The Lash Miller Building Expansion project is well into its final year. Newly renovated lecture halls, one new lab and principal investigator's office, and a new meeting room are slated to open in Fall 2026, along with space for the Acceleration Consortium.
“The design for the lecture hall renovation accounted for both traditional and modern considerations, with flexible spaces focused on increasing engagement, improving knowledge retention, and fostering critical thinking through technology integration and collaborative, real-world problem-solving,” Department of Chemistry CAO Grace Flock said.
The Acceleration Consortium (AC) is a global community based at U of T that uses AI and automation to accelerate the discovery of materials and molecules including life-saving medications, biodegradable plastics, and renewable energy. One key part of that community that will be housed in the new space is the Indigenous Science and Ethical Substance Lab, which focuses on how Indigenous and community-based methods can reshape approaches to pollutants, chemicals, and environmental data.
A groundbreaking ceremony for construction occurred November 7, 2023, with members of the Chemistry community watching and working around the building as it arose.
One professor with a bird’s eye view of the process is Professor Bob Morris, whose office overlooks the new building site.
“I moved into my office in the new Davenport wing in 2000,” said Prof. Morris. “Over the years I've watched out my window north, over the Lash Miller lecture halls, to the Sid Smith patio area. There have been protesters, skateboarders and kamikaze bicyclists going down the stairs. There was a raccoon that crawled up the corner of the building to the roof. And squirrels jumping from the tree onto the roof of the lecture halls.”
Morris said the Lash Miller lecture halls were the first to go when construction began. “First the hole was dug in the ground in 2024 and the building started rising up. It has been fascinating to watch the construction, floor by floor, of a complex, reinforced-concrete laboratory.”
“Occasionally workers standing in zero-degree weather have waved at me. In the spring, robins built a nest on the side of the construction—the first synthesis done with the new building—but the nest and hatchlings were lost in a windstorm.”
“I look forward to seeing robots moving around doing chemistry in the new building.”
A compilation of Morris’s images, as seen through the window of his office, can be seen in this slide show.
It has been fascinating to watch the construction, floor by floor, of a complex, reinforced-concrete laboratory. —Bob Morris