Posted Jan 27, 2009, 3:29 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 243
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I kinda doubt the viability and need with Duckworth right next door, but who knows?
Quote:
'Iceberg' touted for cooler campus
By: Nick Martin
1:00 AM | Comments (0)
UNIVERSITY of Winnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy wants to place an enormous Iceberg smack in the middle of the downtown campus.
Axworthy's ever-expanding campus could include a glass-walled field house stretching from the Duckworth Centre south to the bus loop and CBC, featuring a 200-metre indoor track, indoor soccer pitches, tennis courts, possibly an ice rink, and maybe even a swimming pool.
It would be called the Iceberg, and it would cover the west side of Spence Street and east side of Young Street, said dean of arts Dave Fitzpatrick, who chairs the president's task force on academics and athletics.
"This is more than a facility -- ultimately, it's about improving the student experience."
Fitzpatrick said U of W envisions an athletics facility that would greatly expand students' intramural and exercise programs, welcome kids from the inner city, and allow U of W to compete in a far wider range of varsity sports.
That could include varsity hockey and outdoor soccer, Fitzpatrick said.
He said U of W would be happy to partner with Gordon Bell High School, if the high school a few blocks west of campus gets an outdoor athletic field on the site of a former car dealership at Portage Avenue and Broadway.
That site is currently slated for a Canada Post building, but a community campaign is lobbying Canada Post to look elsewhere.
Within the Iceberg, "We're looking at sports that don't require a lot of space," such as high and long jumps, and pole vault, Fitzpatrick said. "At one point, there was a very vibrant fencing program. Wrestling is a very low-cost sport."
The task force is just starting to work on the financial details.
"We know we have some opportunities for funding," Fitzpatrick said. "These facilities are not cheap."
The University of Saskatchewan built a similar field house for $17 million, but that's probably on the low side, he said.
Axworthy had proposed several years ago building a recreation complex on Spence Street housing indoor soccer pitches and an indoor ice pad and arena. That idea fell through when government funding went instead to the new indoor soccer complex at the University of Manitoba.
The Iceberg would offer community recreation to inner-city children and adults, and would allow the U of W Collegiate to offer high-level athletic programs.
Fitzpatrick said the Duckworth Centre -- where U of W's volleyball and basketball teams play -- is maxed out, and the adjoining new Bill Wedlake fitness centre is oversubscribed.
The university had to drop community access to Duckworth in the 1990s because of budget cuts, but Axworthy is dedicated to bringing inner-city children into the university, Fitzpatrick said.
"He intends to have more ties to the community."
The Iceberg would feature glass walls so that passersby could see activities throughout the complex.
A day-care centre and university offices on Spence would be moved into larger quarters elsewhere on campus, Fitzpatrick said. A new day-care centre is part of the science complex under construction two blocks west on Portage.
The task force report is available at http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/cms-fi...mics-jan14.pdf
[email protected]
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