As the opening of the University of Manitoba’s new Pembina Hall residence marks the latest piece to fall into place for Project Domino, progess on the campus’s new state-of-the-art Art Research Technology (ART) Lab continues.
The residence opened on schedule at the beginning of the month to welcome 360 new residents on campus.
“Project Domino is progressing very well,” said Wendy Parker, U of M’s executive assistant to the associate vice-president (administration).
The multi-million dollar project, announced in 2008, is a series of large-scale renovations that will revamp several buildings on the Fort Garry campus. It is expected to create more than 500 jobs and generate more than $9 million in tax revenue.
Parker noted that the Biological Sciences building renovation, the retrofit of the Architecture Library, and a study lounge for students in Pembina Hall have all been completed.
“Overall we are extremely pleased with the progress on [Project] Domino to date,” said Parker.
With students out of the old Tache Hall residence and into the new Pembina Hall building, construction is underway to transform the Tache building into the ARTLab.
Tache Hall is set to become the hub of art and music on campus, with a new facility for the Marcel A. Desautels faculty of music being joined to the building by a covered atrium.
The $30 million construction project on the ARTLab is on budget and on schedule, she said. Staff from the university’s school of art will move into the Tache building as early as November, and students will begin using the building by January 2012. Redevelopment of the Tache complex is expected to be finished in Fall 2014 and completion of renovations to the Fitzgerald building is expected by 2016.
The building will offer premium space to art students including a vault to store valuable works of art, large work spaces, digital media and print studios, a 140-seat theatre and a new home for Gallery OneOneOne.
“Architecturally, it will be a stunning addition to our campus,” said Parker, “designed by award-winning architects Patkau Architects, who are graduates themselves of the University of Manitoba.”
