A rendering shows the envisioned project upon completion in 2015, as seen from the Sterling and Forsyth Avenue entrance to the University.

Come September of 2015, McMaster students are in for a treat. Thanks to a $45 million dollar grant from the provincial government and a $10 million dollar donation from retiring Chancellor Lynton (Red) Wilson, the L.R. Wilson Hall for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences is finally breaking ground and is set to open in time for the 2015-16 academic year.

Although the building currently on site, Wentworth House, has yet to be demolished, at a project launch ceremony on Friday May 31, University faculty and government administration donned hard hats and wielded shovels to formally break ground for the building. Construction is scheduled to be in full swing by early July.

The proposed 62,000 square foot building has an extensive list of attributes, including an Indigenous Studies space and ceremonial area, a joint Social Sciences-Humanities student lounge, a 400 seat lecture hall and underground parking. Music and theatre students will be particularly enthused by the 350-seat concert hall and a versatile black box theatre that can be configured in a variety of ways to suit performance needs.

“We build a space not just for today or tomorrow, but to still be innovative 15 years from now,” said Dr. Charlotte Yates, Dean of Social Sciences at a community open house regarding the building on Monday May 27.

At only five floors tall, the Hall will still manage to encompass departmental office spaces, graduate research areas, seminar rooms and classrooms while being 100 per cent accessible and featuring transgender washrooms on every floor.

The structure itself is also going to be groundbreaking in its design. “We wanted this to be a green building, not only from a sustainability perspective, but also in terms of landscape,” explained Paul Cravit, President of CS&P Architects, and Project Lead on the Wilson building. This commitment involves tree preservation along Sterling and Forsyth Avenue, a garden level on the top floor of the building and a green roof.

In an effort to receive gold certification in the environmental LEED scoring system, the building will be equipped with low pressure plumbing, have bright windows to capitalize on sunlight, and be dimly lit at night.

The liberal arts centered space is the result of an initial letter writing campaign to lobby the government for arts funding. Joe Finkle, MSU VP Education 2010-2011, spearheaded the successful letter-writing campaign during his tenure. In 483 original, unique letters, liberal arts students expressed the need for a new academic and performance space dedicated to their specific needs, and sent them to local MPP Ted McMeekin. Years later, the fruits of Finkle’s and the arts students’ labour are finally becoming a reality.

The building represents the largest liberal arts donation McMaster has ever seen, and is the only arts-focused infrastructure to be funded by the provincial government in this round of financial allocations. Dean of Humanities, Dr. Ken Cruikshank, knows this investment to be worthwhile. “This building is going to change the way we learn,” Cruikshank promised.

Stewart pursues sustainability initiative based on student feedback

For most students, November brings the thought of the semester finishing, exams starting, and the winter break setting in.

But MSU President Siobhan Stewart has her sights set on the spring.

Stewart’s green roof initiative, a project designed to convert the third-floor balcony of the McMaster University Student Centre into an eco-friendly sitting area and garden, is on track to be completed for next summer. The project was a key platform point of her 2012 presidential campaign.

Green roofs have been growing in popularity at universities and other institutions across Canada. Stewart explained that the inspiration for the green roof  at Mac came from two students who were involved with OPIRG, who proposed the project three years ago.

The idea of converting an already existing space into a more workable and sustainable place was an appealing choice for McMaster for a number of reasons, among them the concern of an overpopulated campus with too little public space.

“Students are always talking about the need for space on campus,” said Stewart. “And as many can imagine, new buildings don’t sprout up every day.”

She noted that part of McMaster’s unique situation is that campus is “landlocked,” bordered by residential neighbourhoods on three sides and Cootes Paradise on the other.

Mac student Melanie Fox-Chen is also passionate about the green roof project. The fourth-year biology student was an intern at McMaster’s Office of Sustainability this summer, and spent her term investigating the best practices of green roofs. The advantages of such a project are numerous, she found.

“It maximizes the usable amount of space on campus, which is really good,” Fox-Chen explained. “It just provides a green space where students can seek to relax and unwind from a stressful day.”

Her research, which looked into a range of issues, including food production, plant life, rainwater collection, and community involvement, was used to create a survey that was given to students this summer.

The feedback from the survey, which drew 600 responses, was used in drawing up further plans for the project. The responses showed that the majority of people would appreciate a “calm, soothing environment,” while they also indicated support for edible plants to be grown, as well as species native to Southern Ontario.

Stewart stressed this element of student feedback as a means of making decisions.

“I’ve been trying to consult a lot with students. From an efficiency standpoint [it’s not ideal]… I could have just put everything together, but that’s not my style.”

Only so much progress can be made on the roof at this point, however. The organizers may have a sense of what people want, but before any construction happens, the MSU must wait while the project is out to tender.

“It’s not like the MSU can just get a shovel and go to town. It doesn’t work like that,” Stewart said in explaining the process of getting university approval.

The next phase is choosing a plan for the space. The MSU, in partnership with Facility Services, invited eight architects to submit proposals for their services in October. The team chose a firm to contract out for the work, and will now see three more specific sets of plans drawn up. Before a final design is chosen, Stewart will seek further student feedback.

It is not clear whether or not the roof will be completed by the end of the academic year, Stewart said.

“My goal is at least for it have been started before the end of my term, or for all of the logistics to be done…so all it would take would be a green light.”

Trends come and go, and often provided little more than a blip of information or insight. But one trend that seems to be ever-growing – and for good reason – is that of environmental friendliness and, for specifically, supporting local food.

Many school communities have adopted practices that implement these new values and beliefs. The new Teaching and Community Garden located directly on the McMaster campus is part of the effort here.

The garden opened up on July 10 to reveal a lively and spacious community open and available to all McMaster students and residents of Hamilton interested in taking part in growing their own local and fresh fruits and vegetables.

“There is definitely a growing trend towards urban agriculture, and it was only a matter of time before the University jumped on something like this,” explained Michael Lee, who is working at the garden on a University Sustainability Internship.

The garden was spearheaded by Julianne Bagg and Emily Taylor, two students in the Integrated Sciences Program (iSci), who have been working towards implementing the project for the last seven months. Putting together a budget, organizing the location, determining the groups and departments that would be involved and designing a strategic plan for the space have been some of the necessary steps Bagg, Taylor and Lee have taken.

Through related efforts, the MSU has been discussing plans of a new green roof for part of MUSC.

“We would love to have a connection between the two projects,” explained Lee. “Seeing as they’re both on campus and both involve local produce, collaboration between the groups would be great”.

The produce being grown has been on sale at Mac Farmstand. The garden managers are looking forward to donating the products in the future to Mac Bread Bin and potentially other community charities and food banks. The garden works in a way that allows community residents to come and take part in the growth of produce that will in turn be given back to the community.

The garden plans on running “Open Garden Sessions” on Tuesdays that will allow students and residents to help cultivate the plants and develop a better understanding of where food comes from.

The garden currently boasts a wide variety of produce, ranging from tomatoes, onions, peppers, three different types of eggplant, chard, beets, beans, lettuces and a series of herbs and spices.

“We even have a pumpkin plant,” said Lee.

With such a wide variety of plant life, the group running the garden is hopeful that it will spark an interest in the community and encourage people to come out and contribute.

The group has also partnered with the Faculty of Science, which includes the Integrated Sciences program, to allow for a space to conduct educational programs for students interested in learning more about the plants that are currently growing there.

The garden is located on the North Side of the General Sciences Building. You can check out their webpage through the Sustainability at McMaster website to view a calendar that includes dates and times of Open Garden Sessions.