This a very interesting educational idea that has a great deal of potential. We should be told how much this program is costing the taxpayer per student that has enrolled. The costs for running this program this may be astronomical.

Does UNBC receive additional funding to cover the costs of running this program? UNBC’s claims of financial hardship are well known.

Want to see a large free span wood structure check out the roller rink.

Sounds great, however four students and how many professors to teach. Sounds pretty pricey to me and others.

White elephant comes to mind.

Best of luck to Dr. Guido Wimmers and all others involved.
I hope this program proves successful and continues to grow.

Great deal here for the academic elite…In March 2013, the BC Government provided UNBC with $100,000 for planning of the new degree program, $25.1 million to build the WIDC,and last but definitely not least $466,000 to fund start-up costs.
There are some highly knowledgeable sawmill guys and carpenter instructors at BCIT that could have created a ‘Wood Innovation’ program here for a lot less out at Carrier. A masters program is good for not much more than creating new professors at exorbitant salaries and feel good interviews on CBC radio. Not much else.

contractor@This is not my area of expertise, but if I understand correctly, this program is focussed on the engineering aspect and is aimed at teaching civil engineers to design structures using wood in non-traditional ways. That is not what the sawmill and carpentry folks at BCIT do, is it?

For more information about the program, see: integrated wood design web site.

I doubt if we will see any timeline for the success of this program, or the ultimate cost.

Have a look at the old roller dome, how about the old WW2 hangers, How about the Big airship hangers, nothing new here except funding hunting.

Further to what I think seamutt is saying; there has already been a lot of knowledge and experience developed on innovative uses of wood and wood products in structural design and construction.
For example Glulam beams (roller rink) that permit large areas of free span roof have been around for 50+ years and were once manufactured right here in B.C. There are many other examples of engineered wood products already in use around the globe.
I don’t wish to be negative towards those attempting innovation, but I think that this whole affair will turn out to be much ado about nothing.
metalman.

So there is finally a Tennant in the building, about time I suppose. It was turning into another downtown building abandoned and costing the city too much.

There are several schools/universities in the world which have long established programs. Many are optional add-ons to undergraduate degree programs or post graduate specialty programs. The European programs tend to be a cross between architecture and engineering as well as theory and practical applications.

In my opinion a school which purports to be a post grad program requires undergraduate programs as well as PhD level programs in order to have access to the kind of practical opportunities one should have in order to access high level knowledge and hands-on skills.

In my opinion, the nearest facility we have that would provide the type of industrial access which could become a core joint venture between industry, research and academia – a rarity in Canada – is the CLT/lamination plant south of Penticton which supplies specialty structural wood products Canada- wide as well as the USA and, I believe other foreign countries. We have no such facility here. In fact, we have no full, independent undergraduate engineering or architecture program here and most certainly no doctoral level engineering research here.

Have a look at one of the European schools in Finland which provides a specialized wood design program utilizing full and scale model as well as computerized simulation labs.

Finland: woodprogram.fi

BTW, the firm which used to build woodlaminated structural members still does. The also have a Cross-laminated timber plant. It built the prefabricated elements of the WDIC building.

structurlam.com/portfolio/wood-innovation-and-design-centre-widc

Contractor wrote:

“There are some highly knowledgeable sawmill guys and carpenter instructors at BCIT that could have created a ‘Wood Innovation’ program here for a lot less out at Carrier.”

No doubt, but it would not have improved knowledge on furthering the newest innovations in wood technology on a Canada/North American scale and certainly not on a world scale any more than this effort.

The new technology is CAD/CAM based. Many of the complex designs could not have been built without computerized design as well as materials cutting tables and associated materials research. Not really the specialty of carpenters and carpentry instructors.
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“A masters program is good for not much more than creating new professors at exorbitant salaries and feel good interviews on CBC radio. Not much else.”

Professors do not get exorbitant salaries. A good engineer/architect coupled with practical technical expertise in material assembly/joinery and structural applications using computers does. You will not find those people at Universities in Canada. Perhaps some other parts of the world, but not here.

BCIT has some good trade/technology programs, but it is no match for a Stanford, MIT, Caltech in the USA and Waterloo, UofT, UBC and McGill in Canada.

Want to see a large free span steel structure? Go look at the new Kin 1 building.

Could have been done in Glulam in the same configuration or else triangulated truss design. But hey, the City prefers the faux wood columns on the RCMP building type of approach….. :-)

architecture49.com/images/uploads/174/sports_kin_rink2__slide.jpg

Posted on Tuesday, January 5, 2016 @ 11:20 PM by Onyxpartitian with a score of 1

So there is finally a Tennant in the building, about time I suppose. It was turning into another downtown building abandoned and costing the city too much.

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A non-paying tenant at that!

I have to wonder how much this new building is costing us?

Since the City does not have easy access to such information, you indeed have to wonder how much the building is costing the City and its taxpayers.

I understand that the province built the building and has or will be deeding the building to the City. It should still be on City property.

Since it is a real estate transaction and a contract, especially one with the province, it would likely have been discussed in closed session because it is allowed to do so and may be required to do so by the province.

However, in the interest of providing information to the provincial as well as the municipal taxpayer, I think both parties should be explaining the deal to the public who are funding this and who have to make decisions about whether the representatives who they voted for are doing the kind of job we want them to do.

The strange thing is that UNBC doesn’t own the building, yet was given money to build it. Soon the BC Front counter will be moving into the building and the Ministry of Forestry moving over from the Plaza 400. All have to pay rent, to the government for use of the building.

Too bad they are going to put that park in behind the building and remove all the good quick parking that something like a service counter could enjoy.