Better space supports better learning

By Andrea Purdy

An $8-million renovation underway in Murray Fraser Hall will create new space for law students and enable the Faculty of Law to expand its undergraduate and graduate programs. The renovations are designed to provide an optimum work environment for students, faculty and staff.

By re-configuring spaces into more efficient student and faculty-friendly facilities, the design team of Busby Perkins + Will, with the Martens Group, has been able to expand existing capacity while providing innovative and informal work spaces for students and staff.

Al Lucas, the new dean of the Faculty of Law and chair of Natural Resources Law, is enthusiastic about the renovations and how they support the faculty’s five-year strategic plan. “This plan identifies two major interrelated goals—first, to establish the program as one of the best law schools in Canada and second, to achieve international recognition at the LLB and graduate levels for the excellence of its specialization in natural resources, energy and environmental law,” he says. “Both the quality of the design and the increase in space supports these goals.”

Professor Iwan Saunders, head of the renovation committee, says that building better classrooms and creating pleasant spaces for students to gather before and after class is central to the new design. “The majority of classrooms will now have natural light, individual power outlets at each desk and will be equipped with new technology, making the environment more conducive to learning and teaching.”

New group workrooms will support skills-training sessions and give law students additional study space. Other changes include the relocation and redesign of the Moot Courtroom to a feature space on the third floor. The old courtroom space and side-wings classrooms are being redeveloped into a large lecture hall. The project also includes major renovations to the law library entrance, which will improve reference and circulation service areas.

“The Faculty of Law has been extremely cooperative throughout the renovation process,” said Dale Sorensen, U of C project manager. “They have been fantastic about working with the construction team to give us the site access needed to get the job done.”

Renovations to the teaching and student spaces, managed by Ledcor Construction Ltd., are due to finish before students return to classes in September.

Construction on the fourth floor will continue into September with the entire project scheduled for completion by mid-October 2007.