Ontario Line – OMSF “Operations, Maintenance and Storage Facility”

The facility is an opportunity to focus design narratives on an otherwise overlooked building typology. In keeping with the design initiatives and establishing a system-wide architectural language the OMSF building became an opportunity to reinvigorate the latent approach to these industrial structures. The facility is to be a model for future maintenance facilities as part of the Ontario Line Transit expansion as the project is part of a much larger network of transit identity. The dichotomy of the site with the industrial edges to the north and the vegetated hydro corridor to the south allowed for an architecture of polarity. The highly pragmatic plan was engaged to work cohesively with a dialectic approach to cladding the building in response to the existing site narrative and the exposure to natural light. The building stitches into the surrounding industrial vernacular with a neutral palette. The large low-lying structure is adorned with soft reflective metal panels that blend with the sky and surrounding landscape.