SFU Plaza Renewal
Sensitive preservation of an architectural masterwork, the SFU Plaza Renewal fulfils the Simon Fraser University’s vision for dynamic integration of innovative education, cutting-edge research, and global engagement. The upgrades to the outdoor central spine, a processional route of great significance to the campus, has greatly improved users’ experience by aesthetic renewal and improvement of the campus outdoor public space.
Opened in 1965, the Erickson / Massey Simon Fraser University Campus is among the most significant pieces of Canadian architecture. This project provided a rare opportunity to comprehensively improve and renew the public realm including updates to the plaza surfaces, lighting, stairway finishes and railings as well as updates to the aged site furniture and renewal of soft landscaping. The plaza renewal improves and respects the formal ceremonial nature of Convocation Mall while providing increased opportunities for day-to-day users to gather, linger and connect informally. Breathing new life into an historic public space sets a precedent for renewal over replacement and preserves important 1960s cultural heritage with its inspired goals of dialogue, interdisciplinary work, and landscape integration for future generations.
A unifying design concept – Enlightened Ascension – describes a student’s journey of discovery and is expressed as a colour shift from dark stone at the campus gateway to lighter stone as one ascends through Main Mall to the Academic Quadrangle at the top of the mountain. Drawing on the strength of the rhythm of the vertical concrete structure, a unifying woven grid in a single, grey tone ties the campus together. A reference to the original paving pattern, the bands also register the subtle shifts in tone across the site. Through Convocation Mall a warm red stone works its way slowly toward the main stage culminating at the ceremonial heart of campus.
The pattern responds to the pace and scale of different spaces. In areas of pause, such as Fountain Square or Freedom Square, the pattern becomes more regular. In areas of movement, like the perimeter walkways, the pace of the colour shift quickens. Varying colours allows replacement stones of different hues to fit in without disrupting the pattern.
This project was set apart by weaving SFU’s institutional story and brand throughout the built environment. The design team transformed the 1967 “Freedom Square” story from a spirited sidenote to a sprawling expanse of typography in granite. Engraved for posterity, the memorial to a 1967 student sit-in is conveyed in large letterforms carved into the newly installed Freedom Square stonework. SFU’s radical roots are expressed in the memorial to the rallies that took place on that location “in defence of academic freedom”.
By supporting preservation, this project upholds sustainability. A study from the National Trust for Historic Preservation “finds that it takes 10 to 80 years for a new building that is 30 percent more efficient than an average-performing existing building to overcome, through efficient operations, the negative climate change impacts related to the construction process.” Breathing new life into a historic public space sets a precedent for renewal over replacement and preserves important 1960s cultural heritage with its inspired goals of dialogue, interdisciplinary work, and landscape integration (an early sustainable idea) for future generations.

Described by Trevor Boddy in Canadian Architect as “a fine example of sensitive upgrading: keeping the original intact, but subtly enhancing its function using low-key insertions.”