The Residence responds to its long, narrow site, sandwiched between existing buildings and looking south onto a major campus roadway. The L-shaped podium extends over 90 meters along Pond Road, a patterned glass and concrete box that appears to hover above a transparent ground floor. A nine-storey residential tower caps the east end of the podium, creating a U-shaped form that shelters a new courtyard to the north of the residence. The Residence adds urban vitality and contemplative green spaces to a suburban campus.

As the first sustainable student housing built to withstand the +40° / -40°c climactic extremes of central Canada, the Residence significantly advanced York’s green design agenda. It uses the same energy as conventional student housing half its size. Construction materials were specified for sustainability, low emissivity and recyclable content; building technologies included a high performance curtain wall and planted roof, an in-slab heating/cooling system, and heat recovery units on building exhausts.