Preliminary concept drawing of the proposed College Quarter development.
By Colleen MacPherson
The University is about to begin testing the waters with a concept that would transform the neighbourhood around campus, and help the institution meet its goals for student enrolment.
A broad consultation process is being set up to gather feedback on the College Quarter proposal, a development on land bordered by College Drive, Preston Ave., 14th Street and Cumberland that has as its anchor residences for U of S students. Judy Yungwirth, director of Corporate Administration, said the concept is a continuation of the search for a viable way of meeting student housing needs in an extremely hot construction market.
“It’s a University principle that all student residences be self-financing, which means rents cover costs. But in today’s climate, you can’t build a residence that will be able to sustain itself financially when you factor in construction costs or programming, which we see as being an important part of student life,” she said. “We’ve worked for a couple of years on plans for residences both on campus and at College and Cumberland and we’ve come to the realization there’s going to have to be a large contribution from the University or a major donor.”
The solution, she said, seems to be development of a larger community that generates some revenue to offset the cost of the residences.
Early in 2006, the University became aware of outside interest in this kind of development, namely from Vancouver architect and developer Stanley Kwok, whose wife Eva is a former dean of the College of Home Economics. Yungwirth said Kwok had an initial look at the site in August and held discussions with University officials about the various proposals for residences that have been put forward over the years. In the fall, Kwok was engaged to do an initial concept plan.
“We want to create an environment, a neighbourhood environment that students will want to come to,” said James Cook, manager of business opportunities in Corporate Administration. “ Stanley understood that. He understands that this can be a selling point when we’re recruiting students.”
Stressing that “we’re just dreaming at this point,” Yungwirth said the College Quarter concept includes a number of elements:
* a variety of residence options for students
* market housing built on the principles of high design and sustainability “but highly identified as part of the University”
* commercial services appropriate to a residential development such as a drug store and dry cleaner
* grocery store
* entertainment facilities, possibly including the proposed fine and performing arts centre
* recreation facilities such as a twin ice arena
* a living complex for senior citizens
* a land bridge connecting College Quarter to the main campus
There is also a great deal of emphasis placed on environmental sustainability in the concept, said Cook. There will be more pathways than roads and no surface parking. The plan also includes a water feature connecting various parts of the development. This, said Cook, could be used for recreation purposes but it also meets the city’s goal for storm water management in the area. (continued)
http://www.usask.ca/communications/ocn/07-feb-02/11.php
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