Wider Horizons

Chris Eagan’s official title at Lethbridge College is director of facilities. But, if his employer wasn’t a chiris eaganpost-secondary institution, he could be called town manager. Lethbridge College, you see, has a daytime population of about 5,000, greater than most southern Alberta communities, including Cardston, Raymond and Claresholm.

“We have people who live here, work here, eat here, park here and are educated here,” says Eagan. “We have the same magnitude of problems as many communities. We are a very diverse community of our own, complex and complicated.”

So, like any competent town planner, Eagan is patching the “pot holes” in Lethbridge College’s present path, while designing the highway to take it into the future. He has a development plan for guidance, support from college administration, and a vision to keep the campus as much a mirror of the community as he can.

“It helps that we have no problem with land,” says Eagan. “We can double our instructional space without having to build up, unlike, for instance, SAIT in Calgary. A 10-storey building wouldn’t fit with the community, which is why you won’t see anything higher than four storeys on our campus. We want to keep that residential feel.”

The 91-acre campus can, therefore, allow for space that will keep pace with the city it serves,while maintaining its character. First up is a project that will see upgrades to the Trades Building to sustain it until the Centre of Innovation in Trades and Sustainable Technology project is funded by government.

Also in the works is the redevelopment of the Buchanan Library. Originally, the project was to include a second storey, but after a closer examination of the library’s uses and future needs, the planning consultant for the Campus Development Plan calculated the library could meet the facility’s goals within the present space for a lower price tag.

“With every project we do, our vision needs to be long-term,” he says. “We cannot become derailed from our plan. The principles are sound and will endure the short-term, high-priority, but not-so-important ‘flavours of the day’ that go quickly out of date. In 20 years, the value of what we are doing now will become apparent to anyone who is paying attention.”

Eagan, a Nova Scotian with a civil engineering degree from Dalhousie University, recognizes complex environmental concerns have impacted construction. He supports the college’s desire to build in a sustainable fashion.

“That’s not news to me,” he says. “I’ve been doing that elsewhere for years as I’ve been allowed by budgets. At Lethbridge College, we know we’re not strip-mall developers. We have to get 50 to 75 years out of every project.”

It’s one of the reasons Lethbridge College was able to snatch him from the University of Regina where he was director of planning, design and construction (yes, he’s a Roughriders fan), that and the rapidly emerging campus environment of collaboration and empowerment.

He says he believes in creating teams to tackle challenges, and views every building as unique. At Lethbridge College, he’s dealing with buildings from five to 50 years old, an eclectic mix that creates a specific set of challenges all on its own.

With the Cousins and Andrews building renovations complete, the development plan in place and a roofing project set for next summer, Eagan will soon be turning his attention to a new trades wing, a $40- to $60-million project that, were it to begin today, wouldn’t be completed until 2014.

“We pride ourselves in getting the best value for the money invested in us by the government,” says Eagan. “In 20 years, we want people to look back and say we had a vision for the future that wasn’t derailed.”

Wider Horizons
Lethbridge College
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