and York's Keele Street Campus is south of the 407 and East of the 400). Running behind Centennial, the 401 leaves an indelible impression of what it must mean to be a student here. The Progress Campus is home to approximately half of Centennial's full-time student population. It is also the site of the school's only residence, a converted Howard Johnson (that is also used as a convention centre) that has room for 380 students (about five percent of the full-time students who attend the Progress Campus). I suppose the best and most convenient way to access the campus is by car, an assumption supported by the sprawl of parking lots that sit between the school's main buildings, and the 401's grass embankments. When I was going there I drove with a friend; it seemed like the easiest way to get there from where we were and where we needed to go afterward. This convenience factor seems fitting on the campus. It isn't pretty, but I really question if it was ever meant to be -- maybe it was simply meant to be efficient, to collect people as easily as possible (mainly with cars), give them the skills they need, then disseminate them into the work force.

When I got off the bus at York University's Keele Street Campus I found it difficult to find my bearings. I got off at The Pond Road, next to an expanse of parking lots beyond which lies fields and suburban homes. Across the street there was a series of large contemporary buildings and a faded campus map. There was almost no one around, and very little to pull me in or give me a taste of the school's character. When York's Keele Street campus was planned in the early 1960s, the place was meant to embody the character of historical educational institutions — secluded quadrangles and contemplative green space — but on a much larger scale, while at the same time incorporating contemporary architecture and other modes of modern living. The land the campus was built on was formerly used for agriculture, and therefore already had a pastoral quality. The architectural style that was adopted was concrete brutalism (similar to but much larger than University of Toronto Scarborough's concrete buildings by John Andrews). To accommodate the modern ubiquity of cars, the campus was implemented with a road that ran around the school's outer perimeter, linking to surface parking within. Cars were not meant to penetrate the campus much further than that (there were no real through-streets), the idea being that once people arrived by car and parked, they could walk into and enjoy the open green spaces at the campus's core. Standing on The Pond Road, the southern part of the still-existing perimeter road, I could see the influences of modernity, but not of traditional university campus planning. Eighty-five percent of York's students commute to campus, arriving by 1,500 buses (including GO, TTC, and Viva buses) and over 30,000 cars each day. This strictly modern model of education, the commuter school, seems to have completely outweighed the notion of a traditional university. The campus's architecture doesn't look as though it is meant to be, or even can be, enjoyed for longer than a few hours at a time before people leave as fast as possible. Although the initial aims of the 1960s campus were eventually altered in the late '80s and early '90s in favour of a more dense urban-style campus, my initial impression was that traditional ideas of cohesion, fluidity, and beauty were similarly abandoned. Walking further into the campus I started to see a pattern of traditional, albeit large, courtyards, but I felt the weight of the campus's oversized buildings bearing down on me. York's scale is enormous, and as the third largest university in Canada -- with 7,000 faculty members and approximately 50,000 students -- this doesn't seem terribly surprising. However, this seems off compared to the University of Toronto's St. George Campus, which accommodates a higher number of students (80% of which, similar to York, live off campus or commute) in more human-scaled buildings and within a smaller site (York is more than double St. George's 168 acres). I couldn't understand why the buildings at York just felt so…big.

Seneca College is Canada's largest college, with more than 100,000 students in over 250 full- or part-time programs. Seneca has grown considerably from its beginning in 1967 as a school of 2,000 students spread out over five locations. Seneca now has eight campuses located throughout the Greater Toronto Area, four of which are in the City of Toronto. These four, in the former municipality of North York, are: the Jane Campus (21 Beverly Hills Drive), the Newnham Campus (1750 Finch Avenue East), Seneca@York (70 The Pond Road), and the Yorkgate Campus (1 York Gate Boulevard). Like Centennial College, Seneca's Toronto Campuses have unique characteristics due to the different programs they offer. The Jane Campus houses the Centre for New Technologies, where students learn trades such as tool and die making, precision machining, and mould making. The Yorkgate Campus focuses more on upgrading skills and teaching office systems. Seneca@York is the home of several of Seneca's major schools, including the Animation Arts Centre, Communication Arts, as well as Biological Science and Applied Chemistry, among others. The Newnham Campus is the main campus (and one of the largest in Canada), acting as the school's academic and administrative centre. The campus is located next to the northwest off-ramp of the Don Valley Parkway, at Finch Avenue East. At the crossing point of several major methods of transportation, Newnham's very accessible location is no doubt one the campus's major draws. The school is a relatively short bus ride from the Finch subway station (with buses running frequently), or an even shorter ride from the Old Cummer Go Station. Plus, the school is on a Viva Bus Route, and because of its proximity to the DVP, people commuting by car can easily access the school. In addition, the Newnham Campus has a large residence building (which doubles as a conference centre) to balance its commuter population with students living on campus.

If George Brown is Toronto's "City College," then Ryerson, by the same logic, seems like the city's university -- Ryerson University is embedded in Toronto's downtown grid, with many of its buildings fronting major city roads like Church or Gerrard streets, as opposed to inwardly pointing on secluded courtyards or quads. In this sense, Ryerson is very interesting as an urban university; it is easy for non-Ryerson students to walk in and out of the campus without even realizing it. Some of the spaces at Ryerson are, of course, exceptions to this rule. St. James Square -- the quad inside Kerr Hall -- is a quiet outdoor space for students, and the pedestrian walkway that extends off of Victoria Street wouldn't offer much to non-Ryerson students except for benches to sit on under the walk's many trees. Still, Ryerson's integration with the city is arguably more palpable than U of T, whose campus is downtown but feels slightly more exclusive, or York, whose campus is well out of downtown, and not particularly pedestrian-friendly in the first place. This integration has further been heightened (some might say to a ridiculous degree) lately with the addition of Ryerson buildings that include space for private enterprise in them, such as the classrooms near Toronto Life Square that share a building with a Jack Astor's and an AMC (in fact the AMC theatres become classroom space when they aren't in use for movies), and the Ted Rogers School of Management that sits on top of a Canadian Tire. Starting my walk around Ryerson's campus I head out from Church and Gerrard, near the traditional heart of the university at Kerr Hall. Ryerson was started in 1948 and is still Canada's only polytechnical university, offering a unique set of degree programs that include journalism, multi-media arts, and fashion design. The university's more practical approach to education seems reflected in its buildings here -- the facilities are small and unimposing, and many of them reuse buildings that were built before the university was founded. The school's newer buildings still fit into the surrounding context, in terms of scale, even if they take on more daring architecture like the glass Moriyama and Toshima building at Church and Gould with its angular faà§ade.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Spacing asked our summer intern Matthew Hague to visit all of Toronto's post-secondary institutions and examine the built form of each campus. Every day over the next week, we will feature a campus profile. - - - - - - - - - - - - - George Brown College once branded itself "the city college." This seems fitting, given that George Brown doesn't maintain one campus, but has ingrained itself in Toronto's urban fabric with campuses and buildings spread throughout the city. George Brown's largest campus is the Casa Loma facility, situated on Kendal Avenue between Davenport Road and MacPherson Avenue, followed next in size by the St. James Campus around King and Frederick Streets, while the Yorkville School of Makeup and Esthetics and the Young Centre for Performing Arts are among the school's other satellite facilities. George Brown also shares space on Ryerson University's campus, operating classrooms and offices out of Kerr Hall, and the Sally Horsfall Eaton Building at Gould and Mutual streets. George Brown has recently announced plans to develop a new East Bayfront Campus, on the south side of Queens Quay between Lower Jarvis and Lower Sherbourne streets. George Brown's presence in the East Bayfront area, which is getting a facelift as a part of Waterfront Toronto's redevelopment strategy, is meant to bring a critical mass of youth and students (the campus will increase enrollment capacity by 4,000 people) to animate the area's public spaces and support new businesses -- an interesting development for George Brown, which is seen more as a commuter school. What's more, the East Bayfront campus will also have the school's first residence, making it more likely that students will actually live there, as opposed to commuting in from elsewhere in Toronto and the GTA. George Brown, like many Ontario colleges, was opened in 1967. It has a full-time student population of 15,000, with 60,000 students studying part-time. Although I have passed by some of George Brown's buildings before, such as the cooking school on King Street and the Young Centre for the Performing Arts -- a gorgeous space in the Distillery District that is shared with the Soulpepper Theatre Company -- I decided to get to know the school better by visiting the main, Casa Loma campus. The campus is a short walk from Dupont subway station but is tucked quietly behind a train embankment near a leafy residential neighbourhood. The five campus buildings feel very unassuming. I walked onto the campus from the west, off Howard Street on Bridgman Avenue. Passing the Tarragon Theatre -- one of George Brown's Theatre program's partners -- I just sort of slipped onto the campus and if it wasn't for the distinctive George Brown signage I wouldn't have really clued into the fact that I was on a college campus at all. From this entry the campus feels more like a series of light-industrial buildings centered around a main, corporate looking office building .

EDITOR'S NOTE: Spacing asked our summer intern Matthew Hague to visit all of Toronto's post-secondary institutions and examine the built form of each campus. Every day over the next week, we will feature a campus profile. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Having spent a large part of the summer working near Queen and Beverley streets, I really appreciate OCAD's small but colourful campus. Right beside Grange Park, the large overhang of architect Will Alsop's Sharp Centre for Design is a really great place to stay dry when it's raining (and after a while the crayon-coloured stilts really grow on you), and the Above Ground Art Supplies store is a great place to buy all things artsy (Above Ground has a large selection and offers student discounts, for people attending OCAD or otherwise). The school is known for pushing the limits in contemporary art and design, and is built on a deep tradition of producing artistic talent.  OCAD was the first school in Canada dedicated to educating young commercial and fine artists, and was founded in 1876 in a space on King Street West by the Ontario Society of Artists.  Following several name changes the school was incorporated as the Ontario College of Art in 1912, then renamed again as OCAD in 1996.  Since its foundation the school has attracted both talented students and faculty, ranging diversely from J.E.H Macdonald (a former principal) to Floria Sigismondi (a former student). The school's first dedicated building still sits on Grange Park just south of the Sharp Centre. Opened in 1921 by the school's principal, George A. Reid, who also designed the building, the Grange Wing was integrated into the main building in a 1957 expansion. That Reid's Grange wing is still a part of the campus is interesting, particularly in light of the school's needs to expand -- I like the fact that you can look from the oldest to the newest buildings to see how the school's vision has evolved over time (from something that looks quite traditional to a school clearly willing to take chances). The contrasts of old and new are further emphasized when looking at 100 McCaul, OCAD's Main Building (that the Sharp Centre literally hovers over) that designed in the modernist style predominant in the 50's.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Spacing asked our summer intern Matthew Hague to visit all of Toronto's post-secondary institutions and examine the built form of each campus. Each day will feature a new campus profile. - - - - - - - - - - - - - This summer, in addition to interning at Spacing, I have also been working at an office near Queen and Beverley streets. Living near Jarvis and Bloor, I often save myself transit fare and walk to work. Although there are lots of ways to walk from Jarvis and Bloor to Queen and Beverley, some of the most picturesque routes involve walking through the University of Toronto. In thinking of Toronto's university and college campuses, U of T's St. George Campus is both one of the most remarkable, but also one of the most difficult to get a comprehensive picture of. Being so large, and having been built over a long period of time (U of T was established in 1827 and has developed its campus over the ensuing 181 years with buildings from the neo-gothic to the ultra-contemporary), the University of Toronto's "face" is varied to say the least. To give a snapshot of the campus, I decided to photograph one of my walks. Heading south on St. Thomas Street off Bloor I hit Charles, and head west until I see Victoria University (formerly an independent school but now one of U of T's three federated universities; U of T also has four constituent colleges, four theological colleges, and one affiliated college). Walking through a stone archway I enter a yard roughly bound by Romanesque-revival, collegiate Gothic, and modern buildings. Walking south along a stone walkway towards the minimal E.J. Pratt Library is especially interesting because, at the bottom of a stone stair that leads to its base, is a sunken garden and pond. The garden is particularly beautiful against the austere stone of the library, and I can imagine it would be quite nice to sit and read in the ground floor of the library with the windows overlooking the water.

Back in high school, when I was considering which university to go to after graduation, I don't think that the idea of place ever crossed my mind -- at least not in any more serious a way than wanting to be far enough away from home so that I had to move out of my mother's house and live on-campus. I was more concerned with my program choice and whether or not I would get locked into a bad meal plan than with how each school's campus functioned, looked, and felt. Almost fittingly enough I ended up at a school without a traditionally defined campus (everything is essentially contained within one building), and now that I'm graduating this coming year, after several years lamenting the lack of facilities and atmosphere common to many other schools, I see how important the idea of place is. Over the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to learn about and visit many of the university and college campuses in Toronto (one of which I would have likely gone to had I chosen to stay at home for school), and with my outsider's eye looking in, have prepared a series of small profiles on the different schools and their places within the city. The first campus that I visited was Humber College's Lakeshore Campus, in the Etobicoke neighborhood of New Toronto, near Lake Shore Blvd. and Kipling. Like many of the colleges in Toronto, Humber was established in 1967 after the Ontario Minister of Education, William C. Davis, introduced a bill in 1965 to create a post-secondary education system independent of the universities. Many of the buildings at the Lakeshore Campus were built long before the 1960s, however, originally serving the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital before Humber took them over to develop them into classroom, recreation and administrative spaces. The Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital was opened in 1888, known then as the Mimico Lunatic Asylum, and is made up of a series of cottages and small hospital buildings clustered within a 15.6-acre park setting. Incidentally, the campus might also look familiar to some as the training grounds for new recruits in the film series Police Academy, the first of which was filmed in the early 1980s after the hospital closed, but before Humber took the campus over.

This weekend's Heritage Toronto walking tours are a great way to get out and explore the city (free + no reservations required): Spadina: The Story of an Estate & Its Neighbourhood Saturday, September 6 - 1:30 PM Leaders: Spadina Museum Start Point: Main front gate of Spadina, 285 Spadina Rd, east of Casa Loma Finish Point: Same as start point Duration: Approx. 1.5 hours Walk Difficulty: Some rough ground and slopes, average walk on sidewalks and grass In 1866, James Austin built a new house on the foundations of an earlier Baldwin family home. Over the next 140 years ...

Each Monday, Spacing will bring you some of the popular posts from our sister blog, Spacing Montréal. We'll keep an eye open for topics and discussions that are pertinent to current public space issues in Toronto. • Ferme du Zéphir is one of the last remaining farms on the Island of Montréal, selling their vegetables direct to consumers by delivery or at their weekly veggie stand. Alanah Heffez looks at the success of this local produce provider with her post about Zéphir's very local produce. • If a catastrophe suddenly obliterated people from the ...