It Takes Two Construction Spread

Whether you approach campus from the North, East, South, live in one of the colleges, or

happen to hang out in the Environ-ment buildings, you undoubtedly come into daily contact with a sprawl-ing construction site on your travels about campus. Last year, Imprint ran a story (http://www.imprint.uwaterloo.ca/2010/jan/8/cover/ten-years-cam-pus-construction/) on 10 consecutive years of construction at UW. The string of new buildings has provided in-

novative facilities and an update to the dominant 1960s architectural style of the campus. The thing about construc-tion projects is that they last a long time, while university students do not. With overlapping projects like the ones we have seen at UW, certain cohorts of students tend to bear the burden of construction without experi-encing the benefit of the new buildings. When it comes to budget, this is a con-tentious issue. My dad still complains that I’m enjoying the Fed Hall that his student fees paid for, while the UW

students of his

day obviously had to go to dances in some dark corner of old Hagey Hall, or out in the cold. The biggest daily problem for stu-dents is restricted mobility on campus (read: having to walk through MC to get around the Nano building), but the disruptive noise and presence of large construction vehicles on Ring Road have been disruptive in their own ways.

So, in (slightly belated) honour of Waterloo’s ten year building boom, and inspired by the sounds of drilling reverberating through the ENV Mac lab,

It Takes Two hereby presents you with the short list for the

2010 Construction Site-of-the-Year

Awards.

It Takes Two: Campus out of order

KISS Intel: online

words by Vanessa Martin | photos and layout by Steve Cutler

Dirtiest Construction Site:

Most Unexpected Construction Site: Math 3

Most Dramatic Construction Site: Environment 3Ground broken: August 2009

Anticipated completion date: March 2011

Heralding the emergence of Environment as a powerhouse faculty on the Waterloo campus, Environment 3 has a lot of responsibil-ity on its broad, steel shoulders.

Everything about Environment 3’s construction has been dramatic, from the push for LEED Platinum qualification, the stir over the Food Services run Starbucks franchise, and the complete physical eclipse of EV2.

Awards:

Quantum-Nano Centre

Ground broken: beats me

Anticipated completion date: March 2011

Last winter term, students walking between DC and the SLC were greeted by a giant chasm in what had previously been a patch of the (increasingly diminish-

ing) green space on campus. I’ll admit that I don’t spent much time in this area, but a recent glimpse of the nearly completed building was a shock for me. Math 3 is a case study in efficient building at the University of Waterloo – we are in the zone and we’ve got construction down to an art.

Ground broken: June 2008

Anticipated completion date: 2010/2011

Whenever I think back to winter mornings of first year, often spent trudging back and forth between Village One and campus, I cannot overlook the 50 foot pool

of muddy slush that stretched between the SLC and Biology 1. I have spend the last 2 years dreading the effort of crossing Ring Road twice to avoid this.