Posted on April 29: Launch sequence started for Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/clad_dailynews.jpg” caption=”Front of MDCL”]Down corridors, workers install lighting; in classrooms, they place rows upon rows of seating, they carpet floors and plaster the walls, and put the finishing touches on doors and windows.

These are the final details going into the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery (MDCL), the 300,000-square-foot building to the north side of the McMaster Health Sciences Centre. With approximately 100 construction workers toiling away each day, the building is getting closer to completion. It is expected that MDCL will be ready for the move-in of researchers, staff and faculty over the next few months and it will be ready for classes late this summer.

Amid the dust and the sound of drills and hammers, the sign of an innovative facility peaks through. A light shines down from a skylight, floor to ceiling windows stretch down long corridors and state-of-the-art lecture theatres and classrooms begin to exhibit the state of the art. (Click here for a slideshow)

“This is going to be a wonderful space for students, researchers, faculty and staff,” says John Kelton, dean and vice-president of the faculty of health sciences. “It's going to house state-of-the-art infrastructure, meaning there will be many amenities, from audio visual to the Internet. It will have everything a student needs. I'm really enthusiastic about what is going to happen when students start using the building this summer and fall.”

The building is going to be even more impressive, he feels, when a botanical atrium is constructed at the front of the building. Expected to open in the spring of 2005, the four-level atrium will be constructed at the east of the front entrance and will include botanical features and a “floating meeting room” at the third-floor level. Other features may include a waterfall, he says.

“This beautiful atrium will be somewhere where students, faculty and staff can go and have contemplative reflection,” he says. “It is going to be a premier location for people who are looking for a quiet space.”

The approximately $4-million “winter garden atrium” will be funded from the Michael G. DeGroote donation.

MDCL consists of five floors. The first floor has six classrooms and five large lecture theatres, including the largest classroom on campus  at 600 seats. In all, the first floor will seat more than 1,800 students.

The second floor will connect to the hospital in the McMaster University Medical Centre by pedestrian walkway and will be used for patient care, including a new Michael G. DeGroote pediatric intensive care unit and the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Pain Research and Care.

The third floor will be dedicated to the Faculty of Health Sciences and will consist of classrooms, tutorial and meeting rooms and offices. Some of the programs moving in include the midwifery program and the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. The third floor will have three 5,000-square-foot research areas with offices, classrooms and workstations. A rounds room will house the latest videoconferencing technology. There also is a pedestrian walkway between the Health Sciences Centre and MDCL at the third-floor level.

The fourth floor and most of the fifth will showcase the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Health, which includes the Centre for Gene Therapeutics. The two floors will contain a variety of offices, wet laboratories and a biotechnology incubator.