Toronto University Gets $100M Gift for New Innovation Complex

The University of Toronto was given a $100 million gift by two leading entrepreneurs which will help build the 69,677 m (75,000 square feet) Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre, the country's largest university based innovation node per Construction Canada. The building was designed by New York architecture firm, Weiss/Manfredi and will be located in downtown Toronto.

The centre's layout will feature vertical gardens, soaring atria, and collaborative spaces that will promote intellectual exchange and invite the public to take part in events and interact with scholars and innovators. The building's spaces will host thousands of researchers, investors, industry partners and international visitors annually.

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According to BlogTo.com, this massive innovation center will turbocharge the next wave of Canadian innovation, advancing how AI, biomedicine and other disruptive technologies can enrich lives. Renderings for the facility look like nothing we've ever seen in Toronto. It will tower over Ontario's legislature and anything else near its intended site at College and Queen's Park.

"This new complex will contribute enormously to innovation at the University of Toronto. It will help consolidate Toronto's leading position in the Artificial Intelligence world. The Centre will attract other AI experts and help to spark additional AI-based innovations. It will also bring together scholars from an array of disciplines to study the implications of Artificial Intelligence in today's world."

AI Pioneer & U of T Professor Emeritus | Geoffrey Hinton

The new complex will be named for Canadian philanthropists Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman, whose recent $100 million donation is said to be making the project possible.

Construction on Phase One of The Centre is expected to begin this coming fall. First the University plans to build a 250,000 square foot, 12 storey tower to house the world renowned Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, among other organizations and university facilities.

Phase Two of construction will produce a 500,000 square foot, 20 storey tower with laboratories "for some of the world's top researchers and innovators in regenerative medicine, genetics and precision medicine."

See our other Article titled: New Design Proposed for University of Toronto Building