[NOT about Hyde street Keg Party and damage to an emergency response vehicle – the timing of this facelift announcement isn’t subtle]
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UNI NEWS via Otago Bulletin
Major landscaping project will enhance the Dunedin campus
Friday, 27 March 2015
Landscaping plans include “town square” outside Staff Club
From early April, university staff will start to see works underway as part of a landscaping project to give the grounds of the Dunedin campus a major facelift. But the benefits are promising to be very much worthwhile for both staff and students alike, with new paving, outdoor seats, trees, LED lighting, signage and improved shelter within a large area located between the northern end of the Richardson Building, and the intersection of Castle and Dundas Streets.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne says the intention is to vastly improve access to known sunny, sheltered sitting areas for staff, students and visitors; to replace paving that has come to the end of its life with safer materials; and to create new outdoor sitting, walking and recreational areas to improve the visual linking between spaces on the campus.
The area outside the St David Café is the first in line for a facelift. The project will be underway from early next month, beginning with work on the St David Café courtyard.
The overall project is to include the replacement of old drainage with new drains in parts of the central campus, on behalf of the Dunedin City Council. Also, major works completed last year when the West bank of the Leith outside the Clocktower was lowered for flood protection purposes had resulted in a substantial visual change requiring further improvements.
Professor Hayne believes the enhancements are necessary and important, and they will further benefit what is already a stunning campus environment.
“We want to both maintain and enhance our well-known advantage as one of the world’s most beautiful campuses in which to work and study.”
“We want to both maintain and enhance our well-known advantage as one of the world’s most beautiful campuses in which to work and study. This is an exciting and innovative project that further capitalises on the potential here for greater outdoor utilisation of our beautiful, green areas, and spaces such as the north end of the Richardson building, where people have traditionally liked to sit because it is so sheltered and sunny. We will be using quality materials, timbers, and real blue-stone that blends in with our heritage buildings. We want this development to stand the test of time.”
Professor Hayne is mindful that this is a major task, and that there will be disruption to staff and students as work progresses. Information signs will be erected, and work will progress with as few interruptions and as little noise as possible. The University aims to have the project completed by the end of January 2016. Staff and students will receive regular updates as work patterns change via the Bulletin Board.
Highlights of the landscaping project include:
• The creation of an enclosed courtyard allowing for a more well-defined and better sheltered seating area outside St David café, with low bluestone walls.
• A new paved ‘town square’ outside the Staff Club in the area known as the Castle Walk. This will involve the relocation of some memorial trees, and the removal of others that arborists have said have come to the end of their natural life. An artwork (to be commissioned) will feature in the middle of this new square, as well as seating.
• A new entranceway and Oamaru stone University sign at the entrance to the University from Castle Street, near the Centre for Innovation, and also a new sign on top of blue-stone and caste iron fencing at the entrance to Castle Street from Dundas Street.
• Castle Street in the section housing Selwyn and the new University Childcare Centre, Te Pā, will be re-paved, with wider footpaths, and bike racks. The area will become more bike-friendly, with adjustments to parking spaces, and more trees. The street will be raised to be level with the footpath, with more trees added.
• The newly created concrete steps on the new embankment leading down to the Leith Stream opposite the Clocktower will have railings, and improved safety adjustments, while matured specimen trees will be added to increase shade and improve visual values.
• The tiled walkway over the Union St bridge will be re-paved in high-quality durable pavers, and there will be seismic strengthening underneath the bridge.
• Further extensive new landscaping with trees, seating and paving, as well as wider walkways and steps, will be installed in the area that runs east of the Union Street bridge, up past the Archway Lecture theatres, and around to the front of Allen Hall where Theatre Studies is housed.
• A community garden with fruit trees will be cultivated between the villas at the University end of Castle Street; and also rain gardens planted with native grasses added throughout the newly-developed area.
• In total, there will be about 15,000 square metres of paving replaced or re-laid.
• No changes are planned for the grass bank and historic mature trees directly in front of the Clocktower.
█ http://www.otago.ac.nz/otagobulletin/news/otago089520.html
More: The Campus Landscape
28.3.15 ODT: $8 million facelift for university
Next month, the University of Otago will embark on a 21-month multimillion-dollar landscaping project to transform Dunedin’s campus.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Oh dear, disgruntlement at Campus. Who’da thought.
Comment at ODT Online:
Tourist destination or educational facility?
Submitted by Jan88 on Mon, 30/03/2015 – 9:46am.
[…] Goodwill is eroding. Rumblings around campus already show many disgruntled employees dismayed, disgusted, angry and disappointed at what appears to be mismanagement of the money – this upgrade was news to many when it appears in the ODT on the weekend. Even if these millions were set aside specifically for this type of activity, what happens when the new students and staff get here and find it is all flash frontage and few decent facilities. It may be a beautiful setting but is the University meant to be a pretty tourist attraction or a world leading educational and research facility? So….Is it just me or do the priorities of management seem wrong?
### dunedintv.co.nz March 31, 2015 – 6:35pm
Otago University announces $200m spend on campus upgrades
The University of Otago has just announced more than $200m of campus upgrades. They include a new dental school and the major refurbishment of the existing chemistry building. Work on the dental school is expected to start in November, just after the science building project begins. Both projects have been in the planning stages for some time, but haven’t been confirmed until now. The announcement follows another last week, of a $7.8m campus landscaping project. Faculty leaders say they’re investing in the university to counter intense competition within the tertiary sector, both nationally and internationally.
Ch39 Link [no video available]
### ODT Online Wed, 1 Apr 2015
Work to start on $200m varsity projects
By Timothy Brown
The University of Otago has committed more than $200 million to future-proofing its Dunedin campus. Several capital projects, including a new Dental School and refurbishing the chemistry building, were approved at yesterday’s university council meeting. […] Work on the two major projects will begin this year and is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
Read more
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Related Posts and Comments:
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
9.1.14 Facadism: … University of Otago warps Castle Street
24.7.13 University: Leith flood protection scheme and landscaping
31.5.13 University of Otago development plans
ODT Correction 4.4.15 (page 3):
The University of Otago’s $200 million capital expenditure involves more than $100 million being spent on a new Dental School and more than $50 million being spent on the Science 1 (chemistry) building. Those figures were inverted in last Wednesday’s report.
PANIC !!!!!!!!!
### ODT Online Wed, 1 Apr 2015
‘No panic’ over roll decline
By Timothy Brown
A decline in student rolls led by an almost 10% drop in domestic first-year students is “by no means a disaster”, the University of Otago says. Equivalent full-time students at university were down by 469 compared with March last year, vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne said yesterday.
Read more
F*** – Replica Facadism for Dental School
### dunedintv.co.nz April 1, 2015 – 7:12pm
Dental school building well overdue for upgrade
More details are emerging about the University of Otago’s $200m upgrade. The university council is dishing out dollars on a brand new dental school and the refurbishment of a chemistry building. And faculty staff say both projects are well overdue, with existing resources being used beyond their means.
Video
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### otago.ac.nz Wed, 1 Apr 2015 at 12:56 p.m.
Source: Otago Bulletin Board – Uni News
University announces new dental school and science buildings
The University of Otago Council has agreed to spend in excess of $200 million on a number of capital projects, including a new Dental School building and a major refurbishment of a Science building on its Dunedin campus. Firm plans for a state-of-the-art new Dental School and a refurbished Science building in Dunedin have been announced in a joint statement issued by the Chancellor John Ward and the Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne of the University of Otago after its Council meeting yesterday.
Work on the Dental School is scheduled to begin in November this year. An internal and external redevelopment of the three-storey Science 1 building on the corner of Union St and Castle Walk, on the Dunedin campus, will begin in September this year, with work on this project scheduled to be completed by February 2018.
These buildings will be tasteful, modern and energy efficient, deploying the latest construction methods, and they have been designed with great care to ensure they reflect our already world-class campus setting. Both of these projects have been in the planning stages for some time and the commitment to the capital expenditure involved is both exciting and challenging.
Property Services Director Barry MacKay says the University has appointed Jasmax, an Auckland-based architectural firm that has experience in providing hospital-type facilities for the design work for the new Dental School. In keeping with values in the 2010 Campus Master Plan, the research and teaching facility, which undertakes all the dental training for New Zealand, will reflect excellence in architecture. The heritage-listed glass-curtain facade will be replaced with a replica facade that meets current standards of weather-proofing and technology. The mosaic north-facing wall will also be strengthened and renovated, with both aspects to be undertaken with the assistance of Salmond-Reed Heritage specialists. There will also be ongoing consultation at each stage of this adaptive re-use project with Heritage New Zealand, which lists the 1961-built modernist building as a Category 1 historic place.
This clinical building will house clinical services including radiology, oral surgery, paediatric dentistry, undergraduate clinics and orthodontics that are currently housed in the Walsh building. In total there will be 211 new dental chairs, 61 more than the existing dental school. The 8000 square metres of space in the Walsh building will be refurbished to house laboratories for research, academic offices, student support and teaching spaces.
Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry Professor Paul Brunton says staff at the Dental School are excited that the plans have advanced to this stage. “The physical environment is really important for staff and students but also for the patients who access our clinical services. The Faculty already has an excellent reputation but a new facility will allow us to grow, develop and innovate such that I anticipate we will, in due course, be the best of the best in Australasia and beyond.”
Science Building redevelopment
The redevelopment of the 45-year-old Science I (Chemistry building) will involve re-cladding, new windows, a new roof and a new exterior design intended to play down the concrete box appearance in favour of softened architectural lines, with steel cladding, inlaid with impressions of molecules at both ends, to achieve more of a statement that the building is for science.
The 6500 square metres of mostly science laboratories used for first-year science students will be remodelled and refurbished to the highest current scientific standards, housing a “super-lab” on the ground floor to be used for the different science disciplines including health sciences, with more PC1 and PC2 labs, and improved air-flow and ventilation, on other floors. The ground floor link between Science I and the adjoining Science II building will also be reconfigured as a new link with this building. A temporary laboratory will be shifted onto the campus so that teaching can continue while construction is taking place.
Head of the Department of Chemistry Professor Lyall Hanton says he and his team are “delighted” with the commitment to chemistry from the University, as the existing building and laboratories built in the 1970s needed to be updated. “Some 1800 first-year Health Science students taking the CHEM191 paper, and second and third-year students, will be taught in attractive, light filled environments with excellent AV connectivity, break-out and social spaces. The large ground-floor laboratories will offer flexible teaching space allowing perhaps up to four different disciplines or classes to be taught and serviced in that space.”
Professor Hanton adds: “The labs are designed to be state-of-the-art and to serve the needs of the University for the next 30 years. It is a credit to the architects, Property Services, the Design Team and Chemistry staff that they have been able to incorporate such a design within an existing and now rather tired building, which increasingly does not meet our needs for teaching and research.” The link space will also become a very important social and meeting hub for the Department, he says.
http://www.otago.ac.nz/otagobulletin/news/otago089833.html
Pardon my pickiness: it gets on my wick when people talk about quantum leaps meaning big large huge immense change, esp when they are educated people not knuckle-draggers who couldn’t tell a quantum from a pubic hair even if they found one in their sugar bowl.
Your average quantum is a tiny chap, so tiny that were it to leap its personal best only another quantum would be impressed while the rest of us lean our backs against a log, mumbling, “Hey bro, looks like nothing happened again.”
eeek HARLENE….. (might be on a stupid inane list, nobody’s darling)
### dunedintv.co.nz July 27, 2015 – 7:12pm
Tree removal at University of Otago sparks outrage
The removal of about fifty trees from the University of Otago campus is sparking outrage. Almost $8million dollars is being spent on a new campus landscaping plan. And the lack of public consultation on the project has one student fighting back.
Video
Harlene’s plan to buffer popup party student mayhem at Dunedin.
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### ODT Online Tue, 28 Jul 2015
Outrage over felling of varsity trees
By Shawn McAvinue
As chainsaws wailed on Dunedin’s University of Otago campus yesterday, student Carol Taurua-McCready held a mature tree and wept. […] University property services division director Barry MacKay said about 50 trees, including silver birch, ash, cherry, beech, cedar, oak and alder, would be removed to make way for the landscaping and drainage work.
Read more
The trees have to be removed for landscape work.
OR landscape plan could be altered to leave the trees. I’m sure this would reduce the cost without reducing anyone’s enjoyment of the area.
### dunedintv.co.nz Wed, August 5, 2015
Your word on tree removal at Otago University
The University of Otago is removing about 50 trees from its Dunedin campus, in a landscaping upgrade. The multi-million dollar project is upsetting some, who’re calling for the trees to be left alone. So our word on the street team asked members of the public if they’re bothered by the trees’ removal.
Video
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### dunedintv.co.nz Thu, August 6, 2015
Public outcry against mass campus tree removal has positive impact
A university student’s passionate plea is seeing the institution backtrack on its plan to remove 50 trees from campus. The student’s public outcry sparked wider opposition to the mass tree removal. And she’s pleased with the outcome.
Ch39 Link
39 Dunedin Television Published on Aug 6, 2015
Public outcry against mass campus tree removal has positive impact
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Ch39 Opinion Poll as of 6 Aug 2015 at 9:22 p.m.
Does the removal of 50 trees from the university bother you?
Yes 65%
No 35%
Total votes: 105