Vertical campus plans for Kelowna’s UBC Okanagan take shape

UBC Okanagan is taking a literal approach to higher learning, according to plans for its downtown Kelowna campus submitted to city hall last week.

“The size of the downtown site and the required program immediately triggers a design challenge and innovation,” reads a document laying out design elements that was submitted to the City of Kelowna.

“Instead of having a typical horizontal development within a large peripherical university campus, the new proposed university building will be in an urban area, and it will be designed as a vertical campus.”

The Doyle Avenue building once housed the Kelowna Daily Courier and is now a shelter. It was sold in March 2020 to UBC.

The document goes on to say that the design of a vertical campus is something quite new in the history of architecture, however, there are already a couple, one being the Roy and Diana Velos Education Centre, which is part of Columbia University in New York, and the other being Ryerson University’s health science building.

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They offer examples, according to the document, of potential design considerations such as vertical circulation, social engagement areas, the relation between the building and its surroundings, and arrival spaces, among others.

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The building is estimated to be about 38,500 square metres and should be equipped with a medical clinic, a CRU, a cafe, eight storeys of academic space, two storeys of offices, an amenity floor and 24 storeys of residential student housing.

The student housing will have 352 units, of which 230 will be studios, 48 will be one-bedrooms and 74 will be two-bedrooms.

Loading areas and waste garbage services are proposed to be located at the lane side, as well as the car ramp entrance to four storeys of underground parking.

As part of the sustainability LEED design strategy, five per cent of the building’s total parking allotment will be for electric vehicles and 10 per cent of the building’s total parking spaces will be electric vehicle ready.

There will also be a significant emphasis on bicycle parking both for students and residents.

For the project to proceed, city council will eventually have to rezone the site from C7 Central Business Commercial to a Comprehensive Development Zone. There is currently no date for when council will consider the matter.

UBC president Santa Ono said hailed the downtown lot purchase as “the next major step in the evolution of the University of British Columbia’s presence in Kelowna, and in its ability to serve the needs of B.C.’s Interior region and the people of the Okanagan.”