Laurentian's Living with Lakes Centre on Ramsey.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Laurentian University of Sudbury contracts Busby, Perkins and Will to design an energy efficient college building

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...