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UBC Commons
Logo
University	University of British Columbia Okanagan
Conference	Canada West
Athletic director	Tom Huisman
Location	Kelowna, British Columbia
Varsity teams	10
Arena	UBC Okanagan Commons

Commons Building

Background

The Commons was built to serve more than 10,708 undergraduate and graduate students. The site where they built this Commons was originally owned by a public, post-secondary educational institution called the Okanagan University College (OUC) and until March 2004, when OUC's university operations would be running at its North Kelowna Campus and would be directed by the University of British Columbia. The Commons is pledged to support Indigenous students, culture and scholarship through a public declaration of five commitments in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. The Commons space is designed to support the overall academic well-being of graduate students. The Commons provides open graduate study space with available necessities that are suitable for assisting student learnings: including printers, meeting rooms and lockers.

Location

The Commons is a multipurpose building located at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus in Kelowna, British Columbia. The structure is on the southeast side of the campus, across from the UBCO Student Union facility.

Building Structure

The Commons is a transformative building for UBC Okanagan, enhancing the campus experience for students, faculty, staff, and visitors. Originally proposed as an addition to the current Library building to create a new multipurpose facility, the Commons offers dynamic teaching and learning spaces for a rapidly developing campus, including a 400-seat classroom, a visualization and emerging media studio, graduate commons, and more than 350 new study and collaborative spaces. With its futuristic, state-of-the-art design, the Commons is anything but common—it is uniquely designed to foster collaboration, scholarly engagement and innovation.

The Fitz Hall:

The expansive two-story great hall epitomizes the features we aspire to create in the new facility. This ground-floor space of approximately 6,400 square feet will be an ideal space for fostering the collaboration and imagination of visitors. It will have an airy, atrium feel and will be the most prominent and visible space within the Commons. This is precisely the kind of space UBC Okanagan students have described: filled with flexible and adaptable areas whose furnishings can be easily reconfigured, from moment to moment, to suit the immediate needs of the users of that space. Seating will accommodate 275 people, more than double the existing capacity of the current first floor of the adjacent Library. It will be used for a range of activities: gathering, socializing, mentoring, reading, individual and small-group learning, presentations and performances (in a series of large open areas not designated for quiet study), or simply hanging out. Most of the furniture will be organized into zones or clusters of small tables, large tables, and booth-style seating that provides space for small groups of people to work together, but still maintain some privacy, or to be seen by everyone, if preferred. Furniture will be moveable – with tables large enough to support collaborative learning – allowing students to arrange furniture as they choose.

Lecture Theatre (multi-level)

A key feature in the new centre will be the Lecture Theatre, an advanced teaching and learning space which will constitute the largest lecture theatre on the Okanagan campus and serve as a specialized teaching laboratory. This flexible, collaborative classroom will be of particular benefit to students pursuing studies in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields and management. These programs routinely engage in group work requiring them to break out into teams to perform specialized analyses of given case studies. This modified lecture theatre is projected to seat 450 individuals and have two rows per tier that would support small group work, allowing the theatre to host such collaborative learning exercises as well as lectures.

Media Centre

The Digital Technology Centre will be the technological powerhouse of the new Commons building, offering robust computer facilities and technological expertise. It will be dedicated to the production and post-production of digital media content as it relates to teaching and learning. Although not exclusively for student use, the Digital Technology Centre’s facilities will be focused on student users, allowing them to find new ways to develop and connect new media skills to learning objectives in the classroom. These facilities will include: a Digital Media Design Lab, a Teaching and Visualization Lab (on the ground level), an IT Support Desk, and a Digital Media Production Studio. The new facility would consolidate into one area the activities of UBC Studios Okanagan and IT Services which are currently housed within the Administration Building.

Below is a summary of the building structure:

Floor Level	Contents
Lower Level Floor Plan	The Fitz Hall
Ground Level Floor Plan	The Fitz Hall Collaborative Study Rooms Teaching and Visualization Lab Lois and Cliff Serwa Reading Room
Second Level Floor Plan	Galleria Media Centre Lecture Theatre Media Lab
Third Level Floor Plan	Graduate Student Commons Graduate Student Collaborative Study Rooms Graduate Student Workshop Quiet Study Room Collaborative Study Rooms Lecture Theatre

External links

• Official website