Toronto Courthouse Toronto, Ontario, Canada Six separate Ontario Courts sites are consolidated into one facility housing 63 courtrooms and ten hearing rooms including Criminal, High Security, Drug, Youth, Mental Health, and Indigenous courts as well as associated public counters, crown attorney, judicial, court services, secure holding, 199
police bureau, victim witness assistance program, an Indigenous Learning Centre, and numerous third-party agencies. The siting, massing, component organization, materiality, and finishes are all defined to insure that the building projects the stature of an important civic institution, appropriately completing the judicial precinct without supplanting the predominance of the adjacent iconic City Hall. The massing of the building is pushed as far north as possible to maximize the public piazza to the south and align with adjacent buildings and fabric in a manner that ties this portion of the city together. A four-story, highly transparent podium which includes entry, atrium, public services, and high volume courts relates to the immediate context. This transparent base supports a 13-story tower that floats above containing the main courtrooms and associated functions and responds to the larger context. The order and modularity of the external facade reappears in the public corridors with white quartz INTERNATIONAL COURTHOUSES
panels in beech framing and beech courtroom entry doors, giving structure and warmth to the space. The courtrooms are the culmination of this public trajectory with beechwood walls and a translucent glass frame surrounding the dais. Luminous ceilings are featured in the ceremonial and Multiple Accused High Security courtrooms. Ceilings throughout the building are related to the height of the courtrooms on the floor generating higher than required heights, improved working environment and daylighting for staff while simultaneously achieving the intent of the overall massing design and regularity of the exterior facade pattern. The ground level public plaza and atrium is matched by a judicial garden embedded in the upper floors. Given its visibility from the surrounding office towers, the garden - along with the surrounding roof top plane of solar panels - is composed to give this view the same dignity and compositional rigour as the vertical facades.
SITE PLAN