“This is, in a sense, an ending — of a project. But it’s the beginning of a life, and the beginning of a new chapter.”
— Provost Nicholas Terpstra, at the Lawson Centre’s official opening
On September 9, Trinity threw open the doors to the Lawson Centre for Sustainability, the newest chapter in the College’s 175-year story, and its most significant new beginning in decades. Not a soaring tower, but a warm, low-rise building, that already feels like it has always belonged on this corner of campus.
The four-storey building brings a host of benefits and opportunities: an 80 per cent increase in residence capacity, along with new academic, dining and community spaces designed around a single idea — that sustainability shouldn’t sit at the margins of a Trinity education, but at its centre.
This commitment to sustainability runs through the building’s bones — a hybrid mass timber structure built largely from local, Ontario-sourced materials, geothermal heating and cooling, and an underground cistern that captures rainwater for reuse. The Lawson Centre is targeting LEED Platinum certification and has already achieved Zero Carbon Building – Design certification. Its Community Kitchen and the George and Martha Butterfield Rooftop Farm give students hands-on opportunities to put sustainability into daily practice, not just study it. Already, the rooftop farm’s first harvest of zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant and more has been shared with the Trinity community or cooked and frozen for future events by Miriam Streiman, Manager of the Teaching, Research & Community Kitchen.
The Lawson Centre represents years of vision, planning, generosity and collaboration. Much more than a new building, it is a place where the Trinity community will live, learn and gather for generations to come. “The world needs to move quickly to address issues of climate change. Trinity has made this central to its mission — and the Centre is key to that mandate,” said Joannah Lawson at the opening.
Students moved in on August 30, and the building is already full of life — lectures underway, study spaces buzzing, residence rooms lived-in, and the café bustling with students grabbing a bite between classes. The residence is at full capacity, and seminar rooms are in near-constant use. (Watch CityNews coverage of move-in day)
None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary generosity of the Trinity community. Chancellor Brian and Joannah Lawson’s lead gift, made in 2019, set the Living Trinity Campaign in motion, inspiring the generosity of so many others, including the late Nevil Thomas, Jack Whiteside, and the late Arthur Scace and Susie Scace and family; the late Chancellor Bill Graham and Cathy Graham; George and Martha Butterfield; Gay and Norman Loveland; the Radlett Foundation, honouring alumnus Bill Humphries; Hilary Pearson and Michael Sabia; the Friends of the Library; and the late Anne Steacy. Their leadership was matched in turn by hundreds of alumni, parents and friends across the Trinity community, whose gifts through the Living Trinity Campaign — including the ongoing Viridis Project, naming everything from trees and benches to residence rooms — helped create a building the whole community can now call home.
The opening also marks the successful completion of the Living Trinity Campaign. Read our interview with Campaign Co-Chairs Carolyn Kearns ’72 and Michael Royce ’68 to hear more about that journey.
The Lawson Centre belongs to all of Trinity. The residence floors may be reserved for students, but the café is open to everyone — so come see the building for yourself, have a coffee, and make it part of your own Trinity story.
As Chancellor Brian Lawson put it at the opening:
“The world needs more Trinity — and it’s about to get it!”
By Jennifer Matthews
Read the Lawson Centre for Sustainability opening news release here
