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Sault College officials will tour other campuses in preparation to build a health sciences building on the western edge of its Northern Avenue campus.
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George Brown, Lambton, St. Clair and possibly Western University will be explored because they offer similar programs as Sault College.
Director of facilities management Trevor Rising, speaking to the college’s board of governors during a meeting on Jan. 26, said Sault Area Hospital and Northern Ontario School of Medicine University have already said what they want to see in the 30,000-square-foot site to be done in summer 2025.
“They’re both looking for simulation spaces, which we believe is important in this project,” said Rising.
Consultations with other partners are being done.
“Right now we’re at the point where we’re engaging user groups and trying to understand what these spaces will look like,” said Rising.
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The Center for Health Sciences is being built for health-related education and research. A skin and wound care lab is planned. A construction cost estimate is expected in about a week.
“We did look at a three-storey option, but it made more sense from a function side to go two storeys,” said Rising.
A gym on the northwest corner of the campus will be demolished to make way for the centre.
Labs planned for the site “will be flexible enough that we can change them,” said Rising.
Such responsiveness is a “guiding principle” in any new college building, said vice-president operations Colin Kirkwood.
“We know that things change and changing more quickly than they have in the past,” he said. “There is some thought to some new programming in the health care area that would be housed in this building.”
Project manager BTY is assisting Sault College with the project. Architectural firm IDEA is a bridging consultant.
“They’ll bring the design to a point where we can actually engage a design build team to continue along with the details,” said Kirkwood.
On Twitter: @Saultreporter