The largest capital project in Vancouver Island University’s history is well underway.
Construction work has begun on the university’s $39.9-million Health and Science Centre. Once completed in the fall of 2018, the four-storey building will be home to health and chemistry programs, teaching labs for nursing and an environmental research laboratory.
Allan Cumbers, VIU’s executive director of facilities, said the 6,855-square-metre building is a much-needed upgrade that will come complete with state-of-the-art equipment.
“It will end up being one of our biggest buildings on campus,” he said. “It is a huge benefit in that we are looking at state-of-the-art labs for the science programs such as health and human services. There are old ones in the current buildings that are functionally obsolete at this point.”
Cumbers said the building will be built to LEED gold standards and includes an advanced heating and cooling system that uses geothermal energy.
“It will exchange energy with the water that is in the coal mines below us,” he said. “It’s rather unique that we have these coal mines that basically have water at 11 degrees year-round. That allows us to steal heat or put heat back in when we are cooling. In fact, this building will have next to zero carbon emissions because of its heating and cooling system.”
Keeley Shaff, a third-year nursing student at VIU, said she will likely graduate before the building is completed, but is excited about the project and believes it could result in more collaboration between the nursing and the health sciences departments.
“When you look at a lot of other universities, they have a lot of technology involved in nursing, simulation labs and specialized dolls that we use for our procedures and skills and then seeing a building like this makes me excited because those things are probably going to be there,” she said.
The new building is the first phase of a $75-million multi-phased health and science centre project that includes the construction of a second building. Once completed, the two buildings would replace three older buildings on the campus.
“We are hopefully going to be building a sister building in the future,” Cumbers said. “It’s very costly to retrofit buildings.”
nicholas.pescod@nanaimobulletin.com