{"id":57820,"date":"2019-06-26T17:14:28","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T21:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=57820"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:30:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:30:51","slug":"sprott-new-home","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/sprott-new-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Sprott’s New Home is Moving On Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Sprott's New Home is Moving On Up\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

A year after the groundbreaking ceremony<\/a> for Carleton\u2019s Nicol Building<\/a> \u2014 the new home for the university\u2019s Sprott School of Business<\/a> \u2014 an impressive concrete and steel structure has emerged from the ground at the bustling construction site on Campus Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Interim
Linda Schweitzer, Sprott\u2019s interim dean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Linda Schweitzer<\/a>, Sprott\u2019s interim dean, is watching the progress very closely, and very enthusiastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only was she involved with the planning from the very beginning, alongside former Sprott dean Jerry Tomberlin, she also has a background in building engineering and worked as a construction project manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is bringing me back to my old world,\u201d says Schweitzer, who knows all the best spots on campus to watch the Nicol Building take shape, from Sprott offices on the eighth floor of Dunton Tower to vantages inside the Health Sciences and Mackenzie buildings. She is a regular visitor to the job site trailer, where she looks at blueprints and checks in with the contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m having a fantastic time,\u201d says Schweitzer. \u201cI\u2019m really excited about the building and what it will mean to Sprott, to Carleton and to the entire community. At Sprott, we\u2019re talking about all of the things we\u2019ll be able to do that we couldn\u2019t do before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n

Innovative New Building Techniques<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Last year, most of the work on the 115,000-square-foot Nicol Building took place underground. By December 2018, the building footings were in place, the foundation was laid, a direct connection to Carleton\u2019s tunnel system was created, and the water, sewer and storm connections to campus infrastructure were ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between January and April 2019, one level of concrete was poured each month, reaching four of the eventual six floors in height.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nicol Building is the first institutional building in the Ottawa region to use a void concrete slab system, manufactured by BubbleDeck North America LLC. This innovative approach significantly reduces the weight of the building and promotes sustainability by replacing typical cast-in place concrete slabs with frames of recycled plastic bubbles over which concrete is poured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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A total of 11,300 bubbles were used, displacing nearly 163 tonnes of concrete, with every kilogram of recycled plastic replacing roughly 100 kilograms of concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the building is completed next year, all of Sprott\u2019s teaching, research and collaboration spaces will be together for the first time. Most of its offices are now on six non-contiguous floors in Dunton Tower, a configuration that evolved over the years in a pragmatic way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur current facilities are fine, but what we\u2019re going to have will be better than fine,\u201d says Schweitzer, who is looking forward to working in a new showpiece building that facilitates collaboration and serendipitous interactions between students, staff and faculty.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Stakeholders<\/figure>\n\n\n

A Connector Between the University and the Outside Community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The Nicol Building will include features such as flexible classrooms with movable furniture and enhanced learning and networking space, as well as meeting and event space, such as a signature three-storey atrium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, because it will be centrally located steps from the O-Train stop and at the tunnel junction linking the university\u2019s academic campus, residences and Athletics, the building will also serve as a new gateway to Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cSprott will play a role as a connector between the university and the outside community,\u201d says Schweitzer. \u201cWe can help bring in businesses, trade associations and NGOs to partner with the university. These relationships can help our students thrive, and we\u2019ll be a physical and metaphorical front door to campus.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Although the building will be open to all, Schweitzer loves the fact that she\u2019ll be able to come to work in the morning, stop in at the Nicol Building\u2019s caf\u00e9 and know that a lot of the people she\u2019ll see around her are part of the Sprott family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll get to campus, grab a coffee and a muffin and talk to my students,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty simple, but it\u2019s a big step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Project Driven by Generous Community Contributions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The Nicol Building is named after the family whose generous $10-million donation in 2014 kick-started fundraising for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary and the late Wes Nicol \u2014 a Carleton alumnus, former member of the Board of Governors and founder of Ottawa\u2019s Tartan Homes<\/a> \u2014 supported several entrepreneurship initiatives at the university, among other philanthropic endeavours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the building, the Esther and Ken Tencer Research Project Centre<\/a>, where faculty and students can collaborate with partners from business and industry \u2014 supported by a $50,000 donation from alumnus and entrepreneur Ken Tencer and his family \u2014 is the new facility\u2019s first named space.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI am grateful for the friends and mentors made during my years at Sprott and I am pleased to support future generations through the Research Project Centre,\u201d Tencer, who serves on Sprott\u2019s advisory board<\/a>, said in a release.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The building\u2019s sustainable design, produced by Toronto\u2019s Hariri Pontarini Architects<\/a>, is expected to achieve 4.5 Green Globes. And one of the key people responsible for making this happen is the firm\u2019s associate partner Doron Meinhard<\/a>, a Carleton architecture graduate, class of 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went to school right over there,\u201d Meinhard says, pointing to the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism<\/a> on a recent weekday afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s great to be able to come back and contribute to the fabric of the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Doron<\/figure>\n\n\n

Sprott Expressing Itself as a Coherent Whole<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Like Schweitzer, Meinhard has also been involved in the Nicol Building project since the conceptualization stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its initial proposal, Hariri Pontarini was challenged with creating a new structure in a somewhat small footprint while maintaining the balance between green, natural features and the built environment in the heart of a densifying campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building itself, defined by graceful curves, large windows and collaborative open spaces inside, will address some of these issues, as will the future entry quad facing the Health Sciences Building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe actually think it can be a jewel of a site,\u201d says Meinhard, explaining that the design vision looked at the new facility in three ways: as an attractor (because a great business school attracts and retains the best students and faculty); as a collector (because a great business school is about building community, bridging connections and establishing lifelong relationships); and as an embrace (echoing Sprott\u2019s intimate values).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Doron
Doron Meinhard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt should be self-evident that Sprott expresses itself as a coherent whole,\u201d the proposal says about the idea of embrace, \u201ccreating engagement around a dynamic centre, and addressing the campus eloquently on all sides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based in Toronto, Meinhard is on site at Carleton every two or three weeks, serving as the main liaison between the architecture firm and Sprott, Carleton and the construction team. He was also one of the leads for Western University\u2019s Richard Ivey Building (which received the Lieutenant Governor\u2019s Award for Design Excellence in Architecture) and is currently the associate in charge of the Stratford Festival\u2019s Tom Patterson Theatre project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an architect, Meinhard understands the significance of the relationship between a building and the work that takes place inside. While studying at Carleton, he benefited tremendously from the Architecture building\u2019s physical form and layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great program with great professors,\u201d he says, \u201cbut the building is also an amazing resource with a welding shop, a wood shop, a metal shop and a CNC milling shop. These facilities allowed us to explore solutions and put things together, to make models and artifacts, to go beyond working on paper, and to scale up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately, the Nicol Building will help Sprott students have a similar experience and engage meaningfully with their world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building is expected to be completed in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year after the groundbreaking ceremony for Carleton\u2019s Nicol Building \u2014 the new home for the university\u2019s Sprott School of Business \u2014 an impressive concrete and steel structure has emerged from the ground at the bustling construction site on Campus Avenue. Linda Schweitzer, Sprott\u2019s interim dean, is watching the progress very closely, and very enthusiastically. Not only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":57833,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[1922],"class_list":["post-57820","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_tag-sprott-school-of-business"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/57820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/57820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97703,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/57820\/revisions\/97703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=57820"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=57820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}