Contact: Ken McGuffin, Manager, Media Relations, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 416-946-3818, mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

TORONTO, May 20 /Standard Newswire/ -- Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB) has been chosen by a University of Toronto selection committee to design a previously-announced expansion of the Rotman School of Management. The expansion has become necessary to accommodate the School's continued growth. Since 1998, many Rotman programs have doubled in size, along with its faculty and research centers and institutes.

Expected to open in 2011, the new structure will be integrated with the current building at 105 St. George Street and will house the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking, the Lloyd and Delphine Martin Prosperity Institute, other research programs and Centers of Excellence, classrooms, study space and event facilities.

The new building is the centerpiece of a $120-million capital, research and education project that was kick-started in March 2006 when the Province of Ontario pledged $50 million toward it. An additional $10 Million in federal funding has since been allocated, and individuals such as Sandra and Joseph Rotman, Marcel Desautels and the Canadian Credit Management Foundation and others have made major gifts to the project.

University and Rotman School officials narrowed the search down to three design firms in March, with KPMB ultimately selected to take on the project."KPMB's design best expressed our School's core mission to pursue scholarly excellence and promote the power of creativity and Integrative Thinking," says the Rotman School's Vice Dean Academic, Peter Pauly, a member of the selection committee. "Their design emphasizes strategic connectivity, both inside and out. The architecture draws on the value of what surrounds it and expands that value beyond the site, well into the campus and into the city."

A preliminary concept for the new building will be unveiled to the public in June. Prof. Pauly described some of KPMB's core ideas: "A series of horizontal and vertical connections will be built between the existing and new buildings to facilitate the flow of people. Other design elements include a multi-story glass structure; several green roofs; a main floor cafeteria for students and staff; and a 400-seat state-of-the-art event space on the second floor."

Rotman Professor Richard Florida, academic director of the Martin Prosperity Institute, was thrilled with the selection of KPMB. "They really 'get' us, and they understand the neighborhood and the community as well," said the author of Who's Your City? and The Rise of the Creative Class. "Their design will further energize St. George Street and make our neighborhood a better place to study, work and live." The Rotman School is reinventing management tools and frameworks for a creative society, says Prof. Florida, and "the new building will reflect the 'new way to think' that is the basis of our approach, providing students, researchers, staff and the local community with a physical springboard to harness their creative capabilities."

The new building will aspire to LEED certification via the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Canada Green Building Rating System. The project team includes renowned energy consultant Thomas Auer of Transsolar, who will provide leadership and direction on energy performance.

"We are thrilled to be working with one of the world's most creative and innovative business schools," says KPMB partner Bruce Kuwabara. "The basic principles of sustainability - enduring value, fresh air ventilation, access to natural light and views - have informed KPMB's work since it was founded, and they will inform the Rotman School's expansion," he adds.

Founded in 1987 by Bruce Kuwabara, Thomas Payne, Marianne McKenna, and Shirley Blumberg, KPMB won two major competitions for large-scale institutions in its first few years of practice, Kitchener City Hall and the Joseph S. Stauffer Library at Queen's University in Kingston. The integration of architecture and sustainability, performance and aesthetics lies at the heart of KPMB's work. Other buildings designed by KPMB in Toronto include the Gardiner Museum, Canada's National Ballet School, the Royal Conservatory of Music TELUS Performance and Learning Centre, the Young Centre for Performing Arts and the Bell Lightbox for the Toronto International Film Festival Group. Academic work includes McGill University and Genome Quebec's Innovation Centre, a new vertical campus for Concordia University in Montreal and projects for the University of Michigan and Princeton University in the United States.

The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is redesigning business education for the 21st century with a curriculum based on Integrative Thinking. Located in the world's most diverse city, the Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables the design of creative business solutions. The School is currently raising $200 million to ensure Canada has the world-class business school it deserves. For more information, visit http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca.