History repeats for former Bay clerk turned U of A dean
Long-dormant downtown landmark set to reopen
Keith Gerein, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 6:37 am

EDMONTON - Though it seems a lifetime ago, Katy Campbell still remembers walking through the familiar Jasper Avenue doors of the Hudson's Bay store.

Many of her high school and college days were spent in the historic building, working the cash register, stocking merchandise and performing other duties for the department store.

Starting this fall, Campbell will again use the same doors each day she arrives for work as dean of the University of Alberta's Faculty of Extension.
Barry Temple, associate director of infrastructure for the University fo Alberta, overlooks the atrium at the old downtown Bay building, now known as Enterprise Square -- a satellite campus of the University of Alberta.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/edjn/20070902/207021-65720.jpg
Barry Temple, associate director of infrastructure for the University fo Alberta, overlooks the atrium at the old downtown Bay building, now known as Enterprise Square -- a satellite campus of the University of Alberta.
Larry Wong, the Journal

She'll be joined by some 600 employees and up to 10,000 students as the university puts the finishing touches on its $100-million overhaul of the old landmark, renamed Enterprise Square.

"It's an iconic place for a lot of Albertans, and for me, it's certainly feels like a part of my history," she said. "There is an excitement that comes with that, being on Jasper Avenue at a time when the city is revitalizing the downtown core. It's a perfect time for us to be here." While the building's main entrance remains unchanged, the interior has received a major makeover from the time when Campbell served as a Bay clerk. The renovations, she said, are necessary to provide students with a "state-of-the-art learning experience." All of the classrooms are outfitted with modern technology, including video units, drop-down projection screens, wireless Internet and outlets for laptops.

Different types of meeting rooms and gathering spaces are spread throughout the 475,000-square-foot (42,750-square-metre) structure, giving students and staff comfortable areas to work on group projects, hold study sessions or sip coffee with friends.

There will also be plenty of natural light, spilling down from windows on the newly added fouth floor through a wide central atrium.

Combined with the extensive use of glass walls, Enterprise Square will offer an open, welcoming atmosphere that the university hopes will draw in a variety of downtown workers and residents, said Barry Temple, the U of A's associate director of infrastructure.

"It's designed to be a very public-oriented facility," he said. "The whole intent is to create an environment so that anyone can look around and see what everyone else is doing in the building." For staff and students needing to move back and forth between the two university campuses, convenient access is provided via a pedway that leads directly into the Bay LRT station, Temple added.

Desperate for space, the university could have built a new structure on its main campus, but the Bay Building offered the chance to construct something quickly and at a reasonable price, U of A Provost Carl Amrhein said.

"We needed space, we needed it fast, and we were just at the beginning of what turned out to be a fierce cost escalation in the construction industry," he said. "So we moved, in hindsight, at exactly the right time.

"It's on time, it's on budget, it's filled, and as far as I can tell, it's drop-dead gorgeous." While some staff have already moved in and classes are set to begin this month, the new facility is still very much a construction site. Work is expected to continue until at least mid-November.

Besides the extension faculty, which offers continuing education courses, Enterprise Square will be home to the School of Business's executive program and business family institute. TEC Edmonton, an agency designed to help commercialize local research, is also setting up shop.

Like the building itself, the programs moving in are a blend of the old and the new, Amrhein said.

The faculty of extension is a particularly good fit because it was one of the U of A's first faculties, and has always had a mandate of bringing university programs to different types of learners.

"Both the faculty of extension and the business school's units draw their enrolment from a wide range of what is not the traditional student body -- executives who have a day job, new immigrants upgrading their English skills, people like that," Amrhein said.

"Bringing those students right on top of the mass transit system north of the river, especially for the business community, it just allows those units to even more effectively engage the community." The faculty of extension's move out of its current headquarters on 112th Street will have a domino effect, providing extra space on main campus for human resources, nursing and the School of Public Health, Campbell said.

kgerein@thejournal.canwest.com


© The Edmonton Journal 2007

Robbins centre puts college on map
Classes begin in new health learning building hailed as one of nation's top nurse training facilities
Keith Gerein, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 1:08 am

EDMONTON - Like an excited father, Stuart MacLean can't resist a grin when talking about Grant MacEwan College's new baby.

His voice fills with pride when he describes its best features. His eyes beam in anticipation of showing it off to the city.

This Tuesday, MacEwan's director of facilities will finally get his moment as students begin their courses at the $65-million Robbins Health Learning Centre -- a vital campus addition that represents a new phase in MacEwan's development as a growing post-secondary power.

"We are all very proud of what we have accomplished with this building," MacLean said. "In the planning, design and construction, we feel we've met the test."

In designing the centre, MacLean hoped not just to provide an attractive home for the college's new bachelor of nursing degree program, but also to create architecture worthy of the prominent downtown intersection at 109th Street and 104th Avenue.

As is the current trend in academic construction, the Robbins Centre features lots of natural light, broad expanses of glass, wireless Internet service, and environmental technology designed to save water and energy.

What distinguishes the facility, MacLean said, are some of its architectural features and custom-designed laboratories.

He said he's particularly excited by the broad, bright Spanish staircase that dominates the south side of the building. Curved walls are also an attractive feature, as are the numerous "gathering spots, nodes, alcoves and meeting rooms" scattered around the 27,000-square-metre structure.

"We have really emphasized the social requirements for staff, faculty and especially students," Maclean said.

The facility includes:

- Basement -- 125 underground parking stalls are available for students and staff, as well as members of the general public.

- Main floor -- Students entering from the street will immediately enter "The Heart," a wide atrium with study tables, comfy chairs, coffee kiosks and food outlets. There are also lecture halls, teleconference facilities and a students' association office.

-Second floor -- MacLean refers to the central hallway as "main street" because it connects to the pedway that takes students east to the rest of campus. This floor stretches across 110th street, allowing you to watch the cars drive underneath.

- Third floor -- A 200-seat lecture hall, a computer commons and an I.V. training lab are the major features.

- Fourth Floor -- This floor has a series of state-of-the art labs, including "simulation suites" that replicate a variety of health-care experiences, such as an exam room, hospital room or infection-control centre.

- Fifth Floor -- Mainly faculty offices and meeting rooms.

Sharon Bookhalter, dean of the faculty of health and community studies, said the specialized laboratory space should help distinguish the Robbins Centre as one of Canada's premier training facilities for nurses.

For example, one lab designed for home care looks like the interior of a typical house, where students must determine how to make things safer for someone with a disability. The lab's walls are purposely built low so that other students and instructors can watch what's going on.

Another lab looks like a hospital room, with a mannequin serving as the patient. In here, students could be tested with a surprise medical event, such as a cardiac arrest.

"I've seen many nursing facilities across Canada and I don't think there's another one quite like this," Bookhalter said. "Nursing is an area where we are trying to make our name, and with the Robbins we have all the ingredients essential to prepare the best nurses for this region."

The new degree program will be phased in over four years, with the first class of students graduating in 2011. About 300 students will be admitted each year.

In addition, the Robbins will act as an "umbrella" centre for professional nursing education. Registered nurses already in the workforce will come to the centre for refresher courses or additional training in areas like critical care and palliative care.

In total, the Robbins Centre will eventually allow MacEwan to bring in up to 2,000 new students to the downtown core.

Although classes are starting, the centre is still a few months away from completion. The section of the building west of 110th Street will remain closed throughout the fall for continued construction.

kgerein@thejournal.canwest.com


© The Edmonton Journal 2007