[JasonParis]

Ontario campuses get $200-million facelift
ELIZABETH CHURCH
Globe and Mail Update
January 29, 2008 at 1:44 PM EST

The Ontario government today handed out $200-million to the province's colleges and universities to help repair aging buildings, increase energy efficiency and improve security on campus.

John Milloy, Minster of Training Colleges and Universities, in announcing the money, hinted that there could be more funding to come, characterizing it as the latest chapter in an ongoing story. "We are going to continue to work with the sector," he said.

University and college leaders welcomed the money, which comes with few strings attatched, and said they will use it to fund pressing maintenace concerns.

"This will help us address some essential things that just don't figure high on the radar screen and are critical to improving campus life," said David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto, which will get the largest share of the money, $25.6-million.

University of Toronto president David Naylor. (file photo). (Philip Cheung)

Dr. Naylor said U of T has a list of priorities for the money, such as servicing the lot where a new student centre is planned and upgrading Varsity Arena.

A report from Auditor-General Jim McCarter last month put the bill for repairing university buildings at $1.6-billion.

Ontario's 18 publicly funded universities hold a huge portfolio of real estate that includes 918 buildings, not counting residences. The average age of these buildings is more than 30 years. Those numbers do not take into account the facilities owned by the province's 24 community colleges.

The Ontario Liberals made a large investment in postsecondary education in their last mandate. Their re-election has led senior administrators in the college and university system to say they are optimistic that further money will be directed to higher education to help accommodate the increasing numbers of students.

Both universities and colleges in the province are reporting a rise in the numbers of high-school students who are applying for spots at their campuses next September.

With a report from The Canadian Press.

A Breakdown of What the School's Receive (.pdf)

 

[rdaner]

New Economic Clusters in Western GTA

Not sure where this goes but I feel it is relevant to this site as I consider K/W and Stratford an extension of the GTA.


The possibilities are endless
Posted By BRIAN SHYPULA, Staff Reporter
Posted 19 hours ago


Imagine filming a Stratford play in 3D and then showing it in special cinemas around the world, a front-row seat to see a virtual Colm Feore or Christopher Plummer playing unforgettable Shakespearean characters in Europe, Asia, wherever.

It's possible with digital media technology like the kind that may come to Stratford with the Stratford Institute and University of Waterloo satellite campus, backed by leading-edge partners like Open Text, Dalsa and Christie Digital Systems.

"Christie technologies will be a very important part of what we'll be bringing to the Stratford campus," said Tobi Day-Hamilton, director of advancement in UW's Faculty of Arts.

Christie president and chief operating officer Gerry Remers said the company, which committed $1.3 million to the three-way Stratford-Kitchener-UW proposal to create a digital media presence in southwestern Ontario, is looking at providing a virtual reality "cave" and digital theatre studio and equipment.

The CAVE (Cave Automated Virtual Environment) technology could go to Kitchener and Stratford could get the studio, he said.

The $20- to $30-million Digital Media Convergence Centre in downtown Kitchener would look at displaying digital technology or "visualization." The Stratford Institute, part of the $30-million satellite campus, would concentrate on creating digital media content.

Christie showed off mind-bending virtual reality research and equipment and three-dimensional entertainment to UW researchers and advisory panel members at its Wellington Street facility in Kitchener earlier this week.

Mayor Dan Mathieson said the city is trying to bring a cave and 3D cinema to Stratford for a one-month demonstration at city hall in the spring to help people understand the technology and its possibilities.

"We've just got to find a way to make it happen," he said.

The Kitchener demo was of a $2.3-million, five-sided cave Christie developed in partnership with Penn State University for the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It will be taken down and moved to the JFC's headquarters in Norfolk, Va. soon.

The JFC's building is classified, but the visitors still got a virtual-reality look inside.

Charles Fraresso, senior project manager of visual environments at Christie, explained special 3D glasses "speak" with beacons in the cave to triangulate the wearer's position. The projected images change as the user bends down to look under a desk or around a corner as they "walk" through the second floor mezzanine.

Another program simulated a desert war zone. The user could get behind the wheel of a life-sized army Hummer or its roof-top machine gun. They could leave the vehicle to check out another military vehicle on fire. The sound of the fire gets louder the closer they get.

Other 3D applications shown in the cave were airborne carbon dioxide concentrations around the world and satellite paths around the planet.

"The whole point is all this data exists in the computer and you can interact with it live and get different viewpoints -- it's just not the static, plain-colour presentation," Mr. Fraresso said.

Christie, which received the Canadian Manufacturer of the Year Award earlier this month from the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association, developed one of the handful of six-sided caves in the world.

Images are projected on four walls plus the ceiling and floor of the six-sided cave developed for the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise in Lafayette, La., one of the fastest growing high-tech hubs in the United States. LITE is expected to be a major cornerstone for future growth and economic development in Lafayette and Louisiana, especially in the multibillion-dollar video game industry.

The visitors were also shown 3D movie trailers in Christie's in-house cinema using Christie manufactured projectors.

Cinemas that adopt 3D projectors and screens can open up new streams of business. For example, automakers could use a cinema to show a focus group 3D images of its new vehicles for feedback.

"It's just not passive entertainment -- it's more active interaction with 3D content like you have with the cave," Mr. Remers said.

Custom-made Christie digital projectors were used in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and helped Quebec City celebrate its 400th anniversary this summer.

In Quebec, the video shown on the city's old grain silos is believed to be the world's longest projected image. The surface was 657 metres long and 33 metres tall -- about 40 million pixels.

"This year has just been a banner year for us in terms of getting high-profile displays," Mr. Remers said.

Christie did about $400 million in sales last year, including about $60 million in its four-year-old visualization division.

The company is competing for No. 1 in the world of high-end visualization technology with Belgium-based Barco NV.

Mr. Remers said Christie stands to benefit on three fronts by getting involved in the Stratford and Kitchener projects: having its technology showcased at the facilities, having its people participate in new research and attracting world-class researchers to the region.

 

[rdaner]

progress

I see this as a significant boost to sustainable planning in the western GTA.

Digital media campus will press forward
The Canadian Press

December 16, 2008

Waterloo -- A new University of Waterloo digital media campus for Stratford will go ahead with or without federal funding. "We will be able to go forward," Stratford Mayor Dan Mathieson said yesterday.

The University of Waterloo campus, originally slated to cost $30-million, will open in September, 2009, with 20 to 50 graduate students

The project was hinging on a $10-million contribution from the federal government. The province already committed $10-million, and Stratford would pay the rest. Now, with no sure sign of money from Ottawa, the project slashed its budget to $25-million. The province and city will maintain their commitments, and a fundraising campaign will be launched by the city, with some help from UW, to raise the last $5-million.

 

[afransen]

I'm opposed to the Stratford campus in the same way I'm opposed to the Cambridge and even Kitchener 'campuses' because it sells students on the expectation of a certain level of service when they are utterly isolated from the university services. This is especially true for Stratford, for which I am not aware of any transit service between it and the main UW campus. In my mind, I'd rather they be quasi-independent institutions that can piggyback off of nearby institution's services (athletics, libraries, etc.). I feel terrible for the architecture students in Cambridge that are stuck paying for all the services on campus even though they live an hour away by transit and need to make that trek every time they need to get a form approved.

 

[taal]

I'm sure waterloo provided shuttle buses between it's campuses. Doesn't it?

 

[rdaner]

more information

From U of Waterloo Bulletin:

Stratford plans set to move ahead

Plans for a UW campus in Stratford, a half-hour drive west of Waterloo, moved forward dramatically on Monday when UW’s president and dean of arts, as well as officials of the city of Stratford and the Ontario ministry of research and innovation, spoke at a city council meeting in the community’s historic city hall.

The three parties announced plans to launch the campus with the “Stratford Instituteâ€, a research centre for work in digital media, and a graduate program in that field. The proposed undergraduate program will come later, they said.

Tobi Day-Hamilton, director of advancement for UW’s faculty of arts, confirmed last night that “they will be proceeding with the next phases of the Stratford Institute initiative — appropriate approvals through the Senate and Board of Governors.â€

The project already has support to the extent of $10 million plus land from the City of Stratford, $10 million from the Ministry of Research and Innovation, and an additional $5 million to be found from sources identified by the City of Stratford. At Monday night’s meeting, mayor Dan Mathieson said there is still hope for involvement from the federal government as well.

In March, the City of Stratford, the provincial ministry and Waterloo-based Open Text Corporation announced their commitment to the Stratford Institute, “and each confirmed their continued support at the event,†Day-Hamilton said. “In addition, Sybase iAnywhere gave its support to the initiative, announcing their intent to be a founding partner in the project.â€

“We’re excited to be involved with the university,†iAnywhere president Terry Stepien told Stratford’s Beacon-Herald newspaper.

Says Day-Hamilton: “The Stratford Institute is a think-tank, integrator and training institute devoted to collaboration between digital media, international commerce and culture. The first phase of the project will see the Stratford Institute host conferences, workshops and research activities in digital media beginning as early as spring 2009.

“The first major activity is a planned conference titled Canada 3.0: Defining Canada’s Digital Future, scheduled for May 11-12, 2009, at the Stratford Rotary Complex.

“In addition to the research and outreach activities, a graduate program in global digital media is also proposed and will soon be under development. The original plan for an undergraduate program will be a later phase activity when future funding can be secured.â€

The Beacon-Herald emphasized the value of the UW campus for Stratford’s troubled economy, which depends largely on summer tourism for the Shakespeare festival, as well as automotive parts jobs. The campus should create “more than 400 direct and indirect jobsâ and pump $38 million a year into Stratford, the paper said.

 

[3Dementia]

Nothing says "digital" like The Bard.

 

[TOinTO]

The project was hinging on a $10-million contribution from the federal government. The province already committed $10-million, and Stratford would pay the rest. Now, with no sure sign of money from Ottawa, the project slashed its budget to $25-million. The province and city will maintain their commitments, and a fundraising campaign will be launched by the city, with some help from UW, to raise the last $5-million.

I guess this is what we can expect from the Federal government's 'accelerated' infrastructure funding? More promised money failing to appear?

Useless Tory dickwads.

 

[rdaner]

Cooper Site Renewal

Anyone familiar with this stunning piece of industrial architecture will be interested. This would be the equivalent of 20 Car Barn projects under one roof.

University 'downtown shopping'
Posted By PAUL CLUFF
Posted 6 hours ago


The downtown core is the preferred location for the Stratford Institute, University of Waterloo president David Johnston said in a letter presented yesterday to city council.

In his correspondence, Mr. Johnston said the university has a strong preference for a downtown single site that would accommodate all buildings and parking and allow for expansion if the institute grew in the future.

"A location in the downtown will allow students and faculty access to transit, shopping, dining and a broad range of cultural activities," he said.

Stratford mayor Dan Mathieson said the university preference for a downtown campus is in keeping with locations picked for graduate-level schools affiliated with universities in the Waterloo area. The Stratford Institute will be a research centre for digital media and global business through the University of Waterloo.

The only site that could accommodate the university is the former Cooper site in the downtown core. Earlier this month, city council agreed to initiate expropriation proceedings to regain possession of the Cooper site, formerly the CNR shops. Legal counsel has been instructed to notify property owner Lawrence Ryan.

Mr. Ryan has been at loggerheads with the city for a number of years.

The land has sat undeveloped, though he contended recently that he has plans to develop the property and his financial backers "need to know the land won't be pulled out from under him."

Mayor Mathieson said city staff and legal counsel are also exploring an amicable purchase-and-sale agreement.

Expropriating the land for municipal purposes could take six months to a couple of years. The Stratford Institute, meanwhile, is going ahead without a permanent home. It will be launched at a conference in Stratford in May. The program here will attract students and professionals the world over in global digital media, beginning with a master's class of 100 graduates. Programming will expand to 500 undergraduates. The institute will begin with a series of more than 75 events held in various locations in the city and elsewhere. Until a site is officially selected, courses, conferences and research exchanges could be held on other properties. The downtown core, Mr. Johnston said, is the preferred choice long-term.

"We are certain the city and university will prosper together with such a location," Mr. Johnston said.

 

[adma]

Anyone familiar with this stunning piece of industrial architecture will be interested. This would be the equivalent of 20 Car Barn projects under one roof.

Here's a slide show I found

 

[rdaner]

More university announcements

New Balsillie school will be 'functional, not fancy'

(By Greg Mercer, THE RECORD, January 8, 2008)



WATERLOO

With a nod to the city's industrial past, and an eye to a green future, designers unveiled plans for an uptown school that aims to attract sharp minds from around the world.

To be built on land where whisky barrels used to roll, the Balsillie School of International Affairs will transform the empty Seagram's distillery site into a walkable, tree-lined campus with understated brick buildings, living roofs, a public auditorium and central courtyard.

"This is an institution that will go head to head with the rest of the world," declared Shirley Blumberg, principle architect for the project.

She's a partner in Toronto firm Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg, the people who designed Kitchener City Hall and the Grand Valley Institute for Women.

Speaking at a packed open house at the Centre for International Governance Innovation last night, Blumberg said the school was designed to be "functional but not fancy," as per the wishes of its namesake and chief bankroller, Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie.

Balsillie is giving $33 million to the new school, while University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University will add $25 million over 10 years.

The site, bordered by Erb Street, Caroline Street and Father David Bauer Drive, connects to the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

The project will be built in phases, with ground preparation beginning by the end of this year.

City council will be asked to approve the site's master plan on Feb. 23.

Although the economic downturn will affect the timing of later construction, the section housing the Balsillie school will be the first to be finished. It's designed to hold about 25 faculty, plus another 70 to 100 students.

Later plans call for another academic wing to hold other university programs, plus a proposed 12-storey building that would serve as housing for faculty and students and an underground parking garage.

The iconic Seagram's barrel pyramid may be moved from the site to make room for the new buildings, said project consultant Chris Pidgeon.

More than 100 residents crowded last night's meeting, but most questions revolved around how the school would affect traffic problems on surrounding streets.

To make Caroline Street more pedestrian-friendly, the city is looking at reducing the road from four lanes to two.

Most, though, seemed impressed with what designers were proposing.

"I've been involved with city planning for the past 40 years and this is the best plan I've seen in all that time," said Waterloo's John Shortreed.

http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/468598

Thanks to Duke of Waterloo on SSP for photos

 

[T.O.Fanatic]

I wonder if any meaningful cash is being directed towards York U, or is the current labour dispute making it too risky.

 

[Hipster Duck]

That Balsillie school might be the best thing to have ever happened to uptown Waterloo. Among Canadian philantropers, the RIM founders truly are in a class of their own.

 

[rdaner]

Finally...

Thanks to ktown4ever on SSP


Kitchener digital media centre

New Kitchener digital media centre gets $5.35 million

Record staff

KITCHENER — The federal government is kicking in $5.35 million to get a digital media research centre in downtown Kitchener off the ground.

Gary Goodyear, the federal minister of state for science and technology
, announced the funding this morning in Stratford. The Stratford Institute, a proposed University of Waterloo campus in Stratford, also is getting $5.3 million for a digital media research centre.

Together, the two research facilities will form the Corridor for Advancing Canadian Digital Media.

The Kitchener centre, an initiative of the City of Kitchener, the Communitech technology association, the University of Waterloo and local high technology companies, such as Christie Digital and Open Text Corp., will house digital imaging, projection and studio technologies. Researchers, and digital media companies and startups
will share space in the centre.

The City of Kitchener has set aside $500,000 for the centre. The private sector has committed $12 million to the project. Academic institutions, such as UW, will contribute $5.7 million. Communitech will invest $1 million in the project.

The federal money, to be paid over five years, comes from a $350-million program that provides funding for Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research.

The new digital media centre will be located in downtown Kitchener and is slated to be operational in some form by the end of the year. No one at this morning's press conference would reveal where the centre will be located, although Kevin Tuer, executive director of the digital media corridor, said the group will refurbish existing space in Kitchener's core.

 

[rdaner]

There has been a lot of activity in downtown Oshawa with the building of a downtown campus for UOIT. No pics yet but a link to some interesting information. The development of several downtown campuses for GTA colleges/universities is becoming a very significant regeneration tool and may go down in planning history as an important contribution under McGuinty along with the Pan Am Games, the Greenbelt, Place To Grow, etc.

http://www.durhamregion.com/print/1294377

UOIT campus renews Oshawa's downtown


UOIT in Oshawa downtown. OSHAWA -- A new University of Ontario Institute of Technology study shows stakeholders in downtown Oshawa think locating the university there was a positive move and contributed to the revitalization of the downtown. Pedestrians outside the UOIT facility at 61 Charles Street February 1. February 1, 2012. Ryan Pfeiffer / Metroland
Reka Szekely

February 9, 2012


OSHAWA -- A UOIT study shows that students, residents and business owners see the location of university buildings in downtown Oshawa as a driving force behind the revitalization of the downtown.


Dr. Nawal Ammar is the dean of the faculty of social sciences and humanities at the university. Her faculty, along with the faculty of education, is based in downtown Oshawa.

In her remarks to council last week, Dr. Ammar said the facts on unemployment, homelessness and social inequality show that Oshawa's reputation as a decaying City is undeserved.

"Oshawa reflects something different than a city losing its manufacturing base," she said.

Dr. Ammar described her study, which consulted five focus groups made up of 29 people altogether and surveyed an additional 131 people including downtown stakeholders and students, faculty and staff at UOIT.

When asked if UOIT being downtown contributed to renewal, 92 per cent of stakeholders and 80 per cent of UOIT students and staff said yes.

"Everybody thought it was a very positive move, a lot of people saw an increase in the foot traffic downtown," said Dr. Ammar.

Downtown stakeholders also said they felt the university increased the aesthetic appeal of the downtown, increased development, increased retail activity and increased safety downtown.

But on the question of whether respondents were happy UOIT was situated downtown, only 48 per cent of UOIT students and staff agreed they were happy while 87 per cent of downtown stakeholders said they agreed.

Among the criticisms from students was lack of student life and opportunities to party downtown, said Dr. Ammar.

"The students didn't like it because they wanted more bars, I think."

Other issues were related to transportation and Dr. Ammar said she understands that it can take 25 to 30 minutes to get downtown from the north campus and said students wish it took 10 minutes.

Councillors pointed out that the stretch between the downtown and the campus had some of the best bus service in Durham with as little as seven and a half minutes between buses during peak periods.

"I don't think it's bad service, I think the timing doesn't satisfy their expectations," said Dr. Ammar.

Another issue was a two-hour parking limit in some areas of the downtown while students typically have three-hour classes.

"I have lots of students who leave the classroom to put more money in the meter," said Dr. Nawar.

On that issue, councillors increased the time limit to four hours on a series of meters on Charles Street and Bruce Street near university buildings.

With the downtown stakeholders there was worry that some of the promises of the university downtown would be unfulfilled.

"There was a fear the university would disappear or remove its commitment or there are promises that are being made that won't be fulfilled," said Dr. Ammar.

Last spring the university unveiled massive plans for growth in Oshawa's downtown, with 5,600 students expected by 2015 and up to 10,000 by 2030.

Councillors welcomed the survey results.

"I don't think there's any doubt about the impact the university's had on the downtown core and the surrounding area," said Coun. Nester Pidwerbecki. "I think it's pretty positive."

Dr. Ammar said she plans to continue to study the relationship between the downtown stakeholders and the university and she said the relationship between the two groups should be nurtured.

She also expressed satisfaction at the reception she got in the City's downtown when her faculty moved there in 2010.

"We were very warmly welcomed and we feel, at least I do, very welcome in downtown Oshawa."