July 29, 2025

Phase Two of Conestoga College’s Skilled Trades Campus in Cambridge, Ontario is featured in an article by David McPherson for The Globe and Mail.

Currently under construction, the campus is set to be one of the largest in Canada, helping meet the growing demand for skilled trades workers. The project also aims to attract a more diverse student population.

Building on the campus’s first phase, designed by WalterFedy and Moriyama Teshima Architects, the second phase, a two-storey building designed by Diamond Schmitt, is part of a multiyear plan to consolidate the college’s construction and industrial trade apprenticeship programs–currently offered at isolated campuses across Southern Ontario–into one location.

“It’s a real evolution for Conestoga,” says Mike Szabo, principal at Diamond Schmitt. “The college previously had a number of facilities, which were generally repurposed industrial buildings, distributed throughout the Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge areas.”

Phase Two focuses on building community, incorporating social amenities such as an athletics facility, fitness centre, and an e-sports centre near the main entrance. “To attract and retain students, you need to foster that social experience,” Szabo adds.

A long, serpentine canopy with wood decking that will link the Phase One and Two buildings. “Conestoga has a masonry program, so the base of the building is all brick masonry to link to that.” 

The structure was designed to act as a “living lab” for students to see the full range of construction techniques used, including reinforced concrete, structural steel and mass timber. This concept is extended to the interiors, too – both through the construction materials used and its sustainable design features, including triple-glazing and radiant-floor heating in all workshops.

“If we are skilled-trades leaders, we want to actually demonstrate the highest level of performance,” Mr. Szabo says. “The heating is on the floor, so while students are working, they’re not on a cold, hard concrete floor.”

There are many factors that have led to this shift, including a belief that the hands-on nature of skilled-trades jobs makes it less likely AI can replace them. Gen Z workers have also expressed interest in the ability to earn money and start work straight out of high school, learn new skills and pursue a career they enjoy.

The campus is on track to welcome students in the fall of 2026. 

Read the full article.