By NICK STEWART
With $15 million in annual benefits for the City of Greater Sudbury and an injection of creative talent, expectations for the proposed Northern Ontario School of Architecture are riding high following the completion of a feasibility study.
“We see this not just as an architecture school, but as a design school,” says Blaine Nicholls, a retired architect serving as the chair of the project’s steering committee.
“This could provide design capacity so badly needed in the mining supply industry.”
While the very name of the school creates certain perceptions about the types of graduates that will emerge, Nicholls says it will produce skilled people in industrial design, graphic design, 3D animation and similar fields. These could strongly benefit local engineering, manufacturing and other industrial firms by providing creative input to help keep the local sector ahead of the global curve.
The long-term plan for the $35 million school has now officially been mapped out. It would be connected to and delivered through Laurentian University, the same way Northern Ontario School of Medicine is the Capital support from all three levels of government including private donors are being pursued. Approval for operational support from the province is being sought for 2009. This leaves program development and faculty recruitment set for 2010, in time for the first students to be received in 2011.
Something that is not factored into the plan, however, is a student residence. It is expected that the Sudbury private sector would initially work to handle demand for living arrangements. Nicholls says this should be feasible as enrolment would grow gradually.
He adds there should be no doubt in the school’s ability to register 420 prospective students at peak capacity.
Demand has unquestionably been demonstrated with 2,400 applications for 300 spaces in Ontario’s architectural programs every year. Much of this strain is a result of no new schools of architecture being built in Canada in the last 40 years.
These students would be part of a six-year masters program, and alongside the 20 faculty and staff who would oversee the school, would contribute $15 million to the city every year. Dr. David Robinson of Laurentian University’s department of economics characterizes this estimate as being quite conservative.This strong level of annual return would help to rapidly recover the school’s $35 million price tag, though, he says, construction alone should return $25 million to the community, estimating the need for 300 construction jobs over a three-year period to complete the facility.
Additionally, the ongoing cost of operation would not be borne by city taxpayers, making it a risk-free endeavor once it has been established.
No site has been determined for the 75,000-square-foot facility, although Nicholls says the current focus is on the Sudbury downtown area. This way, the school would be located at the heart of the city and would rejuvenate the downtown’s flagging fortunes.
