Laurentian's Living with Lakes Centre on Ramsey.

Laurentian University wants Sudbury to be known not for its environmental devastation, but for its ecological recovery. The future $12 million home of the university's growing Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit (CFEU) will be designed by one of Canada's leading architectural firms specializing in green, energy-efficient buildings.

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The renowned Vancouver-based architectural firm of Busby, Perkins + Will has teamed up with the engineers and architects at J.L. Richards and Associates for the detailed design work for Laurentian's Living with Lakes Centre slated for a tentative groundbreaking in 2007.

The design phase is being funded with $600,000 in combined contributions from Inco and FedNor.

An eight-acre Ramsey Lake waterfront site near the campus entrance, will be home to the reserach faciliity. The two-story, 30,000 square foot centre is being lauded by the university as the symbol of environmental protection and restoration, as well as a drawing card to attract students, faculty and world-class aquatic researchers to Sudbury.

"We think it's going to be an icon for sustainability," says Elizabeth Bamberger, CFEU's business manager.

It's also great news for the 12 full-time researchers, whose summertime ranks swell to more than 50. They are housed off-campus in four cramped cabins on Ministry of Natural Resources property on the lakeside that was once a government float base in the 1940's.

"(The existing space) was going to be expensive to maintain," says Bamberger, "and (so) the dollars are better suited to new construction."

A special emphasis in the design work will be on constructing an energy- and cost-efficient building that will include passive solar heating and a "green" roof covered with native species, possibly with blueberry bushes to absorb heat in winter and keep the facility cool in summer. A filtration system will collect water for use in the building and reduce their reliance on city services.

The Vancouver design firm has received six Governor General Awards for Architecture and in 2003 completed the City of White Rock Operations Building in British Columbia, the first building in Canada to receive gold LEED certification.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building rating system for sustainable design that lessens the impact on the environment, reduces operating costs and creates a healthy working space.

The Laurentian University research centre could be the first LEED platinum building at any institution in Canada.

Bamberger says Sudbury's J.L. Richards & Associates first introduced Busby, Perkins + Will to the project. "It's strong consulting advice in one package."

For practical reasons, she says it's important to devote "every cent" on research and not on building operations. Their current modeling shows they can run their building using green technologies for less than $5,000 annually.

The building's interior will include standard dry lab space with meeting areas and a 40-to-60 seat multi-media theatre for aquatic researchers and lake stewardships groups to connect via the Internet with other research colleagues at a distance.

Bamberger says should the design work be complete by next spring, construction should follow soon afterward. Tenders likely won't be released until February or March.

The idea for the centre has been in the works for many years, since the freshwater ecology unit's establishment in 1989. The real planning began in 2004, with a feasibility study and a conceptual design. Since then, there's been attempts to get support from government and industry partners.

The unit is a collaborative effort between Laurentian, the Ministries of Environment, and Natural Resources, that involves the study of industrial degradation of aquatic ecosystems. University and government researchers have worked on various projects with Inco, Falconbridge and other mining companies to improve biological habitat.

Dr. John Gunn is their Canada Research Chair specializing in stressed aquatic systems.

Bamberger says a new centre will allow them to bring in more collaborators to expand their research and work with forestry companies and other industries in monitoring and reducing downstream effluent from their operations. The new facility will also grow their working space to accommodate more than 50 full-time staff and more than 80-seasonal workers.

"We have some gaps in our knowledge that we have to acquire from outside and this Living with Lakes Centre will help us do that."

Later this fall, a fundraising campaign will be launched to solicit community support and pursue contributions from forestry and mining companies, including Xstrata Nickel (formerly Falconbridge) and any potential new owner of Inco.

"We hope the new owners of these companies will be as excited as Inco and Falconbridge have been in the past," says Bamberger, who adds the provincial government has promised $1 million toward the research centre's capital budget if private sector funding can be secured.

By IAN ROSS 

Northern Ontario Business