New research, teaching and collaboration spaces open at Concordia’s Gina Cody School

The Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science physically expanded this summer.

The Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE) moved into new facilities in the ER Building. The university also created new lab spaces on the 10th floor of the Henry F. Hall Building. As for Loyola Campus, the new Future Buildings Laboratory began operations.

“These three projects were all so different from one another,” says Marie-Claude Lavoie, associate vice-president of Facilities Management.

“All our units had a role to play and managed excellent collaborations both with members of the Gina Cody School and external experts on everything from needs assessment to the construction of entirely new and modern facilities for learning, teaching and research.”

In good company

Concordia has occupied spaces in the ER Building off and on for more than 40 years, but over the course of 2020-21 it reintegrated the building to meet the needs of many growing departments. As of this fall term, the faculties of Arts and Science, Fine Arts and the Gina Cody School will all have a presence at 2155 Guy Street.

The first to move in, early in the summer, were the Next-Generation Cities Institute and the Urban Planning and Urban Studies program, both on the 14th floor. As of late August, they were joined by CSSE, which occupies floors nine through 12.

Lata Narayanan is chair of the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. “Our new offices and research labs create an environment where students and professors will each have their own space to conduct cutting-edge research while being close to each other in order to encourage collaboration,” she explains.

“Since we collaborated in the floor design, we’re very happy to see it come to fruition.”

Collaborations: past, present and future

The new floors offer students, faculty and staff more space for classes, labs and collaboration.

“Each includes a number of brainstorm and meeting rooms, in addition to student and employee lounges and study areas,” says Isabelle Roy, facilities manager of renovation projects.

Collaboration also occurred in the planning, constructi