Mayor Jeff Lehman remembers the building as a Woolworth department store with an escalator and security cameras that looked like space ships.
Apparently the escalators were a bit of a tourist attraction back in the day.
But the building that was more recently the Barrie Community Health Centre is going to be reborn as the new edition to Georgian College.
The College announced Thursday that its new Design and Visual Arts campus will be located at 56 Bayfield St. in downtown Barrie.
The Dean of Technology and Visual Arts Dr. Bill Angelakos says a committee has been struck comprised of faculty and students to address all issues surrounding the new facility.
We had the opportunity to ask Dr. Angelakos about a variety of concerns raised by our readers.
Firstly, his reaction to the development:
"I'm very excited about this opportunity, mainly because it is a great partnership with the college and the city of Barrie. Design and Visual Arts, in my experience with these programs, need to be near the core where all the creativity is happening. So given the city of Barrie's downtown core is ramping up to be a very thriving creative community, it's fitting that Georgian support that and partnering with the city of Barrie we're on track to do that."
Why that location?
"Parking space, the frontage of the building and also the high ceilings. It's really about the fact the space is moldable. t's not a lot of load bearing walls. We want to have open space, multipurpose space or flexible space, good lighting. Of course we'll have the standard studios and classrooms, work spaces for students but really it's the opportunity to use the space in an innovative and creative way. One moment, you're learning and then you spill out to the foyer and you have collaborative discussions with faculty and students. Another time students can be broken out in clusters or different areas and discussing projects.
We can have a gallery showing and invite industry partners or the community in to take a look at what our students are doing. Another time we could have a guest speaker series and a welcome area where people are able to chat and collaborate before the lecture or presentation happens.
So it's really a multi-faceted or multi-pronged way of learning where we don't just keep to the four walls. We want to bring in industry, bring in the community but we also want to go out to the community and industry and that's why that location. We really want to be close to the creative community and have our students as part of their curriculum integrate projects that are industry led or community based into that learning.
Students can network and get an idea of where they might be working. One of the things we can see is they learn downtown and might end up working downtown.
We want to take advantage of that rich landscape downtown and the industry. Learning beyond the walls, beyond the bricks and mortar.
So it's the downtown location, with that storefront, with ample parking so students can get to their class and not worry about walking too far, there's access from transit, there's a bus stop right next door. There's a lot of great advantages to being there."
Is there enough parking?
"There is underground parking and above ground parking. I can't say what the total number of parking spots is because we haven't finalized that part of it but I know there's ample parking given that we're probably going to have about 250 students going downtown. A lot of them will probably commute by transit. I'm guessing there's going to be at least 100 spots there but I'm not sure how many of them will be available. But given that and given the numbers, I think it's a good assumption to say there will be enough or ample parking for students to park. And again students come and go at different times as well."
What about housing?
"We're looking at that as well. There will be students that will be living on campus and so to address those students we would obviously look at a strategy for travel downtown. We'll be looking at when the the buses run and other strategies for that. And of course students that want to live in the downtown core, we're also looking at what is the housing availability there and how affordable is the housing and proximity to the site and all those things.
For people that prefer to live on the main campus, now busses run twice per hour and it takes about 15 minutes to get downtown. So that's one option. We're also looking at other options when it comes to travel from the main campus to the downtown location. The other thing is there is rental housing available throughout Barrie. For example, if you choose to live on main campus it's about 5 km to get to downtown location and the bus travels twice and hour.
What about the close proximity to The Ranch?
"That was on the table as well.
We're talking to all stakeholders including city of Barrie internal stakeholders. We're looking at creating an environment where students have the best learning experience and that includes the safety aspect.
We're looking at full-time security. We're looking at adequate lighting, video cameras recording the space inside the building and outside the building and we're consulting with Barrie Police as well. They've actually come in to talk to us and students and faculty last week, talk a little bit about what is going on downtown. How you support the college not only ensuring our students are safe but also feel safe."
