By Spencer Turcotte and Ben Shelley
Ryerson’s campus is about to lose a building.
Ryerson’s Capital Projects and Real Estate building at 111 Bond St. will be demolished as part of a new campus development.
A pedestrian link to the Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex will replace the Bond Street building and serve as a connection from Church Street to Bond Street.
Ryerson Students’ Union vice-president operations Ali Yousaf said the new pathway will provide a safer route for students to travel to the new health sciences complex, separate from Church Street, which is a high traffic area.
“Having that path [creates] an environment that all the buildings are connected to each other and to have less traffic on Church Street, I think is a smart decision,” said Yousaf.
Ryerson Security and Emergency Services, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), and Capital Projects and Real Estate are campus services in the Bond Street building that are impacted by the new development.
Capital Projects and Real Estate have already moved from the second floor of the building which is vacant for destruction. Apart from the security office and carpeting on the floor, the building is empty.
But there are drawings on a main floor wall that act as a farewell to the building.
Ryerson Security’s office is still operating in the building but will temporarily move to the Victoria Building’s kiosk study space. The university could not confirm where they will be relocated permanently.
The university said EHS will move into the South Bond Building once renovations are complete but did not say where they will move temporarily.
The South Bond Building, deemed a heritage property by the City of Toronto, is not part of the development plan.
The university cannot confirm when demolition of 111 Bond Street will begin, a start date for construction of the pathway, how much it will cost, or when it will be complete.
The new health sciences complex is scheduled to open in Fall 2018.
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