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Lazaridis Hall | 4 fl | Complete
#1
Global Innovation Exchange Building
Lazaridis Hall

64 University Avenue West in Waterloo
http://www.bondfield.com/portfolio/LEED ... change.php
Builder: Bondfeld Construction
Architect: Diamond and Schmitt Architects

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#2
Wilfrid Laurier University | LINK

Quote:Facts about the GIE

Location:

The Global Innovation Exchange Building (GIE) will be situated on the site of the former St. Michael’s school, on University Avenue West, between Hemlock and Hazel streets. It will be home to Laurier's School of Business & Economics and Department of Mathematics.

Design:

The GIE will be designed as a state-of-the-art educational facility. Its classrooms and meeting spaces will be equipped with technology to increase collaboration with Laurier’s partners around the globe. The exterior design will enhance Laurier’s presence on the University Avenue streetscape, and the design will aim to achieve a minimum of LEED silver certification.

Design by Diamond & Schmitt Architects and David Thompson Architect.
Approx. 225,000 sq.ft
Four storeys
Nine lecture halls (75-300 seats each)
Two-level, 1,000-seat auditorium
Computer and math labs
Meeting rooms
Faculty and administrative offices
Student club support spaces
Café
Atrium
Construction:

The design and construction schedule is being finalized, and construction will begin in May 2013. It is estimated that the construction process will take a total of four years, with plans to begin moving in the summer of 2015 for occupancy by the fall 2015 academic term.
Facility cost and funding:

The estimated project cost is $103 million, including renovations to the Peters Building.
The Ontario provincial government announced a $72.6 million investment in the GIE on June 20, 2011 – the largest single capital investment in the university’s history.
The remaining $30 million of the building’s cost will be raised through Laurier’s development efforts.



Taking a closer look at the GIE building site
Quote:September 18, 2013 | The Cord | LINK

Wilfrid Laurier University’s  grand Global Innovation Exchange (GIE) building is well under way, as construction has got off to a smooth start.

The tender was awarded to Bonfield Construction back in May, who started forming the base structure this past June.

“Right now we’re working on foundations and site works,” explained Mark Dettweiler, the director of planning, design and construction of Laurier physical resources.

“Mostly extrications, forming and pouring concrete.”

Dettweiler, who was largely involved in the planning and design of the new GIE building, is ecstatic to see the project come together.

He walked The Cord through blueprints of the GIE building and offered the opportunity to tour the construction site.

“The contract is the date of substantial completion, which right now is June 30 2015,” he said. “So approximately two years.”

His goal is to occupy the new GIE building by the fall 2015 term.

“It’s a pretty tight schedule,” he admitted.

The $103-million project is taking over the previous St. Michael’s Campus and will be the new home for Laurier’s Business and Economics faculty. The building will feature an atrium, a 1,000-person lecture hall, a café, and a unique classroom sloping off of the building.

However, for the size of the building, even with the contractors being finished in June, 2015, Dettweiler thinks that moving faculty members and classrooms will take longer than expected.

Once Laurier’s Business and Economics faculty makes the move, the arts faculty will occupy the current Schlegel Centre.

“Certainly taking over the offices,” Dettweiler said. “The classrooms were really just a shared resource [and] arts is out of space in the Dr. Alvin Woods Building (DAWB), so we’re having ideas that their faculty will take over the current business building.”

Dettweiler also mentioned that the Schlegel Centre would undergo minor renovations and updates once the GIE building has been completed.

He has not commented on whether the Schlegel Centre will be renamed once the arts faculty occupies it.

However, as of now, the only progress that the GIE building has experienced is strictly structural.

Come winter, Dettweiler explained that Bonfield will switch to “winter construction techniques.”

“What you’ll see different, [if] they’re still working on foundation, is that they would start to insulate the forms and bring in some heat.”

“We’re not taking the winter off,” he promised.

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#3
Math + business + economics is a winning formula
September 24, 2011 | The Globe and Mail | LINK


Quote:Math is the new business. At least, that’s what Wilfrid Laurier University’s business school suggests, as it looks to add that department to the school’s new building.

The new home of the business school, currently under construction, reflects the university’s ambitious plans for its rapidly growing school and marks the start of a new initiative to encourage more interdisciplinary collaboration, research and integrated learning in business education.

Site preparation is under way and construction is expected to start soon on the Global Innovation Exchange (GIE), a new building that will house Laurier’s School of Business and Economics and its Department of Math. The facility, expected to open in 2014, will have pride of place on Laurier’s Waterloo campus and will serve as a gateway to the university.

It will give the business school more visibility and exposure in Waterloo, especially among the area’s high tech industry and other organizations, said Bill Banks, acting dean of business and economics.

“We have a lot of business partners here,” he says. “What we are trying to do is make our facility also part of their facility,” and encourage interaction and collaboration that will ultimately benefit students. “If a business student can talk to executives in the trenches, then that’s better than just talking to faculty members,” he explains.

The initiative also aims to encourage more collaboration between the three disciplines that will be housed in the new building. Wilfrid Laurier has always grouped business and economics together within the same school. The addition of the math department will be new, a reflection of the ties that have been building in recent years between business and financial and applied math.

Sharing office and classroom space will also provide the chance to undertake interdisciplinary research, Dr. Banks says. It will also foster more integrated learning, a common practice at Laurier that sees professors from different disciplines co-teach a class.

The building itself is designed to encourage interaction. The 215,000-square-foot facility will feature seven lecture halls and a 1,000-seat auditorium. Classrooms will be shared among the three programs and faculty offices will be scattered throughout the building, rather than clustered by discipline.

The hope is that the informal discussions that take place in hallways and coffee shops will breed new ideas for research opportunities and other collaborations, Dr. Banks explains. Within classrooms, business and math students will sit side by side, wrestling with various issues and problems.

Dr. Banks says the collaboration could lead to the introduction of new joint and double degrees. Laurier’s business school currently offers a five-year double degree in which students receive a bachelor of business administration from Laurier and an undergraduate degree in math from the University of Waterloo. It also offers a double degree in computer science and business and has several more on the drawing board, Dr. Banks says.

The $103-million building is also intended to alleviate a severe space crunch at Laurier and allow it to meet the growing demand for enrolment in the three programs. It will accommodate 2,000 business, economics and math students.

“Laurier business is one of the most rapidly expanding programs in the province,” Dr. Banks says. The Ontario government announced in June it would contribute $72.6-million to the project; the remainder will be raised by Laurier.

The GIE will also help the school boost its international reputation. Laurier plans to introduce more opportunities for foreign exchanges among students and faculty, and eventually an international MBA program, the next step in its expansion plans.

Laurier is one of several Canadian business schools in the midst of expanding, including the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, York University’s Schulich School of Business, McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business and the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business. The trend reflects increased competition for students among business schools, as well as strong student demand for business education – which is no surprise, given the current turbulence in the economy, according to Dr. Banks.

Students are “nervous about jobs and their futures,” he said, and believe that business and other professional schools can deliver some measure of employment and financial security. “I think it’s all about jobs,” he added. “Anything that seems to have a flight path into a career, the students are more interested in.”

The trend has, to some extent, worked against arts and humanities departments, many of which are retrenching or shutting programs. This could turnaround in a few years, Dr. Banks posited.

But for now, “it’s our time,” he says.
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#4
Nov 16, 2013

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September 4, 2014

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#5
October 28, 2014

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#6
January 22, 2015
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#7
Some good on-site shots in this video.

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#8
Thanks for all of your photo updates!!
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#9
October 15, 2015
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Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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#10
I rather like the red accents on the paneling.
Too bad they aren't actually part of the final product, and are just packaging material.
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#11
Thumbs Up 
(10-16-2015, 09:10 AM)Markster Wrote: I rather like the red accents on the paneling.
Too bad they aren't actually part of the final product, and are just packaging material.

Let's hope they forget to remove them!
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#12
December 22, 2015

One of the longest building projects ever.  "Should" be open for September classes.

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#13
(12-22-2015, 03:33 PM)Watdot Wrote: December 22, 2015

One of the longest building projects ever.  "Should" be open for September classes.

Compared to Quantum Nano, this thing seems fast!
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#14
Quantum Nano had very specific and unusual engineering conditions. This one has no such excuse.
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#15
There still seems to be a lot of finishing work to do on this building and it doesn't look like it is going to be ready for the fall semester. What is taking so long? The original articles in the thread stated a summer 2015 finish date and there are construction photos, from well after the project started, dated from November of 2013.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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