Beginning Tuesday, Nov. 5, former CBC Radio One host and best-selling author Jane Farrow will be on campus to guide a conversation about the dramatic changes set to occur in York’s edge precincts.
Join Farrow, the Planning Partnership and the York University Development Corporation in the Lands for Learning Studio in York Lanes to contribute your ideas for the future vibrant, mixed-use 
neighbourhoods that the City of Toronto expects will accommodate 25,000 new residents and 21,000 new jobs in the decades to come.
Jane Farrow
The Lands for Learning are located outside of the Ring Road along the south side of Steeles Avenue, west side of Keele Street and south of The Pond Road. The extension of the Spadina Subway through York’s campus, and the creation of new subway stations at Finch Avenue, the centre of campus, and at Steeles West will be an enormous catalyst for change in these areas. Just as the York University community recently helped to shape the Keele Campus Master Plan for the Academic Core, it is important to know what you think the essential elements of these new urban areas are to ensure they become good neighbours for York University before the first shovel is put in the ground.
The Lands for Learning Studio can be found in York Lanes, across the hallway from the Bookstore. It will be open Tuesdays, 10am to 3pm; Wednesdays, 10am to 1pm; and Thursdays, 10am to 3pm
The purpose of the studio is to provide an opportunity for the York University community to inform the vision for the edge precincts. The York community’s input is needed on all components of the built environment in the edge precincts – pedestrian spaces, streets, parks and open space, cycling and transit hubs, built form, housing, amenities and parking facilities. The feedback and priorities captured through this consultation program will inform and shape the Lands for Learning Guiding Principles and Planning Framework.
“The people who live, work and study on York’s Keele campus are the most important people to engage in this critical dialogue about the design and planning frameworks of the edge precincts. The 
Lands for Learning Studio invites everyone in to share their vision and ideas for making York more walkable, livable, connected and urban,” said Farrow.
The edge precincts that are the subject of the Lands for Learning Studio are shown in orange. They surround the Academic Core of the University and will be home to new neighbourhoods with thousands of residents and new jobs
The Studio will be open Tuesdays, 10am to 3pm; Wednesdays, 10am to 1pm; and Thursdays, 10am to 3pm. It is in York Lanes by the east entrance, across the corridor from the Bookstore.
The studio staff, including York University environmental studies graduate students, will guide participants to share their ideas for the Lands for Learning by engaging with a 3D model and image collaging exercises. All of the information collected from participants will be recorded by the studio team and will inform the overarching principles and broad frameworks to guide the detailed planning and design of the Lands for Learning.
What kinds of neighbourhoods would support the life of the campus? Should tall office buildings be clustered around Pioneer Village (Steeles West) Subway Station? What forms of housing should be created, and where? These are some of the questions that participants will be asked to address in conversations in the studio.
The Lands for Learning Studio is just one part of a broader consultation program to engage the York University community in how the urbanization of the edge precinct lands can enhance the vitality of the Keele campus. For those who cannot make it to the studio, new information will be regularly posted to the Lands for Learning website.