The John Labatt Visual Arts Center (figure 1) is on the far edge of the University of Western Ontario’s campus.  It is down the hill and around beside the North Campus building. It is an interesting building with ever changing art displays and events, making it a place to keep returning to again to see everything. Getting to the building involves walking past many other buildings on the rest of campus, making it somewhat separate.

The walkway up to the front door of the building crosses over a ditch that allows the building to be closer to the road and still follow the natural gradation of the landscape. Walking up to the two sets of glass doors, you can see through them all the way to the back of the building where the Artlab Gallery entrance is located, drawing you into the space and events (figure 2). All that separates you from the space is a set of stairs and an elevator.  Going down into the main hallway, you walk by exhibition spaces on walls and floors, and specialised labs. Before approaching the Concourse Gallery and the entrance to the Artlab Gallery, the space is broken by two “c” shaped couch arrangements, one on each side of the hallway. Then you are into the gallery area where the right hand wall is a gallery wall and the left hand side of the wall has many large windows (figure 3). Along the left hand wall there is a long table and a row of chairs on each side of the table allowing for a view of the outside or a view of whatever exhibition is currently up on display. The stools and table combination in the hall where the Concourse Gallery is located create one of the most interesting and functional aspects of the space. At the end of the hallway is the shop lab on one side and the entrance to the Artlab Gallery on the other. This space brings the purposes of the building all together in one hallway, as everything that you find elsewhere in the building is there. The building also calls to mind the Bauhaus, in that it was build out of industrial materials that are not hidden or disguised but it also has a look that is uniquely its own.

The John Labatt Visual Arts Center was built in 1993 and was designed by Raymond Moriyama, who also built Museum London in the downtown of London. The building is a classroom, an art studio and a gallery space for all. When it was built, the department buried a time capsule with relevant items of the time and department. The purposes of the space can all be seen as you walk down the main hallway on the first floor of the building, which takes you by each one of these types of spaces. The building’s design shows that it was intended to be exactly what it is today, a home for the faculty of visual arts.
Light is an important aspect of the building.  The John Labatt Visual Arts Center contains many windows both in the walls and in the skylights on the ceilings. This brings a lot of natural light into the building during the day and keeps the space bright and filled with light. These windows also bring the outside into the building, allowing both the weather and the plant life around the building to be seen when inside the building. This is interesting as you can see the rain and the dark night while still inside.
Ventilation is an important factor in a building where people are going to be using art supplies which often have toxic or harmful fumes. This means that the building has many powerful fans that can clear the air of the fumes. This though creates a whirring ventilation sound that can initially be distracting to some people when in the building. Also, there are many large ventilation pipes which are found throughout the space that some might find aesthetically unpleasing, as they are not hidden (figure 4). This though is a necessary feature and the sounds fade in the mind the more time you spend in the building. These chemical fumes in fact are part of the reason that the building was even built.  Originally, the department was housed in Talbot College but the fumes caused the department to be moved to portable buildings on the present site and then eventually the present building was created ( http://www.uwo.ca/visarts/research/2008-09/artwave/main.html information in the visual arts section).
What does not work in the space for me that could be changed is the vending machines. They stick out from the rest of the rather minimal space with their bright colours and large shape. They are mostly hidden under the stairs but they still are visible and do not mesh with the overall look of the space. They are probably a key source of revenue for the university, and the company that fills them but they should probably be better integrated into the space than they are.

The colours of the building are mainly white, grey, red and various wood colours, with much of the materials used being plainly shown and not hidden or overly decorated. These colours are sparse and neutral but allow the walls and the building to be the perfect backdrop for any and all art that can be displayed on the walls and in the hallway. This concept of a perfect backdrop is key because one of the features of the building is the ever changing art displays.  These would be less impressive if overwhelmed by the building’s interior design.

The building has a hushed tone to it. Perhaps because of the gallery space or the studio space, people in the space tend to be quieter than they would be in a space like the University Community Center, which as a gathering and social space can get very loud. This could also be because of the high ceilings and the open spaces.  There is a bit of an echo, causing people to be aware of their noise.

The main hallway and concourse of the John Labatt Visual Arts Center is a unique and interesting space. The space really shows what happens in the building and draws people in. For any other faculty the space would not suit it as well but for the Visual Arts Faculty it fits perfectly.