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In Charles Garnier’s design of the Opera House in Paris, the street is continued into the theatre. This was done in coordination with Baron Haussman’s urban planning where he created long boulevards on axis with landmarks, one such boulevard terminating at the Opera House. The axial path does not simply end at the facade of the building but continues within the building creating a natural flow, which can be seen in the cross-section. Similarly, The Toronto International Film Festival Centre continues the flow of the street and the people transversing it. The Private and Public Volumes are pulled to the side to fully express the Theatre creating an axis along Bellair St. The street continues and penetrates the site creating a outdoor gathering space in front of the Theatre.

The building’s Parti is expressed through three distinct volumes: the Theatre Volume, the “Private” Volume, and the “Public” Volume. Each volume is articulated differently and establishes a hierarchy. The Theatre Volume is given monumental expression with heavy black honed granite. It is also a solid and static volume; completely opaque with no glazing. The Private Volume is the converse of the Theatre Volume. It is given a sense of dynamism through the use of vertical strips of glazing and has a higher degree of transparency. The horizontal wood siding used to clad the volume is very light in contrast to the Theatre. The Public Volume settles in between the two volumes in expression. Its materiality (white stucco) gives the impression that it is lighter than the stone theatre yet heavier than wood. The glazing gives a transparency greater than that of the Theatre mass, but still more enclosed that the Private Volume. The articulation of the windows, are static in that they are structured as a regular grid of punctures in the wall. However, they still maintain a sense of playfulness and dynamism through the use of coloured panels and the deterioration of the rhythmic ordering as you wrap around the volume. The Parti remains consistent throughout the floors. On the upper floors, the Private Volume is designated to individual offices, such as the Executive Offices, and the Public Volume is used for communal spaces for the staff, such as Meeting Rooms and Screening Suites. The Theatre Volume remains untainted by other use spaces allowing its function to be fully expressed.