Kerr Hall

Kerr Hall is a series of four buildings in a square, surrounding Ryerson Community Park, on the campus of Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in Toronto, Canada. Kerr Hall is on the site of the former Toronto Normal School. All but a portion of the Normal School's front façade was demolished in the late 1950s to enable the construction of:

• Kerr Hall East: 340 Church Street and 60 Gould Street.
• Kerr Hall West: 379 Victoria Street.
• Kerr Hall North: 31 and 43 Gerrard Street East.
• Kerr Hall South: 40 and 50 Gould Street.

For the dormitory at Northeastern University in Boston known as Kerr Hall, see Students House.

A part of South Kerr Hall

Toronto Metropolitan University Community Park

The current building was built from the early 1960s to 1969 and designed by architect Burwell R. Coon. Until 1963, Kerr Hall surrounded the site of the Toronto Normal School.^{[citation needed]}

Interior access of Kerr Hall

Facade of Toronto Normal School serves as entrance to Toronto Metropolitan University's Recreation and Athletics Centre

The middle of Kerr Hall is the tree-lined Ryerson Community Park, also known as the Quad.

Kerr Hall is named for Ryerson's first principal, Howard Hillen Kerr.

The Creative School Chrysalis

The northwest corner of Kerr Hall North houses The Creative School Chrysalis, formerly the Ryerson Theatre. The 1,237-seat auditorium is used for "live productions, lectures, product launches, convocations, fashion shows and film shoots".^[1] It has also hosted screenings of films during the Toronto International Film Festival.^[1]

The Chrysalis has hosted

• film premieres including The Princess Bride in 1987 and Borat (2006)^[2]
• the 1976 Juno Awards
• the 28th Canadian Film Awards (1977)
• the Atkinson Lecture Series.
• Final Kombat 2024^{[citation needed]}

Source: Toronto Metropolitan University^[1]

Dance performances have included:

• Fall for Dance North series - Indigenous Enterprise program "Indigenous Liberation" October 2022^[3]

Musical concerts have included:

• Japan - November 1979^[4]
• CJRT Festival Series

Theatre performances by the Ryerson Theatre Company have included:

• Twelfth Night, November 1977^[5]

The Creative School Chrysalis is also home to the productions created by Toronto Metropolitan University's Performance Acting, Dance, and Production programs.^[6]

Floor plans and navigation

Not all four of Kerr Hall's buildings connect to each other^[7] on all floors. You cannot pass through the Theatre, nor through the ground floor of Kerr Hall South.

Google Maps offers indoor maps for all four floors of Kerr Hall, plus the basement. Many room numbers are omitted from the map, and the entire 100 level of Kerr Hall West is also missing.^[8]

Google indoor maps provide static floor plans; they can also provide spoken walking directions^[9] to selected rooms inside a building. Google Maps can use Wi-Fi trilateration in order to determine a user's position; it can achieve an indoor accuracy of between 5–15 meters^[10] in many commercial and institutional buildings.

References

1. "The Chrysalis at The Creative School". Toronto Metropolitan University. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
2. "Borat satire turns to farce in Toronto". Ynetnews. Yedioth Internet. October 9, 2006. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
3. Grant-Moran, Robin (October 4, 2022). "Jera Wolfe, 146 National Ballet School dancers bring uniqueness to Fall For Dance North". The Globe and Mail. p. A13.
4. McGrath, Paul (November 26, 1979). "Japan makes good music but not history". The Globe and Mail. p. 14.
5. "THEATRE". The Globe and Mail. November 30, 1977. p. F6.
6. "School of Performance". Toronto Metropolitan University. Retrieved June 25, 2024.
7. Ash, Peter. "Kerr Hall: The maze that you'll never run away from". The Eyeopener. Rye Eye Publishing, Inc.
8. himcognito. "Re: Kerr Hall is confusing". Reddit, Inc.
9. "Use indoor maps to view floor plans". Google Maps Help. Google Inc.
10. "Indoor navigation by Google – what you should know about it". Infsoft GmbH.

43.658713°N 79.379289°W / 43.658713; -79.379289