The development of infrastructure projects undertaken by the University of Alberta’s Facilities & Operations team have traditionally been areas that are largely dominated by men—such as building design and construction—but an ongoing North Campus project is shifting historic trends. The leadership team overseeing the Geoffrey and Robyn Sperber Health Sciences Library project is predominantly led by women at all levels: from senior leadership and project management to planning and design to construction, as well as end users’ direction and stewardship, women are leading the way on this project and setting an example of strong leadership at the U of A.
Lara McClelland, associate vice-president, integrated planning, development and partnerships for F&O, says the makeup of the team came about naturally when selecting those who had the skills needed for the project.
“We naturally looked at aligning areas of talent, expertise, who needed to be engaged, who knew the program area best, and contracted industry talent where it was needed; it evolved that the significant majority of people on this project were women,” Laura says.
Jason Russell, manager of project delivery, has worked in construction and project management for almost 15 years and says this is the first time he’s been part of a project with this depth of female leadership.
“You don’t have to look very far down that list, whether it’s the pinnacle of leadership on the university’s project team – Lara McClelland – all the way through to trade partners in the contractors’ world, where the mechanical trades project manager is female,” he says. “Everywhere down that line we’ve run into strong female leadership.”
McClelland attributes the project team’s makeup to an increasing number of women filling prominent roles in Facilities & Operations, which has contributed to the success of the project and differing perspectives on many projects.
“It allowed a degree of curiosity and peer understanding that continued to enhance the project’s success.”
She adds that continuous improvement was a thread of the project and how each member challenged each other.
“That I think runs through my entire team, but this project in particular, the individuals that have been part of it have a real personal passion for continuous improvement.”
Expertise on display
The team is building the Geoffrey and Robyn Sperber Health Sciences Library in the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA) and it will replace the Scott Health Sciences Library in the Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre.
The project has required a wide breadth of expertise as it will incorporate some exciting elements, such as an Indigenous learning space, digital equipment such as virtual reality, 3D printing and media production tools, a collaborative stairway like the one found in CAB, and a museum display for the university’s historical dental artifacts collection.
It was important to Geoffrey Sperber, professor emeritus in the Department of Dentistry and donor for the library, that the historic dental collection be publicly displayed.
“When you walk in the entrance doors, the dental collection will be on full display,” says Russell. “Right now they tour students through the dental collection inside the storage facility. It’s really underwhelming.”
Frannie Blondheim, the now retired director of U of A Museums, was the main point of contact for the museums team when it came to consulting on the design of the dental collection space within the Library, but Russell says many members of the team — Alyssa Becker-Burns, Jennifer Bowser, and Christine Conciatori, the current director, — brought their own expertise to the project.
“There isn’t actually a curator for the collection in dentistry so they’re actually curating the collection,” explains Russell. “We’ve worked with them on everything from the layout to the specialized cabinets that house and protect the collection.”
Communication and consultation
McClelland emphasizes that communication throughout the project has been strong, with support from many other units. Members of the Library team – including Dale Askey, vice-provost of library and museums and chief librarian, Denise LaFitte, associate university librarian and a core team of librarians – helped set the direction and vision for the project, and remained key collaborators to finesse the details of the space. Facilities & Operations also contracted an architectural group and construction team for the project and they followed through on the vision presented to them.
“We’ve had our architectural design team, space team and our project management office strongly integrate throughout the whole project, and talk to all users, all vendors,” says McClelland. “That continuity of the vision and the messaging for the space has been a key element of its success.”
The Geoffrey and Robyn Sperber Health Sciences Library is expected to be operational by Fall 2023.
