Construction of Humber’s new cultural hub seeks to make space for the arts

Humber’s ambitious new Cultural Hub is set to bring big changes to Lakeshore.

According to Daily Commercial News, the design of the project started in 2018 and the construction itself began in the fall of 2020. The construction has two phases, with the second one expected to be completed in 2026.

construction site of Cultural Hub at Lakeshore Campus, Humber College Photo credit: Oleksandra Chorna

Guillermo Acosta, the senior dean of the faculty of Media and Creative Arts, says the Hub will provide the necessary room and equipment for all art programs students, which is currently lacking.

“Music students, for example, have classes at Humber’s A Building. But it was originally built as an elementary school, so it’s not designed for music or any other artistic training. Students lack space and acoustic facilities for practicing,” says Acosta.

A similar situation is with acting students, who sometimes have to use the news studio at L Building for training. The Hub, however, will have specialized music and film studios for these learners to support their academic success. It will also have common spaces for future collaborative projects between students.

“In collaboration, they will be helping each other: music students will compose for movies produced by film and animation students and acting students will play in them,” says Acosta.

He says the Hub will also have a big, multidisciplinary performance hall, where students will present their work.

“It will be equipped with projection mapping technology, that you can project and create a really impressive immersive experience for the audience. So you can have, for example, musicians playing live with actors, acting live under an animation, created in our Hub by film and animation students,” says Acosta.

But these won’t be the only innovations in the Hub. The designers of the project also took into account the environmental side of things, targeting net zero-carbon building standards.

According to Scott Valens, Humber’s Director of Capital Development, the building isn’t using natural gas or carbon.

construction site of Cultural Hub at Lakeshore Campus, Humber College Photo credit: Oleksandra Chorna

construction site of Cultural Hub at Lakeshore Campus, Humber College Photo credit: Oleksandra Chorna

construction site of Cultural Hub at Lakeshore Campus, Humber College Photo credit: Oleksandra Chorna

“We’re also targeting an energy use of 75 kilowatt hours per square meter per year. And to give you an example, a standard building would be somewhere between two and 300-kilowatt hours per square meter per year. So this is a substantially much more efficient building,” says Valens.

He says this project is partially funded by IGNITE, however, mostly it is funded directly by Humber. Valens says, that when construction is complete, IGNITE will relocate from the K building to the Hub.

“IGNITE is going to move their club rooms and their offices into this building. There will be a lot more student traffic in this building compared to Building K. So they’re looking forward to being in a much busier environment,” says Valens.

The completion of the first building phase is expected between April and May of 2024. So between May and June, students, who are currently working in Building A ( mostly from the music program ), are going to move to the Hub entirely. The rest of the student body from art programs is going to join them about two years later when phase two is finished.