Building A east on the Abbotsford campus is undergoing renovations to the exterior of the building. Moisture is leaking into the building in what is commonly known to B.C. residents as “leaky condo syndrome,” leading to a compromised structure and potential mold growth.
UFV is currently working to get ahead of the problem with renovations to the exterior walls. The work involves cutting the exterior walls open and removing the interior insulation. Everything from the exterior stucco to the interior wall will be removed.
The nature of the work means that the construction will be noisy. To minimize disruption to classes and faculty, offices and classrooms will be moved Building K, the newly renovated Finnegan’s building. A few offices will be moved to the Building T portables.
Building K will be open for classes on Nov. 4, and faculty and students who will be using the new space have been notified of their new classroom.
“It is going to be disruptive,” Nicolle Bourget, project manager for the Building A and Building D renovations, said. “We’re trying our hardest to create an environment that students can still study in and that’s why we’ve created the swing space.”
Over two years, renovations to Building A east and Building D will be done, using Building K as classroom and office space for those displaced by the construction.
The renovations to Building A east will be done in two parts, with the entire project estimated for completion by September 2020. Work on Building D will start soon after, depending on contractor timelines, with the goal to complete that project within a year.
What faculty and students can expect on Nov. 4
A total of 95 instructors teaching classes, 22 faculty with offices in the area, and 3,100 students will be displaced by the current ongoing renovations to Building A east.
Geography and biology faculty with offices in the building have already been moved to Building T. Starting Nov. 4, classes and criminology faculty will be moving to Building K.
With such a large number of students being moved over just a few days to a brand new building, Bourget said that UFV has been planning for the transition to Building K.
Students and faculty whose classrooms are being moved have received email communication outlining the move date and new classroom location. Notices have been written on classroom whiteboards and there are a number of posters up around Building A east directing students to the new building.
During the first two days volunteers from Students Services will be present in Building A east to direct students. A large tent will be set up halfway to Building K to act as a beacon for lost or misplaced students looking for the building. Bourget hopes that the volunteers and signage should direct around 90 to 95 per cent of students whose classes are in Building A east over the first two days. After the first two days, the signage should help direct the remaining students.
“I think if we can get through the first couple of days, because we’re impacting so many students, then I think from there on it’ll be fine,” Bourget said. “Then it’ll be included in the new student orientation tours and it’ll be included on all the signs. It’ll become part of the general vocabulary, so for future students it will be much easier.”
Accessibility for Building K has also been considered. Sidewalks are being let down and crosswalks are being painted along the route Bourget thinks students will take from Building A to Building K. The additions are estimated to be complete for the Nov. 4 move.
The Finnegan’s building and surrounding lot was purchased last year for over $10 million and has been renovated into temporary classroom and office space: the new Building K. The classrooms will be similar to those in Building A, with active learning furniture and a podium setup.
“We think students are really going to like the new classrooms, the new furniture, and the new learning environment over there [in Building K],” Bourget said. “I’m excited for students and faculty and staff to see it.”
The other disruption will come to parking. For the duration of the renovations to Building A 35 parking stalls in Lot 7 will be used by the contractors for parking and for equipment storage. However, after the completion of Building K renovations over the next few weeks the parking in front of the building will likely be opened up for use.
Renovation timeline
Water leakage that has resulted in the need to redo the exterior of Building A and D is caused by several different construction issues. One is the window sills, which allow water to build up and leak into the building. Another is the way the walls were constructed, which traps moisture that leaks into the walls.
The wall construction is an issue for both Building A east and Building D on the Abbotsford campus, which were both built around the same time. Building A east was built in 1992 and Building D in 1996. The other half of Building A, Building A west, was built earlier in 1983 and does not have the same construction issues.
The construction work on Building A east will be done in two parts. The reason for this is that there would not have been enough additional classroom space to accommodate classes displaced throughout all of Building A east. There will also not be lab space in Building K. Construction of the areas around the biology labs will take place over the summer in 2020, and the biology lab classes will be moved out to the Chilliwack campus.
Building D will be the next to undergo renovations. The plan will be to start construction as soon as Building A is complete and frees up the swing space in Building K for Building D classes.
The construction in Building D will result in both program and classroom impacts, according to Bourget. Plans will need to be put in place to accommodate the teaching education program, and certain classes that require equipment that cannot be moved from Building D, such as the networking class.
Both of the buildings will have a different look by the end of the renovations. The siding will be of aluminum cladding, and the buildings will be painted two shades of grey with brick accents.
“D building is going to be the same colours, but it’ll have a slightly different look because of the way that it comes down in the campus and it’s got all the trees and everything around it,” Bourget said.
The renovation of the two buildings resulted in 18 trees being removed. Bourget said that there are plans to plant 13 replacement trees elsewhere on campus over the next week. The Stewartia memorial tree will be replaced with either a cutting or a new tree, and four ornamental trees will be planted “after project completion.”
“The city policy is that you’d have, from the time you take the trees down, one year to plant them, so we wouldn’t have had time to put them back around the building,” Bourget said.
Additional trees will likely be planted around the buildings when the landscaping is redone after construction.
