University of Windsor Armouries, One Year Later

By Zander Kelly

It’s been one year since the University of Windsor School of Creative Arts students began calling the Windsor Armouries home.

After many years of delays, going over-budget and various minor delays, the students of the Music, Visual arts, Film, and Architecture programs will soon be able to finish a full school year there. School of Creative Arts (SoCA) Director Vincent Georgie said that the year has been good to the students and faculty.

“We are starting to get used to the rhythms of the building and how we use the spaces,” said Georgie. “The students are very clearly proud to be in such an incredible and culturally significant space.”

Located on Freedom Way, SoCA has offered courses and accommodations such as soundproof practice rooms for music students, conference rooms with built-in cameras on the televisions for long-distance discussions and classes on everything across the spectrum of art and film making.

“Outside of the standard minor issues of getting used to the spaces, it’s been pretty smooth,” said Georgie. “The spaces are vastly superior to our former spaces – vastly superior, in fact, to most creative arts facilities anywhere in Canada – so it’s hard to complain.”

Travis Scott is a special instructor of tuba and euphonium at the School of Creative Arts and has been for several years.

“It’s been wonderful bringing the community together,” said Scott of the new building. “Before (the SoCA programs) were separate, between old buildings and a former bowling alley I believe.”

Scott also said that there is “no comparing” the previous building to the new one.

“It’s a beautiful place to come to work,” said Scott. “The other one was drafty and leaked, but this is a very nice place to come to work.”

Scott also expressed that the location of the new building benefited him, being an instructor who has to cross the border to teach he has less distance to travel, as the exit from the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel is a single block from the property.

In a story with Mediaplex news last year, Georgie said that one way the school would try to attract students and get the public interested is to have the doors of the Armouries open to everyone. Over the past year, the entry hall of the building has featured many art exhibits, most recently the Digital to Physical exhibit, in which visual arts students designed sculptures on computers and printed them three-dimensionally with plastic.

The building has been a historical landmark in Windsor since the early 1900s, but has been officially recognized as such since 1999. Due to this, the conversion from armories into university institution was very long and deliberate, as to not damage the exterior of the building. The original foundation had to be extended, for example, to fit the new basement where many classrooms are located.

“The space is undeniably special because of its history, but also because of its location in Downtown Windsor,” said Georgie.

However, at the end of the day Georgie said that what really matters isn’t the rooms, it’s the people within them.

“It’s the people that matter and what they are creating in the spaces that matter as well.”