UBC Reports | Vol. 50 | No. 8 | Sep. 2, 2004

Cranes Flying for Academic / Residential Growth Spurt

By Hilary Thomson

Construction is booming at UBC with more than $600 million in institutional and housing projects underway. Projects range from student housing to galleries and research centres as well as town homes and condominiums in four of the eight campus neighbourhoods that comprise UBC’s residentially oriented University Town.

Approximately 80 per cent of construction is for academic purposes with major funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, B.C. Knowledge Development Fund and the provincial government’s Double the Opportunity Fund that supports a plan to double the number of students graduating each year in computing science and engineering.

Here is a sampling of some current construction and design projects:

1. The UBC Life Sciences Centre is a fast-tracked
construction program that will provide more than 40,000 sq. metres of interdisciplinary research and education
facilities and help UBC’s Faculty of Medicine reach its
goal of almost doubling the number of graduating
medical students by 2010.

Scheduled completion: August 2004 - May 2005
Capital budget: $109 million

2. The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre will retain the heritage core of the Main Library, add approximately 18,000 sq. metres of new building and more than 4,000 sq. metres of renovated floor space. The centre -- fully equipped to support wireless technology -- will offer a state-of-the-art storage and retrieval system.

Scheduled completion: May 2005 (Phase 1), November 2006 (Phase 2)
Capital budget: $68 million

3. The Michael Smith Laboratories and UBC Bioinformatics Centre is a 7,675-sq.- metre, four-storey leading edge laboratory that will help UBC continue its national leadership in the field of genomics. The building name honours the memory of the late Michael Smith, UBC professor, 1993 Nobel laureate and founder of UBC’s Biotechnology Lab.

Scheduled completion: September 2004
Capital budget: $30 million

4. The Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory is a 5,752-sq.-metre four-storey facility that will bring three existing research units under one roof: the UBC Fisheries Centre, The Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the B.C. Fisheries Research Unit.

Scheduled completion: June 2005
Capital budget: $15 million

5. The Multi-user Facility for Functional Proteomics will be attached to the existing Biomedical Research Centre. This new facility will provide space for a cluster of three multi-user facilities including the UBC Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting Facility and a mass spectrometer.

Scheduled completion: December 2004
Capital budget: $7 million

6. The Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems / Computer Science is a fast-tracked project designed to strengthen and create new interdisciplinary research links among computer science, electrical, computer and mechanical engineering, medicine and health care, educational technology, psychology, commerce, process industries and utility systems. The facilities will be directly connected to the existing Centre for Integrated Computer Systems Research building.

Scheduled completion: December 2004
Capital budget: $40 million

7. The Fred Kaiser Building, formerly the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building, is an 8,900-sq.-metre facility that will house the Faculty of Applied Science’s Electrical and Computer Engineering departments. The site, between Main Mall and an inner courtyard framed by the existing MacLeod and Civil Engineering / Mechanical Engineering buildings, will link Main Mall and the Cheez Factory through an interior atrium, which will also serve as the new main entry for the Engineering precinct.

Scheduled completion: February 2005
Capital budget: $26 million

8. The Chemical and Biological Engineering Building
supports the provincial government initiative to double the number of graduates in Engineering and Science. The 11, 500-sq.-metre building provides a replacement facility for the Chemistry and Biological Engineering Department and a new facility for the Clean Energy Research Centre.

Scheduled completion: September 2005
Capital budget: $38 million

9. The new five-storey $17 million Dentistry Building will serve as a gateway to the University Boulevard Neighbourhood, part of University Town. The approximately 11,000-sq.-metre building includes above- and below-ground parking, ground floor retail space, a new state-of-the-art dentistry clinic on the second floor and additional university office space.

Scheduled completion: September 2005

10. Almost 2,000 units of student housing will be available with the construction of Marine Residences, a six-building complex. The UBC Properties Trust development includes retail space and a one-storey Commons Block building with a reception area, ballroom, fireside lounge, exercise room and other amenities. Phase 1 is currently underway and includes 600 beds.

Capital budget: $138 million
Scheduled completion date: Phase 1- August 2005

11. Residential housing includes a variety of condominiums and town homes located in the Hawthorn Place neighbourhood in the mid-campus area. Promontory, developed by Polygon, is an 18-storey tower that will be the most westerly high-rise in Vancouver. Reflections and Journey, two developments by Adera, comprise almost 160 condominium units in the same neighbourhood.

In addition, developer Ledingham McAllister is creating Westchester and Somerset, a group of 40 town homes in the heart of Hawthorn Place.

12. At Chancellor Place, Intracorp is developing more than 170 apartments, condominiums and town homes, including Chancellor House and Argyll House.

UBC Properties Trust, together with Polygon Homes Inc., initiated the relocation of fraternities from their existing leased land sites onto the UBC Campus at 2280 Wesbrook. The relocation provides seven new fraternity houses with accommodation for approximately 240 students.

UBC Properties Trust plans and oversees the construction of large institutional buildings on campus. For more information on these facilities, visit www.ubcproperties.com. Information on housing sites can be obtained through the commercial development companies responsible for construction. Information on University Town can be found at www.universitytown.ubc.ca.

(with files from UBC Properties Trust)