Regis College Moves to a New Home
While many institutions tend to slow down during the summer months, there is a bustle of activity at 100 Wellesley St. W. as renovations are still in full swing at Regis College's new home.
Christie House will house classrooms, faculty offices and administrative services, while Fontbonne Hall will accommodate the chapel, main Regis College library, spiritual direction offices and student lounge. The Lonergan Research Institute (LRI) will be located on the second floor of the House, with a suite of rooms that includes a fire proofed, climate controlled archive room for the personal and academic papers of Fathers Lonergan and Crowe.
Since this House was originally the private living quarters of the Christie family, the ceilings are generous in height and the finishings are quite refined. Many of these original features are being retained as the work progresses.
The architectural rendering shows the Wellesley St. side of Regis and what will in effect become the front door entrance. It will consist of a new atrium that will join the historic Christie House facing Queen's Park Cres. E. with Fontbonne Hall on Wellesley St. W.
The Christie House has endured several renovations over its 100-year lifespan, accommodating first the changing needs of a prominent Toronto family famous for its cookie bakeries, next the religious life of contemplation and service espoused by the Sisters of St. Joseph, then the youthful liveliness of a groundbreaking women's university residence, and finally the scholarly requirements of an intellectual centre for theological research and education.
Like the precious parchment employed by medieval scribes, the skin of the building bears the scars and adornments of thoughtful re-conception and creative adaptation. Rather than selecting one moment in its rich history as a privileged reference for a program of uniform restoration, Roberto Chiotti, the principal of Larkin Architects, has elected to treat the building as a palimpsest of architectural detailing, preserving the evidence of evolving aesthetics and changing solutions to the practical demands of successive generations.
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