In alignment with its Destination 2020 strategic plan, the University of Ottawa is poised to break ground in early summer on a new four-storey student residence on Henderson Avenue.
The $17.5 million project is intended to help the university “attract, host and keep” the best students in the nation’s capital. A general contractor is expected to be retained in late June.
“Living in residence is one of the key elements in the rewarding experience we want to offer our students,” said Marc Joyal, vice-president, resources. “That’s why we are investing the money and effort needed to increase the number of places so more students can live in residence.”
To be located behind the future Advanced Research Complex, the residence will include 169 single rooms, a kitchen on each floor and common spaces on the ground floor.
As in its other residences, the university will offer an array of support services for students living in the new facility.
Designed by the IBI Group, the building features a concrete structure with a brick exterior.
“We have broken up the façade in order to complement the rhythm of the residential street,” said Ian Kennedy, project leader and project manager at the university’s Physical Resources Service.
The project is being undertaken by a team that includes mechanical and electrical engineers Goodkey Weedmark & Associates Ltd., structural engineers Halsall Associates Ltd. and CSW Landscape Architects Ltd.
The self-funded project is being managed by the university’s Housing Service. Occupancy is scheduled for September 1, 2015.
Kennedy said construction costs are estimated at $14 million.
Building the new residence will help the university meet its goal of creating some 1,200 new residence spaces in the coming years. There are currently 3,000 such places.
Meanwhile, the university is in the process of entering into a long-term agreement to lease an existing eight-storey building at the intersection of Rideau and Friel streets.
Some 400 residence spaces will be created in the building, located within a 10-minute walk of campus. It will feature single and double rooms, several common areas, kitchen and laundry facilities and storage space. The university will be the sole manager of the residence.
The university also plans to renovate two heritage buildings on Seraphin-Marion Street to create an Alumni Hall, the first building dedicated to this purpose since the university’s establishment in 1848.
The facility will house reception and conference rooms equipped with the latest multimedia equipment as well as shared work stations for alumni to use when they visit Ottawa or need space to work between meetings downtown.
The cost of renovating and preserving the buildings is estimated at more than $3.5 million.
A portico, which was demolished some years ago, will also be restored as part of the project.
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