By Natalie Alcoba
Rain wasn’t going to wash away Mary Black’s chance to officially launch her fundraising campaign in style.
The chair of Ryerson’s school of graphic communications management, along with students, university brass and print industry executives, gathered in a Cinderella-like white tent last Thursday under cloudy skies to officially announce plans for the program’s new building.
The posh event held in the school’s parking lot on Bond Street, the site of GCM’s future home, is only one of many recent Ryerson construction announcements.
Architects have been chosen for Ryerson’s two other SuperBuild initiatives, a centre for computing and engineering and a centre for community health run jointly with George Brown College.
Plans to erect a student centre are also finally back on track after months of stalling, and the continuing education programs may soon find a new home in a refurbished Victoria Street building.
Black, who came to Ryerson four years after a 25-year career in the printing industry, has been the driving force behind the program’s quest for a modern building.
The facility she envisions will be more than 2,700 square metres, up from the program’s current 675 square metres in the basement of south Kerr Hall, and will accommodate 400 new students.
“The building will have everything we need to educate our students so that they will be ready for the world of work,” Black said.
Crews are scheduled to begin constructing the $10-million building, which is being designed by Moffat Kinoshita architects, in April 2001.
Roughly $4-million of the price tag will come from the Ontario government’s SuperBuild fund, and private donors will have to foot the bill for the remaining $6-million.
A fundraising campaign by GCM’s advisory board, which paid for last Thursday’s event, began attracting pledges from the graphic communications industry seven months ago.
GCM has already raised $3.5 million in private cash. Last Thursday’s party just made the campaign official.
Among the companies that have contributed so far are Quebecor World Canada, St. Joseph Corp. and Mary Black’s own company, Colour Technologies.
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