Developing a sense of community

The only constant is change.

Each year, a university changes its shape. Thousands of students arrive with new ideas and perspectives, replacing graduates sent forth to make their mark in the world. Beloved professors retire, leaving their teaching legacy in the hands of fresh-faced young faculty eager to inspire. Newly-hired staff bring exciting ideas for how the school can better achieve its mission.

Yet sometimes greater change occurs, the yearly shapeshifting transforming into significant growth. In the six years between 1999 and 2005, for example, Dalhousie opened the doors of five major new buildings: the Goldberg Computer Science Building, Fountain House, the Marion McCain Arts & Social Sciences Building, Risley Hall and the Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building. These dramatically transformed the physical Dalhousie experience for a generation of students, faculty and staff.

Another dramatic transformation is currently underway. You can see the first signs in the new Mona Campbell Building; in renovations to the Tupper Link and the Life Science Centre; and in the Life Sciences Research Institute on Carleton Campus set to open this spring. Piece by piece, Dalhousie is building the physical space needed to support the ambitious goal laid out in its strategic focus: to become Canada’s best university.

The man responsible for managing that physical space is Jeff Lamb, assistant vice-president of facilities management. Sitting in his office, he thumbs through the university’s new Campus Master Plan, a framework document that will serve as his roadmap in the months and years ahead.

A framework for building capacity

“Five years ago, we spent $20 million in major capital projects, including deferred maintenance and new construction,” says Mr. Lamb. “This fiscal year we’re at $100 million. The university will be writing that much in cheques for designs, construction, the works. We’re really ramping up our capacity to handle what’s in this framework plan.”

“Our 1991 campus plan wasn’t tied into our present university strategy, or with developing a sense of community,” says Ken Burt, Dalhousie’s vice-president administration and finance. “These plans aren’t really about the space, although that’s the tool you use to create the environment you want. It’s really about empowering people.”

“This plan becomes the framework – not the prescription – for the development decisions that need to be made,” adds Larry Sherman, director at IBI Group. They worked together with John Crace, WHW Architects in Halifax. “It’s not a document that the university will follow to the letter, because it can’t foresee everything that will happen in the future. But it’s a clear framework for the university to address issues in the context of what it’s trying to achieve as an institution.”

The document represents almost three years of work, assessing everything from the physical capacity of the university’s existing buildings to transportation demands and sustainability opportunities. The initiative, co-chaired by Mr. Burt and planning professor Frank Palermo, involved extensive consultations with the university community.

One of the plan’s major initiatives came directly from students.

“Social interaction – studying in small groups – is critical to their studies but is done with great limitations because existing student space has not been designed for informal group learning, especially in this new digital age,” says Mr. Sherman.

Similar to the Learning Commons in the Killam Library, eventually four ‘hubs’ will combine leisure, services and study resources on all three campuses.

Integrated spaces for cross-campus collaboration

Today, many of the university’s buildings are dedicated to a single departmental or administrative use, limiting opportunities for cross-campus collaboration and community. The plan proposes that future development emphasize a “mixed-use” model, with pedestrian-focused services like stores and social spaces at ground level, offices and instructional spaces above, and, if required, residence space in the upper floors.

The first of this type will be a mixed-use residence on LeMarchant Street. Scheduled to open in 2013, the building will add more than 300 beds, fulfilling an important need as the university’s enrolment climbs toward 17,500, with more out-of-province and international students.

“This sort of building is a big change for us,” says Mr. Lamb. “We’re not going to build a ‘chemistry building’ or a ‘student residence’ anymore. We’re going to create spaces with a variety of different uses to provide more value to our campus and to the Halifax community more broadly.”

Building within our existing footprint

The Campus Master Plan doesn’t call for Dalhousie to significantly increase its footprint in Halifax; IBI Group strongly believes that the university is better ?off refocusing and intensifying existing space – “building within.”

On Studley Campus, this means completing a lower quad to lead into the heart of campus and a new academic, fitness and recreation complex on South Street. On Carleton Campus, “building within” involves phased development: an Interprofessional Health Building and two towers connected to the Tupper Building for health sciences research and teaching. And on Sexton Campus, it means a vibrant downtown with a new IDEA Building – Integrated Design, Engineering and Architecture – that will encourage greater professional integration.

One of the most exciting proposals is a plan to redesign University Avenue. The street’s potential to serve as a connector between all three campuses is presently crippled by narrow sidewalks, divided traffic lanes and a mostly-inaccessible median. A proposed solution is to combine both directions of vehicle traffic on the south side – maintaining the same amount of parking – while transforming the north side into an “active transportation corridor” for walking, biking and more. The community could then access the median as a green space for sport, leisure and study.

The University Avenue proposal illustrates one of the major challenges facing the Campus Master Plan.

Dalhousie can’t do this alone

“University Avenue is Halifax Regional Municipality property, so that project will require the support and cooperation of the municipality, absolutely,” says Mr. Lamb. He adds that HRM council was represented on the plan’s steering committee and that university staff are already engaging in high-level discussions with city officials.

Nearly every project will require the support of a variety of partners – from all levels of government, to affiliated hospitals and institutions, to alumni – to get off the ground.

Projects to be approved one by one

On this point, university leadership is quick to note that the plan’s approval is not an approval for every proposal; each individual project will have to be scoped out, funded, and brought to the Board of Governors for approval. The sticker cost for the 10 priority items in the Campus Master Plan is estimated at $600 million, and while that price tag is unlikely to fall to Dalhousie alone, and would be spread out over the years ahead, there’s no question that it presents a challenge to the university, especially in an age of increasing financial restraint.

“Universities rarely feel like we have the resources we think we require to deliver our mandate, and that goes for physical infrastructure as much as anything,” says Mr. Burt.

“How do we keep the existing buildings functional for an ever-changing student population, while at the same time expanding and accomplishing the new initiatives we’re tasked with as a global research and teaching institution? That’s going to be a huge challenge.”

The fact that campus development capacity is already increasing is a sign that the university is starting the hard work to make the campus plan’s vision a reality: a collaborative, invigorated Dalhousie, spanning peninsular Halifax through the university’s three campuses, inspiring the research of today and the students who will shape the world of tomorrow.

“If you don’t plan for great things, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy – you’ll never get there,” notes Mr. Lamb. “If we want to be Canada’s best university, then our responsibility is to collect the energy, support and enthusiasm to ensure that we have the physical campus to help us get there.”