The proposed UBC Okanagan Tower for downtown Kelowna will include an art gallery and community discussion space in an effort to make the new location attractive to the public. The university released a handful of new details Wednesday about the planned 46-story tower on Doyle Avenue and St Paul Street. “We are coming to the center of the community that created us,” said Lesley Cormack, Director and Vice President of UBCO. The first eight floors of the building will be academic floors, with rental housing for students and teachers upstairs. Leased office space will also be available. The UBC School of Nursing, as well as the School of Social Work, will be housed in the building – bringing the school closer to partners such as Interior Health and the Ki-Lo-Na Friendship Society. The art gallery will house parts of the UBC Okanagan art collection, which now has up to 800 pieces, and will allow students to express themselves and engage with the public. It will also host small traveling exhibitions. UBCO will be hosting the soon-to-be-released Master of Design degree in downtown, aimed at professional professionals. A space that the university calls a “public engagement suite” will be “a space where individuals and groups work together.” Details of the suite are rare, but UBCO said it could include unique technology such as a sensory lab, designed to control sound, light and smell, to create a state-of-the-art learning environment. It could also include wine training programming with UBC’s international partner, the Université de Bordeaux. “We really want to be a downtown partner,” Cormack said during a town hall with teachers last month. “When you look at the downtown campuses that succeed compared to those who fail; those who do have a plan and are intent on their relationship with the community.” “Those who do not succeed have their doors locked and everyone enters with a card … We want to be the ones who bring the community and make sure it is a living place.” Pending approvals from Kelowna City, UBCO hopes to overtake downtown this fall. Photo: UBC Properties Trust
