Aesthetic alterations almost complete; $6.6 million project completion scheduled for January
Hamid Adem
Assistant News Editor
The last of the renovations to the Student Centre will not be revealed until January, when they are expected to be completed.
Renovations began when the current board members of the Student Centre Corporation
decided that the old space needed an overhaul.
“In these sort of buildings, renovations happen every ten years,” says Scott Jarvis, executive director of the Student Centre. “The last time the building was renovated was 2002 when they added the mausoleum and the food court, redesigned the Underground restaurant, and reupholstered the furniture in the lounges and offices.”
The reconstruction is divided into three phases and renovations are currently nearing the end
of phase one, with the contractors awaiting the delivery of the rest of the furniture for the Student Centre.
Integral to the construction of the Student Centre, subcontracting many of the building’s design components added to the overall cost of the project.
Siva Vimalachandran, chairperson of Student Centre, says the new design was based on the recommendations for renovations stemming from an internal audit that suggested capital upgrades and aesthetic finishes to the building after a 10-year period.
The contract of the renovation, which was done through a Request For Proposal process, was given to TGA, a contractor with whom the Student Centre Corporation has worked with many times since 2010.
Although the Student Centre was closed during the summer, Vimalachandran says the Student Centre Corporation’s main priority with the renovations has been to not disrupt day-to-day operations within the building during the 2012 fall semester.
