Algonquin College Student Commons |

[waterloowarrior]

http://www.algonquincollege.com/expansion/student_commons.htm

http://algonquincollege.com/expansion/images/ExpansionCommonsPage2_000.jpg

http://algonquincollege.com/expansion/images/ExpansionCommonsPage_000.jpg

http://algonquincollege.com/expansion/images/ExpansionCommonsPageSmall.jpg

http://algonquincollege.com/expansion/images/ExpansionCommonsPage3.jpg


Student Commons

Quick Facts
Cost: $52 million
Size: 110,000 square-feet
Sustainability certification: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Projected completion: Fall 2012
Design-build team: Prime Contractor - PCL Constructors, Prime Consultants/Architects - IBI Group Architects / Teeple Architects, Structural Engineering Consultants - Adjeleian Allen Rubeli, Mechanical / Electrical Engineering Consultants - Crossey Engineering

Features:


700-seat auditorium, for concerts, theatrical productions, and lectures
Student commons spaces, complete with private study areas
Centralized student support services
Expanded Mamidosewin Aboriginal Student Centre
Student meeting rooms and club spaces
Counselling Services
Centre for Students with Disabilities
Student Employment Services
Student Success Centre
International food outlet
Expanded New Technology Store
Travel and Tourism Lab
Outdoor green spaces, including a ceremonial grove connected to the Mamidosewin Centre and a large urban park fronting the main entrance
Wired to support the “learning anywhere” initiative which envisages that Algonquin will be a fully mobile college by 2013
A new home for the Ombudsperson


The building will be built adjacent to the existing home of the College’s Hospitality and Tourism programs, and serve as a gateway for visitors arriving via the eastern approach to the campus, including the College’s principal parking areas. An official ground-breaking ceremony is set for April 2011 and construction will begin soon after. The building will open in September 2012.

Timeline:

Feb - Apr 2011 - IDP Handover Session, Design Charrettes & Workshops
May 2011 - Construction starts
May - July 2011 - Renovation of D (Bookstore) and H (at link) Buildings
July 2012 - Furniture move/installation
Aug 2012 - Occupancy
Sept 2012 - Building opens

[MountainView]

I really like the look of this Building and also think it is something that is needed for their campus. But where will the cars park that currently park in the parking lot that will be destroyed to make room for this building? I remember a discussion and newspaper article from not long ago saying too many student's already park at Baseline station (illegally) and that the school lacks enough parking spaces as it is.

[reidjr]

I really like the look of this Building and also think it is something that is needed for their campus. But where will the cars park that currently park in the parking lot that will be destroyed to make room for this building? I remember a discussion and newspaper article from not long ago saying too many student's already park at Baseline station (illegally) and that the school lacks enough parking spaces as it is.

I think they will have to build a tier parking maybe 3 or 4 levels or partner with the city and allow access to the park and ride but the students would have to pay.

[McC]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/iphone/commons+building+heart+Algonquin+campus/4449365/story.html

New $52M commons building to be ‘heart’ of Algonquin campus

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen
Algonquin College has released architectural drawings for its new, $52-million student commons building, which is scheduled to open September 2012.
OTTAWA — Algonquin College has unveiled plans to build a $52-million student commons in the centre of its growing Ottawa campus.

The college and the Algonquin Students’ Association are partnering up to build the 110,000-square foot building, which many hope will become the heart of the campus.

“It’s one of the most exciting projects we’ve ever done and to do it in partnership with the students is really exciting,” said Mike Rushton, Algonquin’s director of physical resources.

“The students wanted us to create a heart of the campus, a place which draws them in,” Rushton said.

“Our goal is that every student every day will be in the Students Commons at least once.”

Anchored by a 700-seat auditorium, the new building will combine work and play. It will house a wide variety of student support services, including counselling and employment services, the Centre for Students with Disabilities, the Mamidosewin Aboriginal Student Centre and offices for the students’ association.

It will also feature a food court, computer store and lots of space for students to meet and study.

“We’ve come together with both our services and with the students’ association’s spaces to create some degree of one-stop shopping,” Rushton said, adding the campus currently lacks informal meeting spaces for students.

The Ottawa campus’ student population now exceeds 17,000.

The student commons will be built near College Square, adjacent to the existing home of the college’s Hospitality and Tourism programs, and will serve as a gateway for visitors arriving via the eastern approach to the campus, including the college’s main parking areas.

The students’ association has raised $30 million and the college will contribute an additional $22 million to the project, which will be built to LEEDS Gold certification.

The angular, silver building — which was designed by Toronto architect Stephen Teeple — features huge windows and an open, three-storey atrium that looks out onto new green spaces.

Construction is set to begin in the next few months and the building is expected to be complete by September 2012.

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com


pity it's being built for students arriving via the parking lot rather than in conjunction with the new transit station.

[drizzo_613]

Oct 06, 2011
Photo taken by me

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dnNV1FSAmaZN_XTF10Mmog?feat=directlink

For some reason it won't let me post the photo onto this forum so the link takes you directly to the web album.

[Uhuniau]

pity it's being built for students arriving via the parking lot rather than in conjunction with the new transit station.

Would you expect anything else in this visionless lame-ass shittown?

[drizzo_613]

Would you expect anything else in this visionless lame-ass shittown?

what a stupid and pointless comment. They just built a new building on the other side of woodroffe with a large commons area on the 2nd floor that also connects directly to the other buildings through a pedestrian bridge. It's directly beside the transitway and has a new underground tunnel built alongside the building which will likely be used for lrt in the future.

The NEW student commons building is directly in front of the only student residences at algonquin campus, and is easy access to many of the surrounding apartments and townhouses where many of the students walk to school from.

[Uhuniau]

what a stupid and pointless comment. They just built a new building on the other side of woodroffe with a large commons area on the 2nd floor that also connects directly to the other buildings through a pedestrian bridge.

Yip. All the better to keep the flow of auto traffic unimpeded. Also, look at the beautiful chain-link fence they installed on Woodroffe to drive that point home. (It's a future heritage chain-link fence.)

This entire area could have been a transit-oriented development. Instead you have Algonquin building buildings with their assholes facing the street, "College Square" oriented entirely towards the parking lots with blank walls and emergency exits facing the roadways, a brutalistic college residence that deadens the street it's supposedly on; on and on it goes.

Development near transit != transit-oriented. It's the same old ugly, pedestrian-unfriendly, stultifying garbage that's been par for the course in Ottawa for forty years.

So yes: lame-ass shittown.

[RTWAP]

Yip. All the better to keep the flow of auto traffic unimpeded. Also, look at the beautiful chain-link fence they installed on Woodroffe to drive that point home. (It's a future heritage chain-link fence.)

This entire area could have been a transit-oriented development. Instead you have Algonquin building buildings with their assholes facing the street, "College Square" oriented entirely towards the parking lots with blank walls and emergency exits facing the roadways, a brutalistic college residence that deadens the street it's supposedly on; on and on it goes.

Development near transit != transit-oriented. It's the same old ugly, pedestrian-unfriendly, stultifying garbage that's been par for the course in Ottawa for forty years.

So yes: lame-ass shittown.

You didn't address his points.

[Uhuniau]

You didn't address his points.

What were those points?

[waterloowarrior]

12 May 2012

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8007/7185916896_3e2d41c646_b.jpg

[waterloowarrior]

streetview - September 2012
http://goo.gl/maps/rcE7p

[waterloowarrior]

construction
oU0ZpavGH9g

[TransitZilla]

I'm not a huge fan of this building from the outside, but I visited it recently and it is quite stunning inside.

Also, I am told that Algonquin is now planning a new building on the site of the current temporary Baseline station, to be built after the new tunnelled station opens. That building will supposedly house the health sciences school and will include some retail for the convenience of transit users.

[Uhuniau]

I'm not a huge fan of this building from the outside, but I visited it recently and it is quite stunning inside.

Also, I am told that Algonquin is now planning a new building on the site of the current temporary Baseline station, to be built after the new tunnelled station opens. That building will supposedly house the health sciences school and will include some retail for the convenience of transit users.

Will be it be as crappily designed with regard to its surroundings as that god-awful thing with grass on the top of it, I wonder?

[TransitZilla]

Will be it be as crappily designed with regard to its surroundings as that god-awful thing with grass on the top of it, I wonder?

Couldn't tell you, but I can tell you that your attitude sucks.