Designed by Diamond Schmitt and MVRDV, in collaboration with Two Row Architect, the Temerty Building at the University of Toronto is a 9-storey, 388,000-square-foot academic and research hub at the heart of the St. George campus.Bringing together the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Department of Cell & Systems Biology within a shared environment, the building creates a shared environment for collaborative, interdisciplinary researchand discovery.

Located on the site of the existing Medical Sciences Building’s west wing, the Temerty Building mediates between the openness of King’s College Circle to the north and the density of its urban context to the south. Its massing steps down toward the Circle, aligning with the scale and material language of adjacent heritage buildings while establishing a distinct civic presence alongside Convocation Hall. Conceived as a connective framework linking disciplines, landscapes, and knowledge systems, the design balances institutional presence with permeability, introducing a new gateway to the university’s Front Campus while reinforcing continuity with the surrounding campus fabric.

At grade, the building extends the campus landscape through a series of meandering pathways that guide movement across the site toward the primary entrance. This entrance opens into a double-height atrium that serves as the building’s social heart: a crossroads for the university that supports both daily interaction and large-scale events. Active and transparent, the ground floor animates King’s College Circle and Road, strengthening the building’s role not only as a research hub, but as a civic threshold.

Guided by Two Row Architect and shaped through Talking Circles with the Indigenous Advisory Circle, the design is informed by Indigenous design principles that respond to the site’s location, history, and place. Its terraced massing references regional geological formations, while green roofs and landscaping incorporate Indigenous plantings and diverse vegetation associated with the four sacred medicines. Together, these embed a deeper understanding of healing, land, and place within the daily life of the building, connecting cultural knowledge to the medical research activities it supports. 

Above the first two teaching floors, seven floors of laboratory and research space are organized to support flexibility and collaboration. Open-plan wet labs are accompanied by shared support spaces and adaptable infrastructure that can evolve with changing research needs. Aligned with the University of Toronto’s Climate Positive Plan, the building integrates high-performance systems, including a new district energy Nodal Plant, reinforcing its role as a landmark for research, learning, environmental responsibility, and public life—supporting interdisciplinary discovery and the evolving needs of the university and the communities it serves.