UW Indigenous Residence

[ijmorlan]

That will make trips to campus much easier for residents of that entire block of dorms - no need to cross University in bad weather or heavy traffic, just take the bridge to this new building then the existing bridge into the Engineering block.

Problem with bridges is that sometimes it's much longer to take the bridge than to cross at ground level. I guess the current bridge also has a nonsensical termination point so the new infrastructure might help.

If you’re already in a building at one end, and going to a building at the other end, it’s very different from the situation with a standalone bridge. This is especially true if the whole system of bridges (or tunnels) and buildings is properly designed: you can walk around all over on one level, sometimes in a building and sometimes in a bridge (or tunnel).

I’m interested to see if they modify the Carl Pollock Hall (North) end of the bridge to be accessible. The bridge connects to essentially a landing between two floors, requiring a flight of stairs up or down to access. I cannot imagine that the new building will have that problem and I hope they will install an elevator to fix the problem at the north end.

UW’s system varies; some parts are well designed, where they pick a level to be the interconnection level, and other parts are garbage. Some parts have been improved. For example, the entire Arts system connecting Modern Languages, Environment 1, Arts Lecture Hall, Tatham Centre, and South Campus Hall, used to be completely useless for anybody in a wheelchair except for the ML-EV1 part. When TC was built, it of course had an accessible connection, and more recently an elevator has been installed in AL, so the only useless (for people in wheelchairs) bit is the SCH connection. What is needed there is to add a bit of tunnel to the side to connect to the SCH basement near the existing elevator.

I’ll be interested to see if the bridge to CMH actually happens. If it does, I hope people who don’t live in CMH or the new residence will be able to use it. I can see it being useful for people in UW Place, and for others arriving from the south.