UBC’s Faculty of Arts is centred on the Buchanan buildings, a heritage-listed complex in the international modernist style that dates back to 1958. The buildings were recently renovated under the UBC Renew program. Buchanan Courtyards, the final stage in the upgrade, began in earnest this fall and will be completed in spring 2011.
“Ground was broken in September and we are making great progress,” says Dean Gregory, the university’s Landscape Architect tasked with planning the campus landscape. “A lot of the concrete work has been done, a number of seat walls have been poured. The east side is really starting to take shape. On the west side, we are in the process of pouring the concrete cistern and cap that will form the base for the pavilion. Much of the original paving is being retained, so the progress is not so obvious. But it will become evident over the next little while.”
The courtyards are a demonstration project for one of the key planks of UBC’s Public Realm Plan, “Outdoor Informal Social and Learning Spaces.” Such areas are designed to be intimate spaces that express the culture of the surrounding faculty or department. In conceiving the project, the Dean of Arts co-hosted a workshop to assess the needs and expressions of the arts community.
The resulting plans make a clear distinction between the two courtyards. The West Courtyard will be a centre of the arts that will host exhibitions, outdoor lectures and performances, while the East Courtyard will be a more contemplative space used for small classroom gatherings and solitary activities.
The West Courtyard is envisioned as “a contemporary agora of the arts,” like the ancient Greek public spaces used for gatherings, celebrations and the exchange of ideas. The arts community will be able to attend concerts, barbeques, theatre productions, open-air movie nights and art exhibits there. A pavilion at the north end will serve as both a stage and a continuation of Arts 200, the new Building A café, which will be extended through a canopy and outdoor seating. The space will also be animated by sculptures, artwork and theatre-style lighting.
The East Courtyard, also known as “The Green,” will be a quieter, more casual space for contemplation, small informal gatherings and communing with nature. It will include a naturalistic dry riverbed feature, stools and benches, a grassy hill and lush indigenous vegetation.
The two open spaces will be linked by a sustainable storm-water management system. Rainwater from the entire complex will be channelled into a reflecting pool in the West Courtyard, surmounted by the pavilion. When it rains, the water will flow along a channel into a marshy rain garden in the East Courtyard, where it will be filtered by plant material and flow back into the cistern to be used for plant irrigation.
Gregory expects that the work crews will complete all the structural work by the end of February 2011. Planting will follow in the spring. The courtyards should be ready for a formal opening in late spring.
In the Public Realm Plan, the Buchanan Courtyards are seen as the first in a series of “Outdoor Informal Social and Learning Spaces” to be developed over the next few years. The plan recognizes that academic life is enhanced through informal encounters and learning outside of the classroom, and these informal spaces are designed to focus on facilitating such interactions and activities. They will also cater to the need for contemplation and reflection, considering that the demands of academic life can be stressful for both students and faculty.
