UBC/UEL Updates Discussion

[nathan6969]

^^Are they actually building anything new...I thought it was just renovations...

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by nathan6969

^^Are they actually building anything new...I thought it was just renovations...

I've seen drawings before that show a huge tower that sort of looks like a mini-Central City that will be the new SUB.

[Rusty Gull]

UBC Campus & Community Planning invites you to attend a design workshop as part of Phase 4 of the UBC Vancouver Campus Plan Review.

Campus & Community Planning is in the middle of a six phase process to develop a new Campus Plan that builds on an evolving physical form and incorporates the values of Trek 2010, the University's vision statement.

After extensive consultations with the campus community last year on ideas and issues of importance for a Campus Plan, we are now developing some physical layout options community further consultation and discussion in the Fall 2008.

To help generate the draft physical plan options we are inviting individuals with a specific interest and expertise related to campus land use development. The design challenge for workshop participants is to accommodate future growth while addressing ideas taken from
the broader community in previous phases of the planning process. Additional briefing material will be forwarded to those people interested in attending.

The design workshop will be held on 3 different dates to accommodate as many of the participant’s schedules as possible. Please pick one of the following workshop dates:

Pick One Date: Monday March 10, 2008
Monday March 17, 2008
Tuesday April 1, 2008
Time: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Location: Auditorium, Asian Centre, 1871 West Mall

To confirm your attendance at one of the design workshops, please email stefani.lu@ubc.ca or call Stefani Lu at 604‐827‐3465 by March 1.

For more information about the UBC Vancouver Campus Plan Review, please visit www.campusplan.ubc.ca.

We hope to see you there.

Lisa Colby
Manager, Policy Planning
UBC Campus and Community Planning
604‐822‐2089

[deasine]

Hey now that's a good day (my spring break). I'm attending that one =)

[Rusty Gull]

From the Ubyssey:

Irving K Barber Learning Centre opens its doors


(photo from Ubyssey)
by Brandon Adams with photos by Kellan Higgins

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Nearly five years after the project began, Main Library’s transformation into the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre is nearing completion. Phase II opened it’s doors to students on February 25th and almost immediately the building was filled.

Construction on the Main Library complex began late in 2003 with the commencement of Phase I, rebuilding the section of the building which houses lending collections and archival facilities. Phase I was completed in August of 2005 and soon afterward, the south wing of the library was demolished in order to begin construction of Phase II, the section of the library largely dedicated to study space.

Simone Neame, the centre’s program and services coordinator, said that the student response to the new building was overwhelmingly positive. One student, said Neame, even claimed that the library was the ‘best’ he had ever seen.

The Learning Centre, said Neame, is designed not as a mere extension of the library but as a distinct space for student use.

Open until 1am on Mondays through Thursdays, the Learning Centre is equipped with a significant amount of seating space and a cafe. Neame also mentioned that there is a possibility that the hours will be extended if there is a demand from the student body. She said that the Learning Centre would have space for academic peer support and AMS Tutoring services.

Arts One student Alyssa Arbuckle was pleased with the new building.

“It’s awesome. It’s beautiful,” said Arbuckle, “It’s freezing but it’s beautiful.”

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre is currently open to student use, with the official opening on April 11th.

[Rusty Gull]

MEDIA RELEASE | MARCH 04, 2008
Oldest UBC building gets extreme makeover

As the University of British Columbia celebrates its first Centenary, the oldest building on its Vancouver campus reopens today with new state-of-the-art research and learning facilities and its historic charms intact.

The renewal of the Chemistry Building is the latest project of UBC Renew, a $120-million partnership between UBC and the provincial government designed to breathe new life into older buildings on B.C.'s oldest and largest university campus.

Construction of the Chemistry Building began in 1914 but halted due to World War I and didn't resume until 1923, following the historic Great Trek, when 1,200 students marched from 12th and Cambie to the Point Grey campus, urging the provincial government to continue developing infrastructure at UBC. On March 7, UBC marks its first century since the 1908 passage of the University Act that created the province's first post-secondary institution.

NB: Historic and current photographs of the Chemistry Building and video of the Great Trek student protest are available at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/download

Major discoveries have been made in the building, including the first noble gas compound and technology that led to the creation of QLT, UBC's best known spin-off company.

"The Chemistry Building is synonymous with UBC's history," says UBC President Stephen Toope, who joins Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell in the official opening.

"The historic photo of students congregating in the concrete skeleton of this building epitomizes our student activism and the birth of the Point Grey campus. Restoring its past grandeur and modernizing the facility, all the while improving safety and sustainability, is what UBC Renew is all about," says Toope.

One of the three buildings in the original 1912 campus plan - the other two are the Library and the Power Plant - the Chemistry Building features B.C. granite on its façade in the Collegiate Gothic style, complete with copper scuppers and gargoyles, and traditional oak trimmed interiors, all of which have been preserved in the Renew process.

The renovation also includes new lecture theatres, student space, open laboratories with enhanced safety features and a building seismic upgrade.

"We've partnered with UBC to restore and upgrade the Chemistry Building under an innovative funding agreement called UBC Renew that is preserving the environment, taxpayers' dollars and UBC's architectural heritage," Coell said. "The result is that students and faculty have access to state-of-the-art chemistry labs where researchers can work together in a safe, productive environment."

In addition to preserving a heritage landmark, the Chemistry Renew project incorporated sustainable practices that saved $15.9 million in costs, diverted 323 tons of solid waste from land fills, and prevented 1,155 tons of carbon emissions from being released into the atmosphere, compared to constructing a new comparable replacement building. For more information on UBC Renew, visit www.lbs.ubc.ca/renew.

[\/^~<0(_)\/{9]

http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/medi...mr-08-023.html

Media Release | Mar. 3, 2008
Blue Whale Skeleton Finds Permanent Home at UBC: Canadian First
The skeleton of a blue whale that washed up on Prince Edward Island 20 years ago will have a permanent home at The University of British Columbia’s new Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

The Museum, scheduled to open in late 2009, will be the first attraction in Canada to exhibit the skeleton of the largest animal ever to have lived – bigger than any dinosaur. The UBC exhibit will be one of only five in North America.

Note to editors: Photos of Trites’ preliminary dig and the 1987 beached whale are available at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/download. Video footage of the 1987 beaching and December 2007 preliminary dig are available by contacting Catherine Loiacono. For more information on blue whales and biodiversity, www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca.

At 25 metres long, the blue whale skeleton will be showcased in a glass atrium facing Main Mall, at the heart of the university. The exhibit will be the centrepiece of an educational outreach program and collection of more than two million specimens of mammals, fish, shells, fossils, insects, birds and plants.

“Visitors will be awed by the blue whale's size,” says Wayne Maddison, Museum Director and UBC Professor of Botany and Zoology. “More importantly, the whale will help us tell the story of biodiversity to the public – how the earth’s species are interconnected ecologically and genetically.”

Blue whales inhabit both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. UBC’s specimen beached and died near the town of Tignish, PEI. The Canadian Museum of Nature arranged for its remains to be buried on provincially owned land near Nail Pond, 11 miles away. The Canadian Museum of Nature and the Government of PEI are supporting UBC’s efforts to exhume and display the national treasure.

“Through the collaboration of two provinces and world-class museums, Canadians from coast to coast will have an opportunity to fully appreciate this magnificent animal,” says Andrew Trites, a researcher at the UBC Biodiversity Research Centre and Director of UBC’s Marine Mammal Unit. Trites is leading the exhumation and preparation of the skeleton.

Trites conducted a preliminary dig last December with help of volunteers from the University of PEI. His team, including master skeleton articulator Michael deRoos, will exhume the skeleton this May and transport it across Canada to UBC, where it will be prepared for display. The Museum plans to launch a naming competition this spring.

The Museum will be the first public institution in Canada to focus exclusively on biodiversity research and education. Skeletons of a killer whale, a minke whale, and a Steller sea lion, part of the Museum’s Cowan Vertebrate Collection, are currently on display at UBC’s Aquatic Ecosystem Research Laboratory, next door to the Museum site. The skeletons were salvaged by Trites and deRoos, and articulated by deRoos.

Background: Blue Whale Finds Home at UBC
About the Blue Whale
The blue whale is the biggest animal ever to have lived on earth – bigger than any dinosaur.
It is longer than two 40-foot long school buses parked one behind the other.
A blue whale’s heart is the size of a car, and the arteries connected to the heart are large enough for a human baby to crawl through.
The blue whale is also the loudest animal. At 190 decibels, a blue whale’s call is louder than a jet (140 decibels), and much louder than a person can shout (70 decibels). A sound clip is available on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration web site.
Blue whales inhabit every ocean on the planet, and travel from frigid polar waters, where they feed, to warm tropical waters, where they give birth to their calves. In spite of their great size and range, we know very little about these gentle giants.
The blue whale is listed as an endangered species under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. It is also on the IUCN (The World Conservation Union) Red List of endangered species. There are estimated to be 4,500 blue whales left in the world, down from 350,000 before whaling activities began.
About Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variety of life. It is the range of genetic, species and ecosystem diversity in an environment. Estimates of the total number of species range from 3 to 100 million. Only 1.9 million species are known to science, and vast numbers have yet to be documented. Expeditions to remote tropical areas in New Guinea, Africa, Asia and South America continue to find previously unknown species, including new species of birds, fruit bats, butterflies, and frogs. Closer to home, many species new to science remain to be found in Canada, and recent work has documented new fishes, fungi, and insects.

About UBC’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum
The Beaty Museum, scheduled to open in late 2009, will be unique in making its scientific collections available for public viewing through a combination of museum exhibits, hands-on discovery labs, educators' resources, and public presentations. The Museum will serve as an invaluable link between the world-renowned scientists at the Biodiversity Research Centre and the public. It will also serve as the outreach arm of the Research Centre. For more information visit www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca.

[Rusty Gull]

For those at or close to UBC today:

Campus and Community Planning:

Transportation Open House:

Update on the Strategic Transportation Plan, Transit and Campus Traffic Calming Projects
Thursday March 13, 2008
1:30pm – 7:30 pm
SUB

[Rusty Gull]

The Ubyssey
Editorial

Prepare yourselves, old people are comin’

‘Campus lifestyle seniors residence’ set to break ground by summer

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

There’s something brewing on the South Campus, and it’s old. Really old. 65+ old.

It’s called Tapestry, and according to its website, “it’s a six-storey midrise offering residents a campus lifestyle seniors residence.”

While we at UBC have varying opinions on the benefits and drawbacks of South Campus development, the one thing we can all agree on is that UBC should remain primarily a student environment. If development has to happen, and UBC behaving as if it certainly does, then let it be developed with a student focus in mind.

And that mean parties, drinking, late nights, and, inevitably, noise.

UBC sells houses in South Campus to garner its income. It leases each property, often for 99 years, to generate revenue which it invests for a healthy return. Thus it makes money off the endowment set aside in the 20th century, guarantees a return of the property a hundred years from now when UBC might desperately need the land, and ensures that it can physically grow its infrastructure as UBC becomes an international school.

However good it may be to sell this land, why is a retirement home being constructed amongst the largest population of university students in Metro Vancouver?

UBC is a place of higher learning. Professors and staff aside, its core demographic is 18-25 year olds with a smattering of graduate students. Over 45,000 students either live on campus or commute to the Point Grey area to attend classes. Why then is a retirement home being planned for the campus neighborhood?

Instead of facilitating a campus community around the student lifestyle, UBC Campus and Community Planning has created an upscale community on University land, retirement homes included.

Construction and expansion at a university is inevitable, especially considering the amount of research being conducted at UBC. With the growth of the Canadian population and the larger international student base, it is no wonder that the University is looking towards these options to grow its infrastructure. The problem is the social cost students incur in order for the University to grow.

It is commonly believed that UBC lacks a sense of campus “vibe”. Everyone feels it. The students feel it, professors feel it and the recently re-established Radical Beer Faction (RBF) feels it. What should have been created many years ago in the form of student housing and green space the university is attempting to create now with chain retail space, condos, and perhaps even a retirement complex.

So, why is UBC bringing the old into a place of youth while the things which most of the senior population did as young adults is being stamped out of UBC?

UBC has become a campus where the fun goes to die. With the tightening of Campus Security and UBC RCMP, in addition to the lack of Special Occasion Licenses (SOLs) to allow parties, and the sharp decline in the number of beer gardens in the last few years, it seems UBC wishes to pacify its student population.

Students are not being significantly considered when major, community-changing plans are being instigated. Within the last several years, the old fraternity row and the area between the RCMP and 16th avenue have all been demolished to make way for high-cost commercial housing. The price of these units puts it far out of the range of the average UBC student and brings more non-students into the community.

Why is UBC bent on becoming a small town? What benefit does this bring to students that the University is supposed to serve? A retirement complex is not a good fit for this campus. This is another clear sign that UBC is becoming less and less of a student-oriented space—and that won’t change unless we do something about it.

[quobobo]

Bloody Ubyssey. Hopefully I'll remember to opt-out of their fees this year.

Having lived on campus for a year, I think I'm entitled to say this: life on campus is dead boring, and inconvenient to boot. It's a good experience for first year, but they'd have to pay me to go back.

Why is UBC bent on becoming a small town? What benefit does this bring to students that the University is supposed to serve?

I don't know, convenience? Maybe it would be nice to have more than 10 people on campus during the weekend? Better shopping than the Village with its one tiny and expensive grocery store?

These people clearly haven't ever had to make the really-bloody-long walk (15-20 minutes from Totem/Ritsumeikan/Marine Drive) to the bus loop from most residences , wait 5-10 minutes for a bus, and then take a 10 minute bus ride just to get groceries. I envy UT and McGill for not being located in the middle of nowhere.

[mr.x]

Thunderbird fields being redeveloped

Vancouver Courier
Published: Thursday, March 20, 2008

VANCOUVER - Two artificial fields, a baseball diamond, running track and greenway are among the amenities planned for the redevelopment of Thunderbird fields at the University of B.C.

The fields are east of Thunderbird Stadium, north of 16th Avenue between East Mall and Wesbrook Mall.

"We have to move our baseball team's practice facility from Nat Bailey Stadium to the campus because of the logistics of getting there," said Bob Philip, director of athletics and recreation at UBC.

"It's something we planned to do quite a while ago, to build an artificial field and to build a baseball park that could be used by our team and also as a recreational facility."

The fields are now being used for various purposes by the university and the community, including intramural soccer, varsity soccer, and field hockey. Philip doesn't expect the uses to change.

[Rusty Gull]

Ubyssey Editorial
To renew or not to renew?

Is bigger better?

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

The week-long AMS referendum starts today, and among the other topics up for vote, such as the U-Pass price increase, is a controversial proposal: the SUB Renewal project. The project aims to address what is perceived to be significant failings in the current Student Union Building.

The AMS states that building was designed for a student population of 20,000, and is not serving the needs of a population more than double that size, as well as being lacking in terms of sustainability targets and commuter needs.

The project is still in the pre-planning phase. No architectural plans have been finalized and no figures about the project have been cemented. The issue up for referendum, however, is whether students are willing to pay for the project to move forward. If 4500 students vote yes over the next week (and another 4500 don’t vote no), then next year all UBC students will have a mandatory $20 fee. The year after, the fee will be $30, then $40 the year after, and so on up until the fee is $110 in 2017.

And there is no firm number for the total cost of the project. The fee will simply be ongoing, and in addition to its $110 cap, the fee will also be adjusted by the cost of living index, until the costs of the project are fully paid off.

We at the Ubyssey are of two minds about the project. On the one hand, we who work in the windowless, lightless bowels of the current SUB clearly recognize the need for a new space without broken washrooms and asbestos filled walls. On the other hand, this is a substantial fee increase, especially from an organization purportedly representing students in reducing student and tuition fees. Here are two perspectives on SUB Renew:

Point: Been to a good party at UBC lately? Met anyone interesting at a student event? Know of a good spot to hang out and chat with new people?

If your answer is yes to any of the above, the context is not school events, in all probability, but facebook. Compared to just about any other major school in the continent, UBC’s school community and school spirit could be best described as lacklustre. And while building a shiny new SUB isn’t going to fix all of our problems, you can be damned sure that if the Chinese Varsity Club isn’t spilling out of its five square foot room, they’ll be able to attract more members and hold better events. And if the Pottery Club isn’t stuck in the back end of nowhere, then maybe people might get to see the truly awesome stuff they produce more than once a year. And don’t get us started on the Bike Kitchen being stuck down a flight of stairs, or the suicide-inducing offices of student organizations that have no traces of sunlight.

This is not a case of bigger for the sake of being bigger. This is simply a case of being big enough for everyone. Big enough to allow clubs to rally student spirit. Big enough so that people don’t avoid the SUB due to crowding.

And now, with the U-Town project grinding onward, is the perfect time to integrate student life with the future of the university. If we wait on a new SUB, U-Town will make the SUB irrelevant—who wants to hang out in the windowless basement when there is a shiny new cafe/bistro/corporate edifice down the street. If we allow SUB Renewal to go forward the SUB will co-ordinate with U-Town making it a center point of student activity.

Counter Point: Here’s the thing. We are not opposed in principle to a new and renewed SUB. We fully realize that the current building is old, cramped, dark, fully of hearty asbestos, periodically invaded by birds, and generally not all that great.

But there’s something to be said for financial prudence. And that, sadly, is what the proposed SUB Renew plan is lacking.
Let’s start with the bare numbers. Yes, it’s true that the fee will start out small. But it’ll grow to $110 dollars within the decade. And while not publicized, there’s a niggling detail in the funding plans that includes an increase, year after year, based on the rate of inflation. So the publicized $110 maximum really isn’t a maximum—it’s the ground level. The fact is, we really have no idea how much students might be paying for this in twenty years from now.

Just think: how would you feel if you currently paid $110 for the SUB we have now? The new SUB is planned to cost $120 million, and if the newly planned SUB will be completed in 2014, student fees will be paying it off for something like 35-40 years. By the time 2048 rolls around students will be paying for a hideous and outdated SUB that will most likely be as bad as our current sub is now.

Effective governing is about making tough decisions. Choosing what is necessary, and what is merely desired. For those in the AMS, it’s easy to hear all of the excellent ideas for a revamped SUB—more social space, greater sustainability, sleeping pods, and the like—and then agree that nothing is worthy of being cut from the project. But then again, they aren’t the ones that will be paying over $100 every year for this building.

Students generally don’t pay for things they can’t afford. We scrimp, we scrounge, we go with the cheaper option nine times out of ten, because we tend to accept that at the age of 20, we can’t always get what we want.

There’s a lot of improvements that can be made to the SUB—but they can be done progressively over time. $15 of our student fees already go to a capital building fund to improve the SUB. If we doubled that fee, then there would be approximately $1.5 million available annually to renew the SUB. That could be the sustainable, practical solution that wouldn’t add an extra burden on future generations of UBC students.

[flight_from_kamakura]

Originally Posted by quobobo

Bloody Ubyssey. Hopefully I'll remember to opt-out of their fees this year.
...
These people clearly haven't ever had to make the really-bloody-long walk (15-20 minutes from Totem/Ritsumeikan/Marine Drive) to the bus loop from most residences , wait 5-10 minutes for a bus, and then take a 10 minute bus ride just to get groceries. I envy UT and McGill for not being located in the middle of nowhere.

mostly, i'd say u of t works because of the annex and kensington market; mcgill works because of the the ghetto (and to a far lesser extent, because of the towers in the square mile). proximity to chinatown makes u of t more interesting; promixity to downtown actually makes mcgill less interesting. the point is that the ubyssey is 100% right that ubc's god-forgotten campus is not going to be improved by importing a bunch of old people and yuppies. and those chain shops aren't going to help either. they need to massively increase the number of students who are on campus, and massively increase the quality/quantity of activities to keep them there. berkeley is a small town, and the area that most students spend most of their time in is no larger than the endowment lands area - and it works, damn it works. ubc, the administration has made planning decisions so inane as to border almost on incompetent. all the housing out there is cheap. the fraternity houses will be torn down soon because of shoddy building and poor site selection. there's no life, the nimby oldsters control the pace of development and ubc has done everything in their power to bring in more nimby oldsters. it's terribly terribly frustrating, and i'm glad the ubyssey (which the administration types tend to pay attention to) is sounding the alarm (albeit 5 years too late).

[quobobo]

"chain shops aren't going to help"? Most trips off campus are to go to Safeway at Sasamat or Macdonald. Everyone I know with a car makes semi-regular trips to a Superstore. The most frequented stores in the village (or at least for me and the people I know) are Staples, the liquor store, and McDonalds. Students want cheap and convenient.

As for "old people and yuppies", they're the people who can afford to buy market-priced housing in this city. Such is the way of life. I'm not sure how you want UBC to fund a massive increase in students living on campus and activities for them - that's a ton of money that I really don't think the university has. I don't want to fund it as a student who lives off-campus, and I don't want to pay it as a taxpayer either (tuition at UBC is already hugely subsidized).

I also have no idea why you're calling them all NIMBYs, since the only opposition to development I've ever seen around here has been from students. Anything that isn't a new building for classes or student housing is automatically opposed by some very, very vocal members of the student body (including the Ubyssey).

[Rusty Gull]

The main problem is UBC's location.

Unlike some of North America's great university campuses, it is nowhere near a traditional student ghetto -- the kind of neighbourhoods that have cheap housing, lots of student activity/flavour, nearby nightlife, and lots of character.

So instead, we have a campus that is hemmed in by the ocean on three sides, and an uber-rich neighbourhood on the fourth.

I agree with Quo on at least one point: for those who actually spend any reasonable amount of time at UBC, the addition of "evil chain stores" such as Starbucks, Shoppers, etc has been a blessing.

[flight_from_kamakura]

Originally Posted by quobobo

Such is the way of life.

i don't think you quite get how badly this school is run.

the low rise covenants on the single-family homes right along univ. blvd and the university's idiotic low rise housing schemes in the areas closest to campus (excepting 2 towers) are foolhardy in the harshest and most classical sense of the word.

the endowment lands are not currently subject to any of vancouver's zoning and development restrictions, and as such, the school had (and has) the liberty to develop these areas as its administrators saw fit.

they developed a vision that balances historical residential development with a broad goal of moderate densification. they also wanted to make money.

had the university's planning people and decision-makers taken stock of the most blaring deficiencies of ubc campus life, and had they possessed the sense to survey organically-developed campus villages and ghettos the world over, and had they then sought to apply the fruits of these intellectual labours to their development schemes, they would have developed much more aggressively height-wise.

how about building 20 or so towers of varying heights between university and 16th, ensuring that tower podiums constitute a retail wall along university from acadia strait to university (and to east mall with u-town) and along westbrook from university (but one day, from 4th) to 16th. here again, a large stock and resonable sizing of retail spaces (all at grade, with street entrances) would have kept rents reasonable and ensured a variety of businesses.
this would have had negative consequences on the values of homes in the area, but this is a net positive, as it would hasten redevelopment.

a flood of development would have to have been carefully modulated, but the net results should have been smaller units in very high density neighborhoods that would have become primarily rental stock. abundant stock would have kept prices low enough that the apartments would have been excellent long term investments for companies and individuals (there'll always be students), but high enough that ubc would see an impressive return. and as such, it would have met ubc pecuniary and land development goals, while creating a real campus neighborhood. moreover, developed off of the highstreets a lot more, in the neighborhoods, with cornerstores and corner pubs. large lot destination shopping (regardless of whether its incoming or outgoing) hurts good neighborhoods and kills of sickly ones, so it's not a matter of getting a safeway closer to campus. it's about developing density and allowing for development of supporting and servicing commercial spaced, which is to say, about creating a real community as a way to building a neighborhood.

moreover, a scheme along these lines could have spared the development of the ubc farm area of pacific spirit park - a development most would see as utterly senseless had they no knowledge of the ignorance of ubc's money-grubbing masters of development.

in sum, they should have turned the place into a village... a completely different vision that would have yielded completely different results. and it wasn't unrealisting, and it wasn't too much to ask or to expect. the school is plain badly run.

[quobobo]

I agree, denser and taller buildings would be fantastic. That said, UBC seems to be doing no worse than city hall on that front (which is to say pretty badly, fair enough). I find it hard to blame UBC in particular when the "preservation of every aspect of our existing neighbourhoods at any cost!!!" idea is so pervasive across the entire region.

[radacal]

The UBC Law Building is going to be replaced with a new building. CEI Architecture with Diamond and Schmitt Architects has been given the commission.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by radacal

The UBC Law Building is going to be replaced with a new building. CEI Architecture with Diamond and Schmitt Architects has been given the commission.

that's great news.....the existing building is quite dingy, and a bit small.


btw, I absolutely love Irving Barber.

[Rusty Gull]

UBC students arrested after development protest bonfire

VANCOUVER — Nearly 20 people at the University of British Columbia face a series of charges including assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest after a protest escalated into a confrontation and arrests.

Police arrested students rallying Friday in support of a peer who was blocking a fire hose being used to douse a protest bonfire.

About 100 people with Students for a Democratic Society and Trek Park for People gathered outside UBC's Student Union Building to demonstrate against the redevelopment of a nearby grassy knoll, a popular student hangout, for a bus loop.

A release from the society said a woman was told she was violating a bylaw by blocking the hose.

"(the woman) was grabbed by an RCMP officer and thrown to the ground, pinned, and handcuffed. Her face was literally shoved in a puddle of mud while an RCMP officer sat on top of her," the release said, describing it as an "uncalled act of police aggression."

The society said another student was immediately arrested for questioning the police action.

It said the detentions led to students forming a human chain in protest.

As a result, the release said, 26 students were arrested after 30 police cars from throughout Metro Vancouver arrived on the scene.

However, RCMP Cst. Annie Linteau with RCMP's E Division said only 19 people were arrested at the scene.

She said they received a call from campus security and the Vancouver fire department for assistance of dealing with the large crowd and bonfire.

"Upon their arrival, the firefighters deemed the fire to be unsafe and asked for our assistance to move the protesters," she said.

When they protesters were told to move, Linteau said "they banded together against the police and prevented the fire crews from putting out the fire."

At this point officers from Vancouver and Richmond detachments were called in the deal with "combative" protesters.

When one man was arrested and put in a police cruiser, the protesters banded around the car. Police then made their arrests.

University students belong to the Alma Mater Society, the school's student association.

Society vice-president of administration Tristan Markle called on university president Stephen Toope to condemn the arrests.

He called the arrests a "collective punishment" for students who have been protesting development on the campus.

Police were expected to issue a news release on the situation on Saturday afternoon.

Bahram Narrouzi, of Trek Park for People, told station CKNW the students did nothing wrong.

"We even didn't touch the police car," Narrouzi said. "We were only singing and dancing around the car."