UBC/UEL Updates Discussion

[Alex Mackinnon]

The referendum only got about 70% for that question. It needed 75%.

[mr.x]

UBC students are being given the vote to shortlist the top 3 firms to design the new $120-million, 250,000 sq. foot Student Union Building. The options are:


Bunting Coady Architects: April 6, noon

Busby Perkins+Will: April 7, 11 a.m.

Bing Thom Architects: April 7, noon

HBBH+BH: April 8, 11 a.m.

Cannon Design: April 8, noon

Henriquez Partners Architects / IBI Group: April 9, 11:00 a.m.

Stantec Architecture / 3XN: April 9, noon

[wrenegade]

Anyone out there to take pictures?

[AlexYVR]

I got some from a few of the presentations, I'll try and post them later. The boards are still up in the SUB if anyone's around.

[squeezied]

I believe the presentations can be viewed online at the ams website. Here's the email I got.

Attention all UBC students,

The NEW SUB team will be hosting a student-wide vote to select three architects who will present proposals for the New Student Union Building. Seven architecture firms have been shortlisted to participate. Each firm will give a presentation in the South Alcove in SUB (behind the Starbucks) discussing four topics: their team, their past projects, their approach to student engagement, and their approach to sustainability. Students are encouraged to attend and ask questions. Posters describing each firm will also be up in the South Alcove during the presentation and voting week and information, including a short video clip by each firm, will be posted on the AMS website (www.ams.ubc.ca).

Presentation Schedule: April 6 - 9 (Tuesday to Friday) at 11:00 a.m. and noon.

Students can cast their votes online. Polls will be open April 13 - 15. The winners will be announced Friday, April 16.

Please contact Jensen Metchie, SUB Renewal Coordinator at [email protected] for further information.

[nova9]

Just went to the website, I can't see to find a link to the proposals through ams - perhaps each individual firm will have their proposal on their own website?

[deasine]

The videos won't be available until all the firms are complete (for "fairness" according to AMS). All I can say about the architectural session is not to expect actual renderings. Everything's quite preliminary right now.

AMS, by the way, was quite highly disorganized when putting this together. Really, UBC needs a consistent campus plan, and integration of UBC Properties, AMS SUB, and UEL.

[wrenegade]

The individual firms themselves do not have anything up on their websites, already checked that. I suppose we'll have to wait to see something on the AMS site.

[AlexYVR]

Originally Posted by awvan

The individual firms themselves do not have anything up on their websites, already checked that. I suppose we'll have to wait to see something on the AMS site.

A little surprised acarne hasn't covered this yet so I'll jump in for him - good write ups of each of the firm presentations at http://blogs.ubc.ca/ubcinsiders/.

[mr.x]

My top 3 choices, in no particular order:

- Bing Thom
- Henriquez Partners/IBI
- Stantec

[deasine]

I'm too lazy to link the videos, view them at:
http://www2.ams.ubc.ca/index.php/ams...ect_selection/

[jlousa]

They are all good firms and capable of producing a great product. I think Bubsy and Henriquez would probably produce the best product from what's been asked.

Interesting if you watch the Bubsy video at 3:08 there is a glimpse of the the Marine Drive PCI proposal. Not digging the look of the model, seems a bit different from the renders, not sure which ones would be the latest.

[flight_from_kamakura]

interesting stuff. i hope stantec gets it to break up the monotony a bit.

[deasine]

My picks are Busby, Henriquez, and HBBH+BH.

[Spork]

So long as it has a random protruding cube from it, any will do.

[squeezied]

my choices are

-Busby Perkins+Will
-Henriquez Partners Architects / IBI Group
-either Stantec Architecture / 3XN or Bing Thom Architects ...can't decide

[andcarne]

My Choices:
- Bing Thom
- Busby Perkins + Will
- HBBH + BH

I unfortunately only managed to make it to the presentations by Bing Thom, Busby, and Stantec/3XN, but I've checked out the videos and of course read the UBCInsiders coverage.

I must say though, Bing Thom stood out very far ahead for me. Smaller firm, which means they take on less projects but their whole team is involved; they've done beautiful but functional work in the past; a significant portion of their team are UBC grads; they seem incredibly dedicated to student consultation (they even went back into the AMS archives to prepare for this presentation!)

Originally Posted by deasine

AMS, by the way, was quite highly disorganized when putting this together. Really, UBC needs a consistent campus plan, and integration of UBC Properties, AMS SUB, and UEL.

I'm curious as to why you say the AMS was highly disorganized putting this together. From what I saw it was executed quite well, particularly considering the short timeline and the large amount of negotiations that have been going on in the past months.

I'll agree with you that UBC needs a consistent campus plan, however I'm going to have to disagree about integrating the UEL. Planning on campus seems to be a bit of a moot point from everything I've seen. Plans are put together by a small group of individuals in C&CP, often neglecting strong community backlash or negative feedback (ie underground bus loop). Down the road when it comes to implementation, the negative feedback one again comes up, and as a result things don't get built. To me, it would seem the logical solution is to create plans that the majority agree with off the bat.

With respect to the UEL, I'm afraid trying to bring them into this process is both pointless and a waste of time. From my experience on campus, they generally seem to complain and oppose just about any new construction anywhere near them. The hight of NIMBYism, if you will. For instance, the reason the bus loop needs to be moved is because UEL residents have complained about busses being parked down Wesbrook, even though there is enough vegetation between Wesbrook and houses that the busses aren't visible.

The point about integration with Properties is a bit of a touchy one. There has been long standing issues, particularly with student-led projects, of Properties taking over and creating what they think the building should be, with limited amounts of student input. The UBC building approval process is very much structured towards this, with architects usually being shortlisted by a committee containing only one or two user representatives, and then the final choice being made by Properties. It's very much a victory for students and the AMS that they were able to negotiate the architect selection process the way they did. These negotiations, however, took a lot of time and hard work, and concessions had to be made by both sides.

[flight_from_kamakura]

i like hbbh's note about integrating the knoll. the thing with thom and busby is that whatever they produce will look about the same as everything else on the campus. there's an almost delirious consistency to the architecture out yonder, and imo, the best thing here would be to break with all that and build something wild. though again, i think thom and busby really do 'get' what the ams is thinking.

[WaxItYourself]

I don't know how to delete messages

[deasine]

Clearly Bing Thom knows we exist.

"
The Skyscraper Page forum...another venue to read about the @amsubc #newsubproject discussion http://tiny.cc/pv62i @ubcnews @UBC"

Via Facebook

By the way, I didn't choose Bing Thom because I'm sure they will win this first initial stage. Didn't have the opportunity to attend their presentation, which was rather disappointing.

WRT andcarne, the issue is that UBC, AMS, and UEL often have their own plans. It's certainly getting better, and UBC Planning realizes they need to begin integrating plans and developing a campus plan that reflects the values of the stakeholders. While I understand the hate for NIMBYs, which is a prevailing theme for pretty much all members at SSP, it's certainly not helping to develop community relations if you ignore a group of people that will be affected by a certain project. If you have everyone participating, you can generally find some sort of common group and you can also properly educate people to make better decisions and having more ideas.

I realize it's not easy to organize such a project in such little time, and don't get me wrong, I don't think AMS did a bad job, I just felt they didn't properly get all the equipment working until after the first presentation.