This new 169,000 sq.ft building is the first LEED Gold facility at York University, Keele Campus, and voices an ambitious mandate for the “Renaissance Engineer” of the 21st Century. A hub for entrepreneurship, collaboration, experiential learning, and creativity, the facility’s design advances engineering education and provides a flexible platform to enrich and enhance the educational experience of next generation of engineers. The Renaissance Engineer is a creative problem solver and entrepreneurial leader with a social conscience. A beacon for invention within the outer ring of the campus, the Bergeron Centre’s bold architecture is a metaphor for limitless creativity. Reflective of Renaissance principles of innovation and a new approach to complex problem-solving, a cloud-like triangular glass façade stands bold. Evoking the properties of a cloud, the undulating façade comprises a series of triangles positioned to a complex algorithm, reflecting light and pattern while at the same time
minimizing the window to wall ratio of the building envelope.

Renaissance Engineers think in big systems, design with people in mind and embrace ambiguity more readily. Containing learning spaces for civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering programs, the new building contains a variety of spaces with greater accessibility and inclusion and with the goal of achieving a 50/50 gender balance, more intimate and bespoke platforms for flexibility to facilitate the ever-evolving pedagogy in engineering learning. Prioritizing the needs of the students first, student wellness, productivity & setting users up for success drove the design process, optimizing spaces for learning, discovery, and interaction. Students have access to bright spaces, welcoming, flexible social spaces with panoramic views frame the entrance for student gathering. Echoing a tech start-up, students are encouraged to gather, foster, and prototype entrepreneurial ideas inside the energetic Design Commons. Social spaces adjacent to intense research and academic areas facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas and creativity.