Rotman's New South Building!

Greetings, everyone, from the wonderful world of SUMMER!

Yes, classes are out during the season of sun and hot weather (unless you are taking a summer course!) but the Rotman spirit never sleeps. These days, the incoming first-year class (class of 2014) are gradually getting acquainted with the school. In fact, tomorrow is the first of three “Rotman Ready Sessions”, where a group of first-years will learn about the ins and outs of Rotman, meet some second year students and take a tour of the new building.

New building.

New building.

New building.

New building.

Yes! Rotman has a new building! This is probably not news to many of you, but it is still exciting nonetheless. It is directly south of the old one (and hence called the South Building) and is set to be 110% complete for the grand opening on September 5^th. Many of the facilities are in use right now though. Today, my camera and I decided to venture through these new walls, snap some photos and share the love with you all.

So here we go!

The grand staircase. The palazzo steps will connect to the atrium in the old building, and there will be a fancy laptop bar in the middle. The accent colour pink has been a hot topic of conversation. Most people are not so sure what to think. Apparently it was inspired by the Einstein issue of the Rotman magazine, where the header was this shade of pink.

Full-size lockers! As many of the second-year students know, these new additions will be a blessing. There are nearly 800 lockers throughout the new building, so everyone will have their own. Great for storing your suit and gym clothes!

The MBA student lounge. Notice the comfortable seating, two microwaves and full-sized refrigerator. There is also a meeting room in this area, and the window overlooks the grand staircase.

Officially named the “Masters Student Study Area”, but I predict it will be known as “The New Fishbowl”. The partitions that divide seats unscrew in case you are working on a project and need to open up the study space. There are also several group rooms in this area, and it overlooks the flat foot classroom.

A brand new study/group room. The best thing about these new rooms is that everyone can see your laptop screen when you plug it into the dock in the middle. This will be very handy for editing presentations, reports and spreadsheets as a group. Also, the chairs are definitely a step up from the ones in the old rooms.

This is the flat-foot classroom. Even though it is still under construction, you can already tell it’s going to be a very widely used space. The room can be set up in 7 different configurations. In addition to all-section lectures for the first-year students, it will also be used for events and guest speakers.

A student lounge area near the cafeteria on the main floor. That glassy area on the wall is a fireplace!

The cafeteria. We do not know what kind of food will be served from the kitchen (not in this picture, but it is to the left), but I think this is going to be a high-traffic area anyway. It will be a nice change from the same old sandwiches from Campus Express. And for people who bring their own lunch, it will be a lot better than balancing a cup of soup on your lap while sitting on a couch, or cramming yourself into room 121 in the old building.

I wish I could have actually gone onto the patio to take some pictures, but this is the best I could do. I cannot wait to stand out here. Apparently if you look south you can get a pretty awesome view of downtown Toronto!

Another lounging area on the bottom floor close to the majority of the classrooms and facing the sunken outdoor courtyard.

This is the sunken outdoor courtyard, still under construction obviously. From what I understand, there will be a few tables with chairs scattered about, and the perimeter will feature a waterway with “bubblers”.

Unfortunately I could not get a picture of one of the new classrooms. Two of them were being used and the rest were locked. But they are absolutely fantastic! Each classroom features 70 comfortable seats, white boards and smart boards, a camera that will record a professor’s lecture, a screen in front of the presenter so you can see your slides, a doc cam and much more.

If, after the first couple of Rotman Ready Sessions, I can generate an FAQ list, I will be sure to update this post to include them. I encourage you to see the building for yourself though. I know my classmates and I will be nostalgic for the old building, but the South Building definitely has some awesome features that are going to blow everyone away!