U of G’s South Residence was considered state-of-the-art when it opened in 1968; it remains one of the largest student residence complexes in Canada.
The complex is among campus buildings highlighted in “Brutalism at Guelph: Concrete in a new light,” an ongoing exhibit in the McLaughlin Library about U of G’s late-sixties building boom that reshaped the campus.
The exhibit highlights the beton brut (“raw concrete”) style of South Residence, Lambton Hall, the library, and the MacKinnon and MacNaughton buildings.
The display was assembled from library archival materials by art history and landscape architecture students in an experiential learning course.
The students chose this photo taken from inside the newly built South Residence to illustrate the exhibit.