Dec 9, 2016
This week, Ken talks to leaders from 14 Ontario universities about the latest new construction and renovations on campus, and extrapolates some major trends in campus construction, which reflect institutional priorities and new trends in student services.
Major Facelifts:
Laurentian University has just completed a $34 M campus renewal
program, renovating 9 buildings and virtually every classroom. The
University of Windsor has closed campus roads to traffic, and
replaced parking lots and dilapidated buildings with green space,
pedestrian pathways and outdoor furniture. OCAD University is
undertaking the renewal and expansion of 150,000 sq ft at its
downtown “Creative City Campus”.
Downtown Satellites:
The University of Windsor has renovated the Windsor Armouries to
house its School of Creative Arts and Music faculties, the former
Greyhound Bus Depot to hold its Film program, and the former
Windsor Star building to house the Centre for Professional and
Executive Education and the Social Work program. OCAD will be
opening an extension campus in the Waterfront “City of the Arts”,
and will be opening the Mirvish-Gehry Centre for Visual Art & Art
History.
Extroverted Social Space:
Western University has added significant capacity for student
social and study space, in residences, academic and administrative
buildings. Ryerson University has opened its new remarkable new
Student Learning Centre, “the library of the future,” with distinct
layouts and environments on each floor. Lakehead and Trent are
breaking ground on new Student Centres. Queen’s has added two new
residences, Brant House and Smith House. Lakehead has opened a new
residence and cafeteria building in Orillia. Laurentian has a new
Great Hall.
Student Services:
Lakehead and Laurentian are building new one-stop centres. Queen’s
is integrating all of its student wellness services in one
location, in the former Phys Ed building. OCAD is building a new
Indigenous Cultural Centre. Laurentian is just finishing a new
Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre. Lakehead has created a new
international Students Centre.
Libraries:
Algoma University has just completed renovations to its library.
OCAD is expanding its library three-fold, to create a new “Library
of the Future” with collaborative space. Trent is hoping to do a
major retrofit of the Bata Library, an iconic but 50-year-old
building.
Flexible Classrooms:
Algoma is planning to renovate its main building to create a more
student-centred campus. Laurentian has retrofitted virtually all of
its Sudbury classrooms with half a dozen LCD displays, flexible
seating and tables. Western is renovating its oldest building,
University College, to make it more modern, and experimental new
active learning spaces have proven very popular with faculty and
students.
Entrepreneurial Spaces:
Many campuses are building space on campus for incubators,
accelerators, makerspaces and research parks. Western has its
Propel accelerator. Queen’s is building a new Innovation incubator
for the faculty of Engineering. Ryerson has the Launch Zone in its
new SLC. UOIT is constructing a new $100 M Centre for Advanced
Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Trent is developing a new
100-acre Research & Innovation Park to focus on Clean Tech. Brock
University has just received federal funding to create a new
innovation centre.
STEM Space:
Brock opened its Cairns Building two years ago, with 271
state-of-the-art labs. uWindsor has a new Engineering building.
Carleton is building a new Health Sciences building. Laurentian has
its new $20 M Vale Living with Lakes Centre. UOIT has broken ground
on a new Infomatics Research building, to open Fall 2017. uOttawa
has built the Advanced Research Complex, including the largest
Photonics centre in Ontario and Canada’s only accelerated mass
spectrometer, and is about to start building a new STEM centre.
Western is building a new 100,000 sq ft Engineering building.
Professional Faculties:
Lakehead has just completed renovating the former Port Arthur
Collegiate for its new Faculty of Law. Brock is building a $22 M
addition to its Goodman School of Business. Laurentian has
completed its new $45 M MacEwan School of Architecture.
Overall, these campus construction trends reflect some long-term program trends, and new emphasis on student services.
Ryerson Student Learning Centre -
https://youtu.be/5PfR-IEM96M
uWindsor Engineering Building - https://youtu.be/Dr2ec7dNd7I
uWindsor Downtown Campuses - https://youtu.be/KrF7F7NWaB4
uWindsor Campus Time Lapse - https://youtu.be/dsFYTabpOwI