Architecshirts is a new line of t-shirts that "takes masterpieces by renowned architects and puts them on your torso," all  prominent Toronto buildings and the architects responsible for them. There are six different shirts to select from, featuring the work of E. J. Lennox, Raymond Moriyama, Mies van der Rohe, Santiago Calatrava, I. M. Pei, and Uno Prii. The t-shirt above is entitled "Everybody Loves Raymond", featuring the work of E.J. Raymond including the Toronto Reference Library, Bata Shoe Museum, Ontario Science Centre, and Scarborough Civic Centre. The other five varieties are shown below:

"Last Night, An E.J. Saved My Life"

The work of E.J. Lennox, featuring images of Old City Hall, Toronto Bank, King Edward Hotel, and Casa Loma.

"Just Between You and Mies"

The work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, featuring the TD Centre, Lake Shore Apartments, Neue Gallery, and Westmount Square.

"Pei What You Can"

The work of I.M. Pei featuring Commerce Court, the Louvre Pyramid, Place Ville Marie, and Bank of China.

"Prii-Fab"

The work of Uno Prii featuring 20 Prince Arthur, 666 Spadina, 44 Walmer, and 35 Walmer.

To purchase these shirts, visit the architecshirts Zazzle page.

Last Wednesday, Ryerson unveiled plans for its new Student Learning Centre, an eight-storey, 155,000-square-foot glass building being touted as the university’s bold new face on the corner of Yonge and Gould Streets.

The building will contain elevated plazas, a bridge to the existing library, and retail - in the basement.

The building will contribute to the retail and pedestrian life in the area and set the tone for ongoing revitalization in this historic commercial neighbourhood. A generous and inviting, entry plaza will gently draw both students and the general public up and into this new vertical community setting the standard for future development in the area

All of the bedrooms and private spaces are contained within a volume clad with large slabs of cream-coloured stone, with minimal window openings. A birch plywood screen, out from which a unique landscape pattern is CNC-punched, creates privacy for the residential wing from the two-storey entertainment space. During the day, the screen projects a playful pattern into the residential hallway. At night, illuminated from inside, the screen glows, creating a work of art for the space below.

Both Residential and Entertainment volumes are enveloped within the extended corten-steel arms of the Living volume, in which the kitchen, dining room and family room are contained. This double-height space is almost entirely glazing. Sliding floor-to ceiling doors glass doors along the full length of the back of this volume allow for the kitchen and dining room to open out to the exterior. A generously scaled family room opens out onto a cantilevered void between the living space and its envelope, a private sanctuary wrapped in warm ipe.

The challenge was to create a conceptually compelling and consistent design narrative that evokes and enhances Red Bulls unique notions of sponsorship or mentorship and of the transformation and physical or creative development of the individual through their support.

The narrative or architectural promenade would gradually reveal forms and details evocative of the brand ideals.  The metaphor of the vessel appears in various forms, for example: the memento box, the entrance transition corridor, the glass enclosed wood reception desk, pivoting gallery walls, and the various meeting rooms.  Wing-like curved glass partition walls at the private offices animate and create pattern and repetition

The tower is set back from Bay street to respect the datum created by the cornice lines of historic buildings along the street known as the ‘Bay Street Canyon’. Contributing to the canyon, the re-constructed façade of the National Building built in 1926, designed by Chapman and Oxley, is seamlessly integrated into the design of the new tower.

The highly transparent main building lobby, with walls clad in classic Statuario marble and Makore wood, engages passers-by. At night, the illuminated lobby becomes a ‘beacon’ at the corner of Bay and Adelaide Streets. A significant Public Art installation by lighting artist James Turrell faces Adelaide Street.

Below grade, a retail concourse, the ‘missing link’ of the city’s underground path system, completes the route from Union Station to Eaton Centre. A unique glass walkway within the plaza and escalators in the office lobby provide daylight to, and orientation for, the path below.

The project is defined by a series of layers that have different performative qualities embedded, driven by internal and external forces that modify the character of the building as a person flows seamlessly through the space and experiences the curated environment of the building.

The layer system generates a collection of musical experiences, from the strong typology of the theaters characterized by a clean geometry, to the eroded geometry that conforms the spaces in-between, research and education institutions, and knits the project into the surrounding context.

The place suggests a unique script for design: Toronto is characterized by severe winters and hot summers. The external layer works as a protective skin in winter thanks the slow formation of an artificial ice barrier in between the fissures, and wind catchers to allows a natural ventilation in summer. The eroded geometry deals with the aesthetic idea of "matte": matte is the finishing of dull and flat, without a shine on the surfaces. Matte stores the time’s patina, it absorbs the context, it becomes the context.

A matter of affection - an aditus for contamination: The body (the substance and the form) of the building becomes the tool to be affected and to affect: Its cavities as sensitive parts of the building.