New phase of Chancellor Day Hall modernization begins: construction work to come in 2025
The Faculty of Law is pleased to announce the start of long-awaited modernization of its teaching facilities. The second floor of New Chancellor Day Hall will be completely remodelled to create larger, updated classrooms, fit for our professors’ current pedagogical approaches.
The second floor’s new layout will include two modernized classrooms and three smaller meeting rooms. The larger classroom, as well as the hall, will be inspired by Indigenous legal traditions and Indigenous ways of teaching and learning. It will feature a palette of colours and sustainable materials evoking calm and connection to nature. The space will incorporate Indigenous artworks, plants, a ventilation system to enable smudging ceremonies, and movable furniture that will allow large groups to sit in a circle while also permitting other configurations.
Ours will become the first Indigenous culture-infused teaching space at McGill. It will offer a preview of similar classrooms to be found at the “New Vic”, scheduled to open in 2028. The project is overseen by award-winning architect Alain Fournier, BSc (Arch)’74, BArch’75 ─ who has been recognized for his contribution to the expression of First Peoples’ identity through architecture ─ and his firm EVOQ. Indigenous members of the student body, the Faculty, McGill, and the broader community were invited to collaborate throughout the design process through numerous consultations.
The other classroom on the second floor will be designed as an active-learning classroom, which will arrange students in small working groups at round tables rather than in rows in front of a podium. Beyond the second floor, the renovations extend to the first-floor Dobrin-Steinberg classroom (adjacent to the Nahum Gelber Law Library). It will undergo a major facelift to maximize its usefulness and modernize its appearance.
The renewal of the second floor is made possible by Teaching and Learning Services at McGill and the generous support of Robert L. Katz, BCL'86, LLB'86, and Christina H. Otto, BA'85, Mark Godsy, LLB'82, and the classes of 1984, 1989 and 1991.
Construction is scheduled to start in summer 2025, with an estimated duration of one year. The other floors of New Chancellor Day Hall will remain accessible during the renovations. Additional information and updates will be provided to students and the Faculty community during the winter.
“As we experienced firsthand in the previous modernization phase, a remarkable transformation occurs when our physical space better supports and enhances the creative, problem-solving teamwork already going on in our classrooms, rather than being an obstacle to it,” said Dean Robert Leckey, Ad E.
“We're excited that this renewed space will reflect the pluralistic identity of our Faculty, where Indigenous legal traditions hold a growing place alongside civil law and common law,” he continued.
A true time capsule, the second floor of the new Chancellor-Day Pavilion is the last space that remains substantially unchanged since the building's inauguration in 1968. This new phase follows the renewal of the John W. Durnford classroom, the Don Meehan classroom, and the Rod Macdonald foyer on the ground floor of New Chancellor Day Hall, completed in 2018.