Construction on Keele campus to be completed by the 2015 school year
Phil Darlington
Multimedia Editor
Plans are moving ahead for the creation of a new building for the Lassonde School for Engineering.
Ground will be broken for this new building as early as the summer of 2013. The building will be 15,400 square meters, according to York administration, and its completion is set for the start of the 2015 school year.
Currently, the Lassonde School of Engineering is located in the former Computer Science and Engineering Building on the Keele campus. Its new home will be a bit further down Campus Walk, where the parking lot of Scott Library currently sits.
York’s Board of Governors unanimously approved the construction of the building in May of this year, and the principal funding for the construction was approved on October 1.
The budget of this construction project is currently $85 million; however, York will not be covering the entire cost.
Three main sources will fund the project.
Fifty million dollars is coming from the the Ontario government as part of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s “Putting Students First” agenda, aimed at increasing the number of student spaces at colleges and universities.
Pierre Lassonde, whom the building will be named after, has donated $25 million to the construction of the building. Lassonde is a chairman of the Canadian mining company Franco-Nevada.
The remaining $10 million for the project will come partly from profits made through the sale of land where the Village currently stands, and partly through a fundraising campaign, says Joanne Rider of York media.
At a York event held in honour of the donation, Pierre Lassonde remarked on the success of the Schulich School of Business, and what he hoped to see for the soon-to-come school of engineering.
“In 20 years time, I hope the engineering school will be right up there with the business school. We can count on it,” he said.
