When I came here 8 years ago to study novel approaches to disease prevention, one area I was particularly interested in was architecture as an increasingly-recognized social determinant of health, and as a researcher and elected member of the University Neighborhoods Association I participated in the design and development of multiple campus projects, including helping lead components of three remarkable structures (the Bioenergy Research Demonstration Facility, School of Population and Public Health renovations, and skatepark) on campus.

What I’ve been left with afterwards as an academician is some satisfaction, but also a huge frustration. Why, I wondered, was UBC building any structures without addressing as many important research questions as we could every time we did so? Surely, I thought, we could, and surely, I therefore also thought, we had some moral imperative to do so as an institution of higher learning and research.

In fact, developing this residential project at UBC has become one of the most rewarding and responsive experiences I have ever had as a researcher. Several years before repurposing the Copp building thusly was suggested, I came up with these 9 reasons why I thought UBC should pursue creating such an experimental residential building, and began discussing them extensively at planning meetings:

(1) Better-reflecting UBC’s commitment to faculty and staff by creating additional and different types of affordable and attractive housing for them and their families.
(2) Providing a stronger reflection in UBC’s residential options of our commitment to environmental, social, and financial sustainability.
(3) Having the living lab include experiments from more UBC disciplines, and across disciplines.
(4) Integrating the academic and residential spheres of campus by having scholars and residents collaborating in a deep and permanent way.
(5) Producing residential options on campus that are called something other than “dismal and isolated” by architectural critics, options that could be as architecturally alluring and important as the best of what we’ve done in the academic sphere.
(6) Modelling a desirable way to fill the under-occupied midrise apartment buildings on South campus which are compliant with the letter of UBC’s 50% work:live occupancy mandate, but non-compliant with its spirit.
(7) Providing justifiable comfort to those concerned that UBC is indifferent to the potentially erosive effects on social sustainability that often comes with continuing densification.
(8) Being an exemplary company town, as we’ve made a commitment to >50% work-live.
(9) Creating a significant research legacy, a shining star for Campus as a Living Lab, as over half the world’s population live in urban environments and they are losing their connection to place, community, and self, with terrible personal and societal effects — figuring out how to reverse this uprootedness is one of the most critical issues of our lifetime, for academicians, planners, and builders.

I think these reasons might answer some of your questions, and again, thank you and others for becoming part of this important process.