Change of plan for the architecture school

Photo from the Cambridge Reporter

The "Cambridge Consortium" of business people supporting the planned move said yesterday that it has purchased the Riverside Silk Mills building on Melville Street -- popularly known as the Tiger Brand factory -- along the west side of the river in the historic Galt section of Cambridge. The director of the architecture school says it'll be perfect for the school's new home.

The news was broken yesterday by the Cambridge Reporter, and its report also appeared in yesterday's Record. An official announcement came later in the day. And there's more in the Record this morning, including a note about "the challenge of raising money" for renovations -- estimated at $27 million.

Plans to move the school to Galt have been under way all this year, but until now the intended site was a "brownfield" industrial lot on Water Street east of the river. The Consortium would buy the site, and a shiny building would be erected with funding from the city of Cambridge and the Ontario government's SuperBuild program, as well as private contributors.

It's gradually become clear that the requested SuperBuild funds for the project won't be coming, so the Melville Street site is a different way of moving ahead and bringing the school to where it wants to be: the middle of a classic Ontario downtown. (Downtown Galt is about 20 kilometres from the UW campus.)

After a review of possible sites, the 84,000-square-foot Silk Mills building was found to be a perfect fit for the school of architecture, a news release says. (That's about the size of Biology I, or almost twice the size of the school's present home, Environmental Studies II.)

"The building is great," said the school's director, Rick Haldenby. "It provides large amounts of quality studio space, with high ceilings and plenty of natural light. These are precisely the conditions in which design professionals excel." The building was previously slated for apartment conversion, but the project fell through earlier this year.

The renovated building will also accommodate research labs and workshops, a gallery, lecture rooms, performance space, a major design library and public facilities.

"Once renovated," Haldenby added, "the building will provide a strong local, regional and international identity for the school and will create diverse and substantial economic gains for the city and the region."

Cambridge council, led by mayor Doug Craig, "has been working diligently to achieve this shared goal," said Haldenby, "and the city of Cambridge maintains its commitment of $7.5 million toward the project. And the Consortium, led by local businessman Tom Watson, will now focus on finalizing its commitment to provide private sector funding."

If approval is given by the governing bodies of the university and funding arrangements are worked out, the school of architecture could relocate before May 2003, Haldenby said.

Four companies give CAD-CAM software

The four companies form the corporate alliance known as the Partners for the Advancement of CAD/CAM/CAE Education (PACE). The PACE partners have worked together since 1999 "to support key academic institutions worldwide with computer-based engineering tools to prepare mechanical designers, engineers and analysts with the skills to compete in the future".

Says their news release yesterday: "Stylists, engineers, analysts and manufacturing experts working in all industry sectors need a greater command of computer-based design and analysis tools than ever before. Using computer-aided engineering tools, students will learn to design, engineer and validate products in a virtual world to prepare them to address real-world challenges such as accelerated product development cycles and increased productivity demands."

"This gift is a critical investment in the intellectual capital of Canada's youth and the success of tomorrow's Canadian-educated engineers," said Maureen Kempston Darkes, president and general manager for General Motors of Canada, and a former member of the UW board of governors. She added: "Engineering students at these three Ontario universities will now be using the same advanced math-based engineering and design tools in the classroom that GM engineers used in the lab to design innovative new vehicles such as the 2002 Chevy Avalanche."

PACE lab at the University of Missouri at Rolla, another of the institutions that have received software from the four companies

Everett Anstey, president of Sun Microsystems of Canada, observed that "Implementation of infrastructure in Canadian classrooms today means innovation in our factories tomorrow."

And UW president David Johnston said Waterloo "is proud to have been selected as a PACE institution. I commend the PACE partners for their generosity and vision. Our students will gain an enriched learning environment with additional leading-edge software, hardware and training that will enhance the quality of their design projects and give them valuable experience using the latest computer-aided design and engineering tools."

According to yesterday's news release, the three universities are enabling computing labs to best implement the PACE program. Equipment will be installed and operational by early 2002, it said.

"Additional Canadian academic institutions will be joining the PACE program and announcements will follow. To date, 24 academic institutions in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and China have been selected to participate in the PACE program. Fifteen have formally been announced as the PACE initiative continues to expand.

"The universities involved may also further leverage the PACE contribution through application to federal and provincial matching fund programs."

A step towards a Bachelor of CS degree

A key figure in the move towards creating a BCS is Prabhakar Ragde, associate chair. He explains that the BMath "provides not only a thorough grounding in computer science concepts and skills, but also enough mathematical content to justify it being a degree in mathematics.

"As computer science matures and moves beyond its traditional roots (and as the department becomes a School), we are attempting to design a Bachelor of Computer Science degree, to be offered along with the traditional BMath. The BCS will not attempt to be a degree in mathematics; rather, the mathematical content will be chosen to support and complement the computer science content."

He said separate committees have been working "to expand two models chosen from five offered to CS faculty":

• The comprehensive approach is similar to the BMath (Honours CS) in specifying a core of CS and math courses through the end of third year.
• The self-directed approach offers more choice in the third year by specifying a smaller core.

"Our intention is to have the plan approved by Senate within twelve months. This is an ambitious schedule, and I hope to keep it on track by making the entire process public and alerting interested parties well in advance. I have set up a Web page on which all background and intermediate documents will be available, as well as collections of public comment. Hopefully this will facilitate communication and improve understanding of different points of view. . . .

"There will be an open forum for students some time in early January, and a special meeting of the CS department on January 8 to discuss the designs, followed by an electronic vote."

Carols today, and a bit more

Also today: a school production of "The Nutcracker", in the Humanities Theatre at 1 p.m. -- last performance for this year's visit by the Ontario Ballet Company.

The University Club, which is offering its Christmas luncheon buffet all this week and next, is also presenting Christmas dinner twice: today and next Wednesday, December 19, 5 to 8 p.m. Reservations: ext. 3801.

And tonight, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony comes to UW's Theatre of the Arts for a "Planet Baroque concert" under the title "An Olden-Time Christmas". Stephen Sitarski is host, Jean Lamon of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra conducts, and soprano Sharla Nafziger is soloist. The music (by Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Bach, and one Marc-Antoine Charpentier, starts at 8 p.m.

CAR