Hall building renovations include Student Success Centre and new classrooms

Graphic by @spooky_soda

New active-learning classrooms a renewed Student Success Centre to be done in 2019.

While summers in Montreal are synonymous with construction, Concordia University won’t be missing it this fall as the Hall Building continues to undergo major renovations on the sixth and seventh floors.

In recent years, the university has been undergoing major construction and introducing new infrastructures, such as in the Webster library and the Faubourg building. The Hall building renovations began in Fall 2017, and they’re expected to end in 2019.

The goal of the renovations is to provide the “Concordia community with next-generation facilities that foster intellectual mixing, internal collaboration and education that’s connected, transformative and fit for the times,” according to Mary-Jo Barr, Concordia University’s spokesperson.

Construction will be going on throughout the semester on both floors. However, Barr said the work will be conducted outside of the building’s normal hours of operation.

Three new active-learning classrooms will be built on the sixth floor. Active-learning classrooms are designed to motivate students to actively engage in their own learning. Its layout consists of several round tables to encourage interaction.

Two of the classrooms will be nearly identical with a capacity of 65 each, and two display systems at opposite ends of each room, according to the construction notice. It also says the third classroom will have a capacity of 96 with 12 display systems, which will allow for smaller groups to work together. According to Barr, “the active classrooms will be available to all faculties and will provide faculty members with a teaching space that allows for flexible setups and new innovative integrated technology.”

Instead of building new classrooms on the seventh floor, the renovations will contribute to the development of a new centralized space for the Student Success Centre (SSC) on one floor, replacing the currently scattered locations. The renovations will respond to the needs of the centre, with new meeting rooms and training rooms. According to Barr, the new SSC will have office suites for students to meet with learning specialists, career advisors, and counselors one-on-one.

This part of the project comprises seven rooms in total, including a writing room and mathematics laboratory. The aim is “to support student success within Concordia and to provide cutting edge resources and facilities to support those activities for both undergraduate and graduate students,” said Barr.

The seventh floor was strategically chosen, according to Barr, as there are already many students who frequent the area because of the Concordia Student Union and People’s Potato. “The new space will have greater visibility to the students it serves,” said Barr.

A new request for proposal for audio-visual equipment in the new spaces will be released in the coming months, which will outline the updated specifications for the project.

Graphic by @spooky_soda

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