Parkway Vocational School

(Now City Adult Learning Centre)
Toronto Board of Education staff, 1961

The largest and most architecturally ambitious of the Pennington schools, this was constructed as a vocational high school with federal and provincial funding.

The six-storey main wing held classrooms for vocational study including tailoring and printing, as well as classrooms specifically for low-vision and hard of hearing students. Windows here are angled to the north, to capture north light with minimal glare. The main wing is flanked by a parking garage (which once had protruding balconies) and to the south by a large auditorium with a structure of precast concrete arches and a basement swimming pool.

Coloured glass panels on the south facade are the same variety that appears at two other Pennington schools.

In 1964, board official Robert Ferguson cast the school as an example of “vertical growth,” as well as evidence that “schools need not be sterile, box-like structures, but should add something to the look and feel of a city changing .. as it never has before in its history.”

As of 2021, the school is rated as being in poor condition, has been altered and may be under threat. Toronto Lands Corporation, TDSB’s real estate agency, has considered redeveloping the site.

Coloured glass panels on the south facade are the same variety that appears at two other Pennington schools.

In 1964, board official Robert Ferguson cast the school as an example of “vertical growth,” as well as evidence that “schools need not be sterile, box-like structures, but should add something to the look and feel of a city changing .. as it never has before in its history.”

As of 2021, the school is rated as being in poor condition, has been altered and may be under threat. Toronto Lands Corporation, TDSB’s real estate agency, has considered redeveloping the site.