MONTREAL/June 15, 2001—
Concordia University broke ground today on its Loyola Science Complex, an $85-million facility that will house many of Concordia's science departments and research centers and is expected to revolutionize the teaching and research of science at the University. The project represents the first of several major construction and renovation projects planned for the University at both its Loyola and downtown Sir George Williams campuses.
Expected to open in September 2003, the Loyola Science Complex will be a state-of-the-art facility that will rise five storeys above ground with two basement levels. The complex will cover 33,000 square metres -- roughly half the size of the downtown Henry F. Hall Building.
The complex will house the Departments of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Exercise Science, Physics and a major component of Psychology, as well as Science College, the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics, the Centre for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology and several smaller research centers and support facilities.
Most of Concordia's science departments and research centers are now scattered through two facilities -- the downtown Hall Building, which opened in 1965, and Loyola's aging Drummond Science Building, which was built in 1961.
The new complex is being designed with the latest security features in mind. A series of service corridors will run along the backs of each laboratory and link directly to the freight elevator, enabling researchers and technicians to transport chemicals and biological materials away from public corridors.
The construction of the Science Complex comes as Concordia's Faculty of Arts and Science is in the midst of rejuvenating its professorial ranks at a level unseen in at least 30 years, spurred on in large part by the recent and impending retirements of many veteran professors. The Faculty has hired 105 full-time professors in the last four years, including 31 in the sciences, and there are plans to hire at least another 100 professors over the next four years.
- 30 -
