by Lee Gavel

Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey began with an idea: to critically reconstruct the nature of a university. They used a unique architectural planning model to foster intellectual endeavour and build a community with an open-ended circulation and public space system integrated with the buildings. At the same time nature was to be respected and dramatized by adapting the design of structures to the mountaintop environment.

Growth was to be incremental and continuous. “At no time should the university look unfinished,” said Erickson. In other words, the whole was to be greater than the sum of the parts.

I would like to think the strength of the basic principles incorporated in the original vision are reflected in the campus we see today and are building for tomorrow. It is by defining and designing the public realm as an integral part of its architecture that the SFU Burnaby Mountain campus is distinguished.

If a university could be reduced to the simplest of constructs, it would be defined as a place for the generation, storage, and communication of knowledge. In building form, this elemental piece on campus is the W.A.C. Bennett Library, the heart of SFU. The library is the rock in both scale and monumentality upon which the university is founded and from which it grows outward. But at SFU the library cannot be separated from convocation mall. The mall, and by extension the concourses, are the commons through which the social interactions of members of its community – students, staff, and faculty – create the energy to stimulate new and ever-enlarging fields of activity.

SFU has often been described as a commuter campus, but that has changed dramatically as a residential neighbourhood has developed on the east side of campus. If “community” seemed to be shortchanged over the years, the recent development of UniverCity will help to provide the

broader range of services and social equilibrium of a mature campus. But as SFU grows beyond Burnaby Mountain to SFU Vancouver and SFU Surrey, it is still the library and commons that will be found at the heart of these new campuses and that will be connected by public transit and digital transmission.

The individual elements of a campus are the many buildings that accommodate teaching, research, and community functions. Universities grow in surges dependent on demographics and the economy. The original campus in 1965 was to open with and accommodate 2,500 students. In very short order more than 5,000 were enrolled, and ever since the university has been playing catch-up. Forty years later there are 22,700 individuals enrolled in courses on three campuses. An unprecedented program of building new academic and service facilities is underway.

To accommodate the current needs on Burnaby Mountain an approximately $250 million program is in place to build teaching and research spaces including a facility for Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences (IRMACS), two phases of a new Technology and Science Complex (TASC1 and TASC2), an Arts and Social Science building (ASSC1), greenhouses for plant research, and a planned building for the new Faculty of Health Sciences. New student residential accommodation has been completed to provide for other aspects of student life, and a major expansion of the gymnasium is underway. A partnership with the Whitecaps soccer organization promises the development of two artificial turf fields and two additional grass fields for use by the university community.

At long last the alumni, some 80,000 strong, have a place on campus to return to and use for meetings and special events. The former Diamond University Centre has been renovated in partnership with the Alumni Association and is now the Diamond Alumni Centre.

The original Harbour Centre facility (1989) has also grown significantly and is now recognized as the SFU Vancouver campus. Visual Arts at 611 Alexander Street (1998), the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue (2000), the Chief Dan George Centre for Advanced Education (2003), and the recently completed Segal Graduate School of Business are creating a true urban campus in downtown Vancouver. A major addition will be a facility for SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts as part of the Woodward’s building, slated for completion in 2009.

A new third campus, SFU Surrey, is under construction and is connected to both other campuses by Skytrain. It is presently operating in temporary facilities and will accommodate approximately 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students when completed in 2007. The campus is located in spectacular facilities designed by Bing Thom and continues the tradition of distinguished architecture, faculty, and programs that is the hallmark of
SFU. aq

Competition drawing of the library at its original five-storey height
Competition drawing of a completed campus for 18,000 students
Photo from the east of the three-sided quadrangle and the campus in 1965
Convocation Mall under construction
View from the AQ of the East Theatre Annex under construction in 1990
Illustration of the dramatic use of light and reflection in the AQ pool
Academic Buildings
Three new buildings, the TASC1, ASSC1, ASSC2, provide for expansion of academic space. Departments such as computing science, earth science, natural and resource management, criminology, and health sciences will be accommodated
Research Buildings
Facilities to support equipment-intensive research will be found in the IRMACS and TASC2 projects. Specialized units for support of research in materials science and the applied sciences will be provided
Student Services
Expansion of the provision of on-campus first-year residence and dining facilities by 720 beds has been completed. A major new gymnasium and a fitness centre are being constructed to serve the growing student population as well as the UniverCity community
UniverCity
The Cornerstone commercial building is serving as the base for a number of retail outlets supplying the campus and residential populations. A town square has been constructed to serve as a meeting place for all. Five market residential projects are under completion.
Alumni
A renovated Diamond Alumni Centre serves both the university’s need for a quiet place to get away from the busy areas of campus and as a place for alumni to host events and meetings as they return to campus. This is also a popular spot for special events such as weddings for community members.
DESIGNED TO GROW
Aerial photograph reveals expansion to the east including the UniverCity housing complex and new student residences to the west.
SFU Vancouver
A true urban campus of restored and renovated structures within walking distance of each other that includes specialized instructional and conference spaces. The Segal Graduate School of Business is recently completed and a significant addition will be facilities for the School for the Contemporary Arts in the Woodward’s project, which will be ready for occupancy in 2009.
SFU Surrey
A dramatic new campus will be completed in 2007. It is located in the heart of the future urban core of Surrey in a landmark building in which SFU will occupy 29,915 GSM (gross square metres) with a library, lecture theatre, classrooms, and offices. This is the first phase of anticipated growth for this campus.
SFU’s Era of Unprecedented Growth
FACT 1 Within six years (from 2002 to 2008) the university’s academic space will double. (235,509 GSM to 476,201 GSM) FACT 2 Student residence space has also grown over 150% with the addition of 720 new student housing units and a dining hall since 2003. (45,661 GSM to 65,472 GSM) note: GSM = gross square metres

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