Branksome Hall Athletics and Wellness Centre

The Athletic and Wellness Centre is a new focal point for Branksome Hall, an all-girls independent school and leading International Baccalaureate World School located in Toronto’s Rosedale residential conservation district. Designed to build community and place healthy living at the heart of everyday student life, the 63,700sf facility provides a full array of athletic and fitness amenities for high-performance and educational use, integrating them with plenty of social and study spaces.

While still presenting a modern identity, the budling’s masonry and glass exterior harmonizes with the century-old brick buildings that characterize the campus and neighbourhood fabric. A neutral and durable palette of interior materials provides a backdrop for colourful team uniforms and relates the building to its surroundings; this includes white oak slat screening throughout that references the adjacent forest ravine visible from many of the program spaces. Further mediating between the building and its rich natural context is an extensive landscape design adding extensive planting, pathways, courtyards, and roof terraces that reach out to the ravine.