Quartier Concordia

[Chris1989]

It looks like they're going to put art up on the north wall, in those big rectangle indents. You know Concordia, always trying to be artsy

[MTLskyline]

It's supposed to not be very nice outside tomorrow I think. I might try it out. Thanks for the heads up!

 

I actually am all for public art in the hallway though. It's not like the students (who I presume are the artists) are getting paid, and it makes it less bland.

 

I guess all that is left to do in Quartier Concordia is the renovation of the GM building, and the completion of the sidewalks opposite Norman Bethune Square?

Modifié 8 avril 2010 par MTLskyline

[MTLskyline]

(Con)struction

Enough with the digging already

 

by Clare Raspopow

 

As the saying goes, “In this life nothing is certain but death and taxes.” We Concordians have the privilege of adding a third: construction.

 

This May will be the end of my third year at this school—that’s 24 months of wandering the Concordia ghetto, waiting for the shuttle bus. During my tenure at this school there has never been a period where some part or other of this campus wasn’t completely torn apart.

 

The bike paths on de Maisonneuve Boulevard, the EV building, Mackay Street, Norman Bethune Square, the MB building, the tunnel; no sooner is one construction project finished than another springs up in its place. Wooden security barriers disappear from one side of the street just to appear on the other.

 

I should probably be proud of all of this growth in the neighbourhood. We’ve got shiny new buildings and a safer place to ride our bikes. One day, I’m told, the Quartier Concordia will be a pleasant place for people to gather. But I’m never going to see it and so I find it hard to care.

 

As it stands, the tunnel is already four months behind schedule. Norman Bethune Square has an estimated completion date of 2011. Once our renovatory attention has been torn from the big pit in the ground, it will shift to the recladding—renovation of the exterior—of the GM building. This construction project isn’t due to some serious structural flaw—there’s nothing wrong with the GM! Concordia is just spending $11.6 million on a new exterior so that the GM building will look like the EV and the MB.

 

In their quest to make the Sir George Williams campus something we can boast about to the rest of Canada’s universities, the administration is making it positively uninhabitable for students. When’s the last time you could cross from the front door of the Hall building to the door of the Library building? We’re told that all of this work is being done so that Concordians will have a place of their own, but when exactly will we be able to take possession? Five? Ten? Fifteen years?

 

Sure, when it’s complete, a tunnel will be appreciated come the cold months of winter. New buildings give us a place to learn (or a place to house the newest level of our bureaucracy). But is making our buildings match really a priority? Our construction projects seem to be leaving the realm of the practical and moving into that of the vain.

 

Like an aging starlet who can’t stop going under the knife, our school can’t seem to leave well enough alone, and opt for construction for construction’s sake. We bring out the jackhammers every time our inferiority complex gets the better of us, and it’s the students who suffer.

If our university really wants to make Sir George Williams a pleasant place for students to be, they would do better to get rid of the construction and let students go about their academic lives unhindered. Take some of that construction money and put it towards, I don’t know, student health. But how likely is that? Getting rid of death or taxes would probably be easier.

http://www.thelinknewspaper.ca/articles/2154

 

A fairly grumpy editorial (from January) from The Link. I guess they were waiting for the other work to be complete before they start re-cladding the GM building.

[MTLskyline]

Concordia tunnel is open and waterproof, says Concordia

 

The Gazette

April 8, 2010 6:18 PM

 

MONTREAL--A new tunnel linking the Guy-Concordia métro station to two Concordia University buildings opened this week, minus the water infiltration problem that plagues the subway level.

 

Several brownish-yellow vertical lines in the concrete near the ceiling on the west side are epoxy stains, school officials said.

 

Also, there are vertical and some diagonal lines indicating that epoxy was injected every few meters along the western wall to additionally reinforce its waterproofing.

 

“They shot epoxy behind the wall which gives it an additional waterproofing barrier,” Chris Mota, director of media relations at Concordia, said Thursday.

 

“The people responsible for the project are extremely confident that the tunnel has been waterproofed to the highest standard,” she said.

 

The tunnel opening was three months behind schedule, the result of engineers needing more time for additional work.

 

In January, Tony Varvari, the school’s director of major programs in facilities management, identified the sources of these issues as additional rocks, work on telephone and electrical lines, and unanticipated old pipes and foundations.

 

Proof that the tunnel is leak-free is that on Wednesday when there were heavy rains and flooding elsewhere, while the new tunnel remained dry, Mota said.

 

Continuing water seepage in the Guy-Concordia métro is partly due to its being deeper than the new tunnel, Concordia construction officials indicated.

 

A video by the Concordia student newspaper The Link showing four or five pools of water was the result of the leaking two weeks ago of an underground sprinkler that feeds the fire hydrant on Mackay St. and the south side of de Maisonneuve Blvd., Concordia officials said.

 

The new tunnel’s $5.1-million cost was shared by Concordia three ways with the Quebec and federal government.

© Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Tunnel+open+waterproof+says+Concordia/2779511/story.html

[Alexcaban]

Tunnel from Guy Metro.

Inside the Tunnel.

 

Still not really. Haven't seen any workers doing anything in the passed weeks.

[MTLskyline]

Thanks for the pics.

 

I hate that building with the aluminum siding and the solarium in the back. Yuck.

[monctezuma]

Ce tunnel se rend au Hall Building ? Le gros blanc ?

 

5.1 millions pour ce tunnel ?

Ce n'est pas cher pour un tunnel qui fait quoi, 150 mètres au maximum ? 34 000,00$ le mètre !

Modifié 9 avril 2010 par monctezuma

[Macbeth]

Ce tunnel se rend au Hall Building ? Le gros blanc ?

 

5.1 millions pour ce tunnel ?

Ce n'est pas cher pour un tunnel qui fait quoi, 150 mètres au maximum ? 34 000,00$ le mètre !

 

Il y a manifestement du travail de surface qui a été fait.

 

Mais ça tu peux l'ignorer, car ça diminue la pertinence de ton pleurnichage.

[Miska]

Tunnel from Guy Metro.

Inside the Tunnel.

 

 

Stop following that girl!

[JFrosty]

Il y a manifestement du travail de surface qui a été fait.

 

Mais ça tu peux l'ignorer, car ça diminue la pertinence de ton pleurnichage.

 

C'est vrai qu'il y a jamais de quoi se poser des questions sur les coûts de construction au Québec.