Since the assimilation of Okanagan University into what is today the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan branch, this campus has expanded drastically since its 2005 (re)opening. With the University Centre (today the UNC), the EME, the Arts and Sciences Centre, Hangar, the Commons, and several housing establishments across campus, the last twenty years have been kind to UBCO, not to mention its students.
The question at this moment is not whether the campus will grow from this point, but rather how it will. However, as the downtown campus extension finds itself the subject of controversy and on-campus advancements pivot towards expanding into the nearby farmland, not to mention the recent rework of plans just last year, it can be easy to lose track of what the immediate future looks like for UBCO.
Downtown, construction of the new campus has faced numerous issues following complications arising from excavations to establish the facility’s parking garage on March 31st of 2024. As digging continued, the site became unsafe, forcing residents of the next door Hadgraft Wilson Place (housing for fixed income people and those suffering from disabilities) to evacuate. Since then, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the campus and the city of Kelowna. In the wake of this debacle, the underground parking garage has been decreased in size from four-story to two-story, and it is expected that future construction projects in the downtown area will be put under further scrutiny.
The downtown campus, however, is a different story. As stabilization work has resumed and construction tentatively continues, the ongoing nature of the downtown campus brings about some concerns as to whether it will reach its hopeful due-date of late 2027, though the signalling from the UBC Properties Trust remains optimistic, with its update provided in April of last year, presumably with any related delays already factored into its estimation. Regardless of delays, the 43-story building treks on in construction, set to hold the faculties of nursing and social work, not to mention 503 housing units. Presuming there are no further design adjustments, the building will prove “the tallest building between Vancouver and Calgary”– a boast one can only hope is fulfilled without further issues.
Closer to the heart of campus, progress is less bombastic, though certainly no less ambitious. According to an update approved in May of 2024, the plan over the next twenty years includes the construction of approximately 56 buildings, including two new parking lots and an increase in community amenities. These buildings can be divided into three groups: housing, academic, and services.
Housing space will certainly see a drastic expansion, with several new neighborhoods being established across the campus. To the South and atop Academy Hill, and to the East nearby the Upper Cascades and Purcell, several new student housing developments are being plotted, with one in particular set to hold 451 units on Academy Hill having just had a proposal submitted to the municipality of Kelowna in August of 2024. Beyond student housing, there are plans to establish an entirely new neighbourhood referred to as the “Upper Bench,” just North of Purcell and the nearby proposed buildings. These buildings will mirror Academy Hill’s mixed housing, allowing for students, faculty and staff to live on campus with several amenities nearby.
The campus’ expansion is intended to occur in tandem with several new community services, the likes of which include four planned daycare centers (including the recently-established daycare center in Upper Cascades), the “Community Heart” at the intersection of University Way and University Walk meant to serve the campus at-large and provide further services, with further “Local Nodes” dotted around the map, not unlike Nechako’s corner store or the Tim Hortons outside the Library. Similarly, there are several planned “Neighbourhood Hubs”, meant to accommodate the new housing planned for the new Northern and Southern parts of the campus, though the extent to which these “Hubs” will include basic shopping necessities such as “affordable food staples” remains to be seen.
Finally, the campus would have no reason to expand its housing without new classes. As such, alongside the downtown campus, UBCO intends to establish several more buildings with which to house classes on the primary campus through a dual strategy: the first part of the strategy relies upon adding to the existing concentration of buildings in the Central-Southern section of the campus, while the second part of the strategy relies upon constructing a new wing of buildings in the Northwest, just East of where Purcell stands today.
These buildings and their establishment serve as something of a marker as to the ongoing progress and prosperity of UBCO, which is to say that if a campus can feasibly plan to establish over fifty new buildings alongside a new downtown campus, then that campus is probably doing fairly well. As a student, I cannot help but feel a sense of pride and optimism for the near future. I only hope this optimism is well-met.
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1 Reeve, M. (2024, March 31). Kelowna subsidized apartments evacuated due to neighbouring UBC Okanagan construction. Castanet. Retrieved January 13, 2025. Source Link.
2 Jones, M. (2024, May 15). City of Kelowna, UBCO sued over downtown building debacle. Infonews. Retrieved January 13, 2025. Source Link.
3 Reeve, M. (2024, April 9). Stabilization work resumes at UBCO site downtown Kelowna. Castanet. Retrieved January 13, 2025. Source Link.
4 University of British Columbia Okanagan. (2024, April 8). UBCO Downtown Kelowna Project. UBC Properties Trust. Retrieved January 13, 2025. https://ubcproperties.com/news/ubco-downtown-kelowna-project-2/
5 UBCO. UBCO Downtown Kelowna Project. UBC Properties Trust. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
6 University of British Columbia. (2024, May). Campus Plan Update. Campus Plan Update Overview. Retrieved January 13, 2025. Source Link.
7 UBCO. Campus Plan Update. Campus Plan Update Overview. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
8 Barnes, G. (2024, August 13). Major student housing development proposed near UBC Okanagan. Kelowna Capital News. Retrieved January 13, 2025. Source Link.
9 UBCO. Campus Plan Update. Campus Plan Update Overview. Retrieved January 13, 2025. Source Link.
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