[MonctonRad]

MTA building makeover focuses on students

Mount Allison Student Centre will have official grand opening Sept. 27

BY NICK MOORE
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF

Mount Allison's Trueman House may look the same on the outside, but changes made inside have shaken the 63-year-old building to its core. For starters, the building is now being called the Mount Allison University Student Centre. A change in title is just the beginning.


What used to be a men's dormitory now houses the school's admissions office, the university bookstore, a student health centre, a physical fitness complex, student council administrative offices, the school newspaper and campus radio station, an international student centre, a student cafe and a pub.

Located on the York Street part of Mt. A's campus, the 700,000 square-foot (6,500 square-metre) building's renovations began in 2005 and when completed in less than a month's time, the cost will total about $14.4 million. Some of the costs were covered by university fundraisers. The provincial government also chipped in $3 million for the project.

The centre is already operating with just a few finishing touches to be made before its official opening on Sept. 27, during Sackville's Homecoming Days.

"It's kind of like the ultimate recycling project," sayd Laura Dillman Ripley, spokeswoman for the university, with regard to the building's transformation.

In fact, recycling, and to a larger extent the environment, were major considerations taken while revamping the building.

A new multi-storey atrium has been constructed in the centre of the building to introduce natural daylight into its core while administrative lighting has been switched over to an energy efficient fluorescent source. Daylight sensors and motion sensors have been installed to provide automatic control of lighting in areas which aren't continuously occupied such as washrooms, service rooms and closets.

Also, all plumbing inside the building is now of the low flow type. As an alternative to using potable water, a rainwater collection system will harvest rainwater for use with urinals and toilets.

The building's environmental plan, in addition to the centralization of student services, have made the university's student administrative council president a fan of the new set up.

"I think it's fantastic because we have so many services now in just one building," says Michael Currie. "Our hope this year is to make it the social hub of Mount Allison."

Personal note - I was really torn as to whether to post this in the Moncton thread or here. If Sackville was 10 minutes closer to Moncton it would be considered a suburb. Mount Allison is about as distant from downtown Moncton as Halifax Stanfield Airport is from downtown Halifax.