In 2010, the institution formally adopted its current title, including the university designation in its name to reflect its maturation and change in degree-granting powers.

[5][note 3] On 4 April 1876, the Ontario Society of Artists passed the motion to "draw up a scheme" for a school of art, which later led to its creation on 30 October 1876, funded by a government grant of $1,000.

The Ontario School of Art initially opened at 14 King Street West[6] with a class of 25 students, headed by artist Thomas Mower Martin as the founding director, a position he held for the next three years.

[15] The institution was incorporated as the Ontario College of Art with George Agnew Reid named as its first principal.

[citation needed] In 1957, the college's main campus received its first physical extension, which has since abutted the eastern side of the original schoolhouse.

[19] The institution remained the Ontario College of Art until 1996 when it was reorganized as the Ontario College of Art and Design,[19] a change intended to recognize its inclusion of design education, raise its media and industry profile, as well as better position it for a transition from a diploma- to a degree-granting body.

[27][28] The college also underwent further changes to its internal operations whereby, in 2002, the Legislature of Ontario granted OCAD university status along with the limited authority to confer bachelor's degrees in fine arts and design under its name.

[6] During the university’s years as a nascent institution, it had relocated to several different buildings in Toronto, many of which have been decommissioned or demolished over time.

Only in the early 20th century did the school establish its own purpose-built structure, on the grounds of what is now Grange Park, a two-hectare green space that was once the front lawn of a nineteenth-century estate.

[31][32] As a result, the university's campus is embedded within the surrounding neighbourhoods that have developed alongside it, rather than in an enclosed area with contiguous buildings, as is standard with most other post-secondary institutions.

The current campus is spread across a combination of owned, co-owned, and leased properties in Toronto’s downtown core.

[33] The campus in the Grange Park and Entertainment District precincts is accessible by public transportation via St. Patrick and Osgoode stations on Line 1, as well as the 505 Dundas and 501 Queen streetcar routes.

Physically, the campus’s buildings vary in age and aesthetics, ranging from the revival architecture of the 19th century to the more contemporary design language of the present.

Dating back to 1887, the oldest structures on campus are 74–76 McCaul Street, which are semi-detached Victorian houses that are not used as academic facilities, but have instead been converted into an independent art supply store for students, faculty, and the public.

[36][37]Likewise, the repurposed mid-rise buildings at the intersection of Richmond Street West and Duncan Street, including 205 and 240 Richmond, hold heritage status; they are among the few remaining brick warehouses from an industrial area formerly known as the Garment District, which existed in the early to mid-20th century.

[26][28][44] The contemporary addition, often described as a table top, consists of a black and white box that is supported by a series of multi-coloured pillars at different angles.

[55] As its name suggests, the Annex is an interconnected building, which shares its ground floor with a small retail concourse that serves the local, residential, and university communities.

In 1998, a separate 2.5-storey building at the corner of McCaul and Dundas Street was acquired and named the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion.

[19] Further campus renovations and enlargements were followed in 2016 through the university’s Ignite Imagination campaign, which aimed to raise $60 million to renovate 95,000 sq ft of existing space while adding another 55,000 sq ft of new construction — the largest fundraiser in the university’s history.

[57][58] The two-phased project included the revamped interior and exterior of the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion, which incorporates a stainless steel facade scrim that is based on a map of Toronto.

Along with the Art Gallery of Ontario, the pavilion is intended to act as a "gateway" to the university's premises by flanking the southern part of the Dundas-McCaul Street intersection.

[61] Located on the second floor of the Annex Building, the library offers several information programs and resources to support academic research for students and faculty members.

[61] Since 2009, the Learning Zone has been located on the ground level, functioning as an open study area and computer lab for individual and group work;[63] it also contains a small selection of zines and printed matter made by current and former students.

The latter organization, headed by faculty member Jutta Treviranus, serves as a hub for research into inclusive designs for information and communications technology; eight other post-secondary institutions also partner with the IDI.

The council consists of volunteer members who represent the interests and concerns of both the internal and broader Indigenous community.

[98] In accordance with the Aboriginal Post Secondary Education and Training Policy Framework (APSET), the council exists to ensure that Indigenous peoples are consistently and regularly engaged in discussions and decision-making within the institution.

In the 2019–20 academic year, approximately 67 per cent of first-year full-time undergraduates received some form of financial aid.

[103] In addition to OCADSU, a variety of cultural, social, and recreational student groups are officially registered with the university.

This includes all the original members from the Group of Seven: Franklin Carmichael, A. J. Casson, A. Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley; as well as several members from the Canadian Group of Painters and the Painters Eleven, including Anna Savage, George Pepper, Yvonne McKague Housser, Jack Bush, and Harold Town.

Other notable alumni and faculty members from the institution include Barbara Astman, Aba Bayefsky, J. W. Beatty, David Blackwood, David Bolduc, Dennis Burton, Ian Carr-Harris, Charles Comfort, Graham Coughtry, Greg Curnoe, Ken Danby, Azadeh Elmizadeh,[citation needed] Allan Fleming, Richard Gorman, Fred S. Haines, Charles William Jefferys, Burton Kramer, Nobuo Kubota, Isabel McLaughlin, Lucius Richard O'Brien, John Scott, Michael Snow, Lisa Steele, and Colette Whiten.