MacKimmie Complex and Professional Faculties Building Redevelopment Project plans revealed

If you weren’t able to join the University of Calgary’s Facilities team at the MacKimmie Complex and Professional Faculties Building Redevelopment Project open house, you haven’t missed out.  

The March 28 campus community open house unveiled renderings of the finished MacKimmie Tower, link and block, floor plans, and information on how the redeveloped MacKimmie Tower and new link and block will be designed as a high-performance, net-zero carbon building and one of the first projects striving for certification with Canada Green Building Council’s (CaGBC) new Zero Carbon Building standard. 

“This is one of the largest construction projects in recent campus history, so we are thrilled to be able to reveal to the campus community how the heart of main campus is being transformed with this project,” says Boris Dragicevic, associate vice-president, Facilities Development.

Swann Mall excavation and landscape work begins this spring

After exams end on April 26, Swann Mall will be closed and excavated until the end of August 2018 for deep utility work to replace water and storm lines. Detours will be in place for the safety of the campus community and temporary pathways will be open before the start of the fall 2018 semester to help the campus community and visitors easily move across campus.

To accommodate the civil work and new landscape plan, trees and shrubs will be removed from Swann Mall beginning March 29. Access to the mall will be closed while the tree removal is underway, until April 1. We are removing the trees now, rather than at the end of April, to ensure that we do not impact nesting birds and we wanted to ensure Swann Mall is open until the end of exams to minimize the impact on the campus community. 

A tree removal, protection and replacement plan has been developed to address Swann Mall trees in poor condition, non-viable for relocation and those affected by civil work and building construction. One-third of the trees will remain in place and are included in the new landscape design. The trees that are being removed will be replaced with new, regionally appropriate trees and shrubs that will support biodiversity and sustainability.

Project progress to date

After months of interior construction preparation and installation of hoarding and fencing for the safety of the campus community, the construction team began removing exterior concrete panels on March 19 with an 89-metre construction crane installed on the northwest corner of MacKimmie Tower. Tower construction continues until September 2019. Construction on the new block and link will begin in fall 2019 and continue until summer 2022.