With $1 billion worth of construction under way or planned and five construction cranes on site, the term ‘building knowledge’ is taking on an entirely new meaning at the University of Alberta.

The nine projects, which range from additional campus housing to higher-profile developments such as the new National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT), are in part being driven by a growing student population.

Existing university infrastructure was built to accommodate 22,000 students. But student population numbers are now in the vicinity of 34,000 and expected to grow to 37,000 by 2007, according to Don Hickey, the U of A’s vice- president for facilities and operations.

Meanwhile, the university also faces “a critical lack of teaching, administrative and research space that threatens the university’s core teaching and research mission,” said Hickey.

Illustrations courtesy of University of Alberta
The Health Research Innovation Facility, above, will provide medical research space. The Zeidler Family Gastroenterology Centre, below, will aid clinical training in health sciences.

The capital projects, eight of which are located on the university’s main north campus, should help to alleviate some of the pressures, he noted.

The most expensive undertaking, and the latest endeavour to be announced, is a joint venture between the university and the Capital Health Authority. The $450-million Health Sciences Ambulatory Learning Centre is a health-sciences complex designed to house day clinics from the Stollery Children’s and University of Alberta hospitals. It will also make it possible for the university to train more health- science students and develop additional innovative and integrated educational programs.

To be built on the west side of 114 Street and connected to the University of Alberta Hospital by pedway, it is expected to open in 2008 or 2009.

A $217-million pricetag is being attached to the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science, a two-phase undertaking. It will allow for the consolidation of key research initiatives and new space for office and research in order to support growth made possible by federal and provincial funding programs.



Phase I comes in at $17 million, with Phase II estimated to cost $200 million. Phase I will see the construction of a two-storey basement structure in the courtyard south of the Biological Sciences Building and is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2005.

Phase II, however, is still in the planning stages with funding, along with start and finish dates, yet to be determined.

At $165 million, the Health Research Innovation Facility (HRIF) will be comprised of two buildings when it’s completed in April 2007. With seven storeys above grade, they’ll be used for medical-health research. Work started six months ago.

HRIF West, on the corner of 114 Street and 87 Avenue, will occupy the site that formerly housed the Newton Research Building, a facility Hickey described as obsolete. “It was in very poor condition. It was actually cheaper to tear it down and build a new facility rather than trying to retrofit it,” he said. HRIF East will be east of the Heritage Medical Research Centre on the corner of 112 Street and 87 Avenue.

At a cost of $65 million, the Markin/CNRL Natural Resources Engineering Facility is being built to enable faculty to assume a leading international role in support of the energy and natural-resources sectors, said Hickey. Located on 116 Street north of 87 Avenue at approximately 91 Avenue, it will rise seven storeys above grade and have two floors below grade. Pedways will connect it to the engineering complex and General Services Building. It is scheduled for December occupancy, with work already under way for 11/2 years.

NINT, valued at $52 million and being constructed south of the Faculty Club and east of the Windsor Car Park, is the highly touted Canadian centre for nanotechnology research. The project is funded by the federal and provincial governments, the National Research Council and the U of A. It is slated to open in August 2005. Construction has been ongoing for about two months.

While NINT will be a hub for nanotechnology, work in the field is currently in progress at the neighbouring Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Facility (ECERF) that opened in February 2002. The ECERF is a seven-storey structure for engineering research in the areas of information technologies, telecommunications, computer/software engineering, advanced laser applications, microelectronics, microfabrications and nanotechnology.

The $6.8-million Zeidler Family Gastroenterology Health and Research Centre and Clinical Training Centre, a three-storey facility, consolidates the department of gastroenterology and provides space for clinical training facilities for the health sciences. Located east of the Walter Mackenzie Centre, it is set to come online this fall. Work began four months ago.

Student housing gets a $10-million boost with the East Campus Village project at the corner of 111 Street and 88 Avenue. It adds 157 rooms with kitchens and lounges in each living unit and has a completion date of August 2004.

Rounding out the main campus construction is $27.5 million in utilities upgrades, including expansion of the power system, expansion of the deep sewer system and the addition of chillers in the cooling plant.

The sole south campus venture, where the U of A is looking for its long-term growth, is the $16-million Agri-Food Discovery Place, which will be finished by summer 2005. It will focus on safety and processing research in meat, grain and dairy.

For now, though, any major expansion on the south campus, bounded by Belgravia on the north, 113 Street on the east, 122 Street on the west and 51 Avenue on the south, is a plan that’s still in its early stages.

“For the south campus to work, a couple of things have to be in place,” said Hickey. “It is critically dependent on the southern LRT expansion. The other thing, from my point of view, is having the necessary critical mass to start it in terms of students, faculty members and facilities.”

With limitations on what the main campus can accommodate – remaining space is at a premium – the south campus will eventually have to come into play, said Hickey.

For now, though, these additional facilities and others, may enable the main campus to potentially accommodate as many as 40,000 students.