January 12, 2026

“Why the post-pandemic campus has taken a vertical approach” explores a fundamental shift in how educational spaces are designed. Written by Lauren Jones for FRAME Magazine, the article explores how campus architecture is moving away from horizontally dispersed, programmatically siloed environments toward verticality, integration, and engineered togetherness—designed to support studying, gathering, and conversation.

York University’s Markham Campus is presented as an innovative response to the challenges of a compact suburban site. The ten-storey, aluminium-clad academic building uses vertical density strategically to foster both academic life and social interaction.

Rising from a tight, five-acre suburban site, the building consolidates roughly 3,700 sq-m of teaching, research and shared space into a single volume. Academic buildings of this height remain uncommon in North America, yet here density becomes a strategy rather than a constraint.

The article quotes Principal Don Schmitt, who explains how the building’s design reinforces connection across disciplines: “We worked hard to create a vertical academic space that feels collegial and connected.” Programmes are layered around a multi-storey atrium that serves as both an orientation device and a social anchor, with activity visible across levels to foster a shared sense of academic life.

Circulation extends beyond the building envelope through a gently sloped landscape. Planted ramps and terraces allow students to move seamlessly between ground level and upper floors, reinforcing the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.

Read the full FRAME Magazine article here.