Toronto has never been known for having an overabundance of architecture that could be called cheeky, unorthodox or controversial. All that changed when British architect Will Alsop’s retrofit and expanded the Ontario College of Art & Design in 2004 by adding a black-and-white checkered elevated building that is held up by eight brightly coloured stilts. The structure, which houses two floors of classrooms, studios and offices, floats above the art school’s old low-rise brick quarters and a small park to the south. The addition has doubled the size of the school and given it a certain celebrity status around the globe. Peter Goldberger, architecture critic for the New Yorker, described it as “ a gargantuan but benignDalmatian,” and credited the building with launching Alsop’s international career. The zany building is one of the few buildings that’s visible from the top of the CN Tower on a cloudy day.

OCAD Sharp Centre for Design

100 McCaul St (Map It)
416 977 6000

Neighbourhood:

Queen Street West

Also listed under:

Architecture

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