St Lawrence Centre for the Arts

Toronto, ON

Project Facts

  • Client

    TO Live & CreateTO 

  • Location

    Toronto

  • Status

    In Progress

  • Size

    175,000 Sq. Ft.

  • Partner

    Siamak Hariri

  • Project Team

    LMN Architects, Tawaw Architecture Collective, Smoke Architecture, and SLA


STLC NEXT is a place for community and the arts to thrive—both necessary ingredients for the enrichment of humanity. Having served the community well for the past 50 years, in its next chapter the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts rises strongly from its honoured heritage foundation with a transformative organizational approach to propel it into the next 50 years.


It is reimagined as an attractive, inviting living room and urban condenser where diversity, equity, and inclusion are prioritized to nurture belonging and authenticity for maximum creative expression. Supported by the unified approach to the built and natural environments, the diversity and vivacity of the performing arts—from its myriad styles to its creators, supporters, and audiences—emanate from within the revitalized STLC to the historic neighbourhood, multicultural city, and interconnected world beyond.


Envisioned as an embrace of culture, a high-performance transparent façade wraps the existing structure along the north (Front St. East) and west (Scott St. Plaza) to include the new bridge. Like a dynamic and shimmering curtain—a prelude to the performances taking place within—glazing grabs the north light and vertical frit emphasizes the curtain-like texture along with a shading structure of shimmering mesh that modulates the west façade. Its transparency also affords porosity with views inside of wood vertical fins (providing light control and an inviting atmosphere), playful pops of colour in STLC NEXT’s palette (to accentuate the diversity of people, program, and place), and the lively activities taking place. Woven together, the multi-layered façade system joins these exterior faces while adding a sense of lightness to counterbalance the heritage concrete.

Project Facts

  • Client

    TO Live & CreateTO 

  • Location

    Toronto

  • Status

    In Progress

  • Size

    175,000 Sq. Ft.

  • Partner

    Siamak Hariri

  • Project Team

    LMN Architects, Tawaw Architecture Collective, Smoke Architecture, and SLA


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Conceptual Sketch by Siamak Hariri 

Conceptual Sketch by Siamak Hariri 

“Transparence is the highest most liberating value in art... Transparence means experiencing the luminousness of the thing in itself, of things being what they are...”– Susan Sontag
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“Transparence is the highest most liberating value in art... Transparence means experiencing the luminousness of the thing in itself, of things being what they are...”– Susan Sontag
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East-West Spine

To fully realize the potential of the new plaza and the ambitions of the STLC our design boldly turns the axis of the Main Theatre to face Scott St. This sets up a strong, anchoring spine that serves as an organizational tool for flow and program on the ground floor and supports the cultural program of the building with flexible and performative outdoor spaces.

East-West Spine

To fully realize the potential of the new plaza and the ambitions of the STLC our design boldly turns the axis of the Main Theatre to face Scott St. This sets up a strong, anchoring spine that serves as an organizational tool for flow and program on the ground floor and supports the cultural program of the building with flexible and performative outdoor spaces.

The energy from the main theatre radiates out to the lobby and through the building, spilling out into the plaza and the city beyond.

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The energy from the main theatre radiates out to the lobby and through the building, spilling out into the plaza and the city beyond.

Woven together, the multi-layered façade system joins the exterior façade while adding a sense of lightness to counterbalance the existing brutalist concrete structure.


To honour the Indigenous community in the built environment the exterior expression is inspired by the role of Wampum belts in storytelling, artistry and craft, and as an embodiment of strength in unity.

Facade 1
Wapum 3

Woven together, the multi-layered façade system joins the exterior façade while adding a sense of lightness to counterbalance the existing brutalist concrete structure.


To honour the Indigenous community in the built environment the exterior expression is inspired by the role of Wampum belts in storytelling, artistry and craft, and as an embodiment of strength in unity.

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The L-shaped plan is for living, grabbing the whole site from the north-east to the south-west. It is open, transparent, accessible, inviting and activated.

The L-shaped plan is for living, grabbing the whole site from the north-east to the south-west. It is open, transparent, accessible, inviting and activated.

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The ground floor experience is about life - end-to-end user flow and visual connection to nature through its park-to-plaza reach. 

The ground floor experience is about life - end-to-end user flow and visual connection to nature through its park-to-plaza reach. 

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