Sobey Building - Saint Mary’s University

The new building houses faculty offices, executive MBA facilities, new teaching spaces, computer labs and a large conference centre. The boardrooms and lecture theatres are all state- of-the-art, with connections to computer networks and power outlets at each workstation.

An impressive design both inside and out, one of the highlights of the Sobey building is the four storey entrance lobby that uses a series of bridges, landings and platforms to straddle the openings designed in each of the three upper floors. The six-sided irregularly shaped 175 seat lecture theatre posed some challenges to the design team. The roof of the lecture theatre is flat around the perimeter but forms a pyramid in the center and spans the entire theatre width providing a large, attractive column-free space.

The new Sobey Building had to connect with the existing Loyola Building, a challenging problem because of the tight floor to floor height within the existing building. Building materials were carefully selected to blend in with existing buildings on campus. The structure of the new building was framed with a combination of a cast-in-place concrete and structural steel, elegantly clad in brick and precast concrete. The new facilities rival the best instructional and learning facilities in North America.

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