Phase II was finished in 2022 and includes creative space, an administration building, maintenance building, outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven, an addition to the existing kitchen and dining hall, senior staff cabins, more small staff cabins, and a shower cabin.
The centrepiece is Dave’s Place, a multi-arts centre and tribute to founder Dave McKeage, who sadly passed away before Phase II was realized. Dave’s Place is a grouping of four buildings: a pottery studio, a kiln, a messy arts studio, and a music studio, all connected with a large, accessible deck to function as a focal point of activity. Dave’s Place is a place where children and counsellors hang out, perform plays, make pottery, produce arts and crafts of all kinds, and play music.

Originally conceived of as one large “lodge” structure, it eventually became clear that Dave would be better memorialized with an approach that reflected his gregarious, humorous, and humble character. So, the concept evolved into four structures scattered like children’s toys. The building forms utilize forced perspective to enliven the pieces and create playful surprises with the massing as campers approach and occupy the buildings. Built with environmentally friendly materials and fully winterized to National Energy Code standards, Dave’s Place extends the camp season through the winter. The structures are framed with steel “backbones” and wood framed construction at the roof and walls with metal cladding on the exterior.

Mount Saint Bernard was a former women’s college designed and built facing a courtyard. The lowest two floors of the complex are predominantly academic spaces, with three residence floors above. The renovations introduced outward-facing aspects to the building to create stronger links to the rest of campus, provide an identity to the School of Nursing and encourage interactions between and with residence students. In addition to major changes to circulation within and around the buildings, upgrades to finishes were designed throughout.

The design team worked with stakeholders at the university to develop a conceptual design that enhanced natural circulation patterns and respected the existing structural grid while opening up the claustrophobic interior to exterior views and light as much as possible. Informal learning spaces and lounges were distributed throughout the academic spaces and designed to encourage student engagement with designs that accommodate a wide variety of learning styles.

Accesssibility aspects were of particular importance in the residence renovations with major interventions in the shared bathroom facilities and accessibility upgrades to several of the 229 bedrooms.

Early stakeholder consultation sessions utilized a Pairwise Ranking tool to help the Student, School of Nursing, Residence Representatives and Facilities Management staff representatives identify shared and agreed-upon priorities across the various competing interests.

The concepts developed by Nycum were used to procure the services of a Design-Builder.

The Campus Framework Plan seeks to find ways in which the physical environment can support the type of campus envisioned in the Strategic Plan laid out by St. Francis Xavier University in 2016.

Our unique campus environment, rooted in strong tradition, is centered on social engagement and fosters a sense of purpose, community, and active citizenship.

Excerpt from 2016 St. Francis Xavier University Strategic Plan

The Campus Framework Plan is an opportunity-based plan that institutes and formalizes patterns to maintain the campus’s unique spatial characteristics, while identifying opportunities for consistent and harmonious expansion. The plan is comprehensive in scope and is visionary, yet realistic, identifying short and long term strategies driven by a set of planning principles developed by St. Francis Xavier University’s stakeholders:
– Utilize interior and exterior spaces as a living, learning laboratory supporting academic mission
– Enhance and strengthen Campus image and identity through connected green spaces and improved edges, more welcoming Campus entrances and discreet building service areas
– Pedestrianize Campus: Modify circulation patterns to slow and/or discourage vehicular traffic, convert strategic roads into pedestrian walks, enhance wayfinding by providing clear directional guidance for visitors, provide safe and continuous walk corridors across campus by filling in the missing gaps, transition campus roads into more pedestrian-friendly corridors, increase bicycle use by working with the Town of Antigonish to create well-defined regional/campus routes that lead directly to major Campus destinations with adequate bike parking
– Densify the Campus core: identify areas for future growth, collocate associated uses to help promote accessible pedestrian circulation
– Create a cohesive image and campus landscape: move interior parking to the edge and re-imagine the space as future building and/or green space opportunities; protect spaces that have a special place in the life and history of St. Francis Xavier University; form new spaces that reflect the “park-like” character of the historic core, contribute to the institutional culture, and help mark the distinctiveness of key areas;
– Recognize natural features such as wooded areas as valuable campus resources and recognize the Strategic Plan’s goals in terms of inclusivity, internationalization and indigenization.

St. Francis Xavier University

StFX University Campus Planning

StFX University Strategic Plan

The building in which the Institute is housed is also an incredibly important classroom building, replacing close to 80% of the teaching space on campus and inhabiting the geographic centre of the campus, radically transforming the area to embrace an existing hill, that previously divided upper from lower campus, as a unique feature that plays a part in physically and experientially re-connecting upper and lower campus. The design of Mulroney Hall and surrounding site presented opportunities to enhance the rich spatial experience of campus; it is centrally located and poised to become a hub of student activity and a space for intellectual discourse with global impact.

A series of new student-focused interior and exterior spaces were envisioned as part of the project, providing space for formal and informal gatherings – a modern forum and place of discourse and learning.

Nycum and its design partner, SmithGroupJJR, were engaged by St. Francis Xavier University to help the campus develop a set of forward-thinking guidelines and requirements to be used by Design-Builders competing for the opportunity to design and build a significant new project on the University’s campus. We prepared an “illustrative design” as a companion to the guidelines and requirements to depict how they might shape an appropriate response to the campus, to the program and to the legacy of the project’s namesake and benefactor, the Right Honourable M. Brian Mulroney, St. Francis Xavier alumnus and 18th Prime Minister of Canada.

Our design work was completed and formed the basis of a design competition between Design-Builders in October 2016, after which point we transitioned to an advisory role with the University. We provided advice and insight to the University and its stakeholders throughout the competition and into the construction phases.

St. Francis Xavier University
StFX University Campus Planning
Mulroney Hall Breaks Ground

In The Convoy scheme, each of the three main programmatic components, the Shiphouse, the Interpretive Centre and the Memorial Hall, is housed in a distinct volume. These elongated bars then shift apart as they respond to the dynamic influences of city and harbour. This design was based on a heavylift docking system for HMCS Sackville.

The Shipyard scheme is conceived as a two-bar arrangement with a covered central arcade celebrating Halifax’s maritime heritage and functioning as an activity space for the entire city. A glazed enclosure to the south provides full profile views of HMCS Sackville from the approach along the boardwalk from the cruise ship terminal. This design was developed using a shiplift with lateral transfer.

The Gateway (Crossing the Bar) approach recalls the historic gateway arch which used to stand on Sackville Landing and the temporary arches that were traditionally built across streets and at Grand Parade in Halifax to celebrate victories in battle or visiting royalty. The Shiphouse, oriented parallel to the shoreline, is located at the eastern edge of the site, as far out in the harbour as possible. A corresponding structure containing the interpretive and memorial functions rises along the boardwalk. The large opening carved from its mass frames full profile views of HMCS Sackville from the city. This design is based around utilizing a graving dock which allows HMCS Sackville to remain at a natural waterborne elevation.

SmithGroupJJR, memorial, museum and cultural architecture, material preservation specialist, civil engineering, lighting design, landscape architecture and urban design
Ralph Appelbaum Associates, exhibit and interpretive design
Hepburn and Sons LLC, graving dock designer
William Cogar, facilitator and scholarly expert (naval history)
F.C. O’Neill Scriven & Assoc’s Limited, mechanical and electrical Engineering
PINTO Engineering Ltd., structural engineering
Hanscomb Limited, budgeting and cost planning.

The facility supports the needs of a province-wide instructor program where instructors collect materials such as ACTARs (CPR training aids) and manuals in the morning, returning them at the end of the day to be cleaned, processed and stored. Atlantic administrative headquarters for St. John Ambulance (SJA) are also housed in the building.

A clear floor plan for the building carefully arranges the functions to be discrete, yet linked where they support and enhance one another. The straightforward design means that students, administrative staff and instructors are all accommodated and supported. Through careful planning, development of multi-use spaces, careful material selections and a close working relationship with the Contractor, the new SJA headquarters provides highly functional and low-maintenance and cost effective facilities.

The new building, located in Highfield Park in Dartmouth utilizes very efficient heating, ventilation and lighting systems to produce comfortable, low-maintenance environments that are highly energy efficient. Heat pumps allow excess heat from high-occupancy areas to be reused in heating low-occupancy areas. The same equipment allows morning solar heat gain on the more highly glazed eastern side of the building to be transferred to the colder western side of the building.

The new headquarters for SJA needed to serve the programmatic functions of training, education and administration, but also maintain a sense of brand identification with the larger national and global non-profit organization. The building maintains a low, single-storey profile and employs variation in massing, roof lines and material to break the building into smaller, less imposing forms – more in keeping with the character of the surrounding neighbourhood. Site lighting was carefully selected and oriented to minimize light disruption to the adjacent properties, while providing adequate security lighting after hours.

Our services on this project included: Building assessment, functional programming, site assessment and recommendation, architecture and interior design, and contract and construction administration.

Nycum was responsible for the design of, and Construction Documents for, the building envelope of the Phase 1, LEED™ Silver, Metro Waterfront Campus. In addition to the envelope work, we dealt with portions of the Master Plan and Conceptual Design as part of a design team consisting of three firms: Nycum, Barrie & Langille Architects (Halifax), and Moriyama & Teshima Architects (Toronto).

In 2012-2013, we led the design work to replace curtain wall components, enhance the building envelope performance, upgrade entrances and exits, and provide new student study and socialization spaces at the Lunenburg Campus of NSCC in Bridgewater NS, phasing work in two phases to suit budget requirements and minimize impact to academic operations.

Our multi-phased renovation of Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law teaching labs and addition of a moot court included challenges like adapting a constrained structural and spatial environment to provide significantly increased ventilation and acoustic control and absorption. The project included extensive asbestos remediation while the facility remained operational, and strategic phasing to be ready for use at the beginning of the school year.

Nycum has also produced the Master Plan for Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine, where we continue to provide renovations and upgrades to the existing facilities.

In 2012, we completed the renovation of a merchant townhouse to create a research laboratory, data collection centre and testing site for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging that will study the health of 50,000 Canadians through a 20-year long-range study.

Five camper cabins (two insulated for winter use) are spread across the site, and complemented with a dining hall, medical treatment centre, administrative offices, staff cabins, arts facilities, and learning activity spaces. Groups rent the camp from Brigadoon and tailor their programs for their target campers. The facility provides the support and flexibility to provide for camps ranging from Crohn’s/Colitis to Cancer.

This project is the fusion of the ultimate fun summer camp experience with a solid backbone of medical infrastructure. The design is a sensitive blend of staffing and medical support strategies with an approachable and exciting architectural backdrop. The campus design accommodates multiple camp “tenants”: each with unique restrictions, management styles and staff complements. The camp had to be designed to be instantly flexible and adaptable to each organization while maintaining core medical, nutritional, programmatic and safety services and spaces.

Fundamental to the camper cabin design is the ability for one staff member to supervise 24 campers. This allows other staff to have a break or conduct vital planning work. A scheme was devised where a great room provides a central observation point with view into each cabin space. At the same time, the beneficial dynamics of camp such as age grouping, friendship forming, and peer interaction supports small groups of six to eight. Within each cabin of 24, mini cabins have autonomous space and identity within the larger cabin building, allowing group identity and solidarity to take hold among these smaller accommodations.

“This camp is so good that it might be worth having Crohn’s to go to!”
-Vince Rochette, Camp Guts and Glory, 2011

Laboratory spaces include teaching labs, prep rooms, and research labs for graduate students and teaching staff. We encouraged the flexibility of these high-tech spaces by using the modular design of components and layouts. The building’s animal care facility has a specific emphasis on aquatic animals and includes salt and fresh water fish habitats, surgery and observation rooms.

This LEED™ Gold building incorporates innovative water and energy conservation systems – a particular challenge given the demands that traditional laboratory spaces place on such building components.

See Acadia University’s virtual tour of this building.