Transcript for Chapter 4:
Building a Better Tomorrow

This is Chapter 4: Building a Better Tomorrow

I’m your host Dane Stewart, a Concordia grad, playwright and host of the queer-history podcast Resurrection. I’ll guide you as we explore more of Concordia’s downtown Sir George Williams Campus focusing on its recent past and dynamic future. We’ll visit a few places where I spent many days as a student, like the Webster Library, where I wrote most of my master’s thesis, spending many days — and a few nights too — neck-deep in the stacks.

Ready? Let’s begin.

Let’s start with the J.W. McConnell Building – known as the LB.

Across the street from the Henry F. Hall Building, the LB was opened in 1992 to house the R. Howard Webster Library, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, the J.A. DeSève Cinema, study spaces and offices.

The English, history and French departments were later consolidated on the building’s upper floors. 

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The LB is also home to Concordia’s first exhibition space, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, which opened in 1966. Originally called the Sir George Williams Art Gallery before it found its permanent home in the LB in 1992, it was renamed in honour of its benefactors, Leonard and Bina Ellen.

Part of the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery is dedicated to the research, dissemination and critical examination of Canadian and international contemporary art.

DID YOU KNOW? Internationally renowned Canadian Indigenous artist Kent Monkman brought his alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, to the university in 2011 — as part of his exhibition — at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery. My Treaty Is With The Crown was the first major showing of Monkman’s work in Quebec. Monkman returned to Concordia to present his book, Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island, to a sold-out audience in 2023.

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One of Concordia’s favourite student spaces is the Webster Library. Named after university benefactor R. Howard Webster, the Webster Library takes up most of LB.

In 2018, the library underwent major renovations and a digital transformation. The changes were conceived by students for students, like doubling the seating capacity from when it first opened in 1992.

In response to student needs, the Webster Library is also open 24/7, the first in Quebec to offer this service.

The Webster includes a technology sandbox, which offers 3D printers, virtual reality headsets, a digital die cutter and 360-degree video cameras. It also includes the visualization studio, with a touch-capable, high-resolution display wall and spatial audio system.

DID YOU KNOW? In 2013, Concordia opened the Mordecai Richler Reading Room on the sixth floor of the Webster Library. The space honours the late novelist, screenwriter and essayist who attended one of Concordia’s founding institutions, Sir George Williams University, between 1949 and 1951. He also served as writer-in-residence in 1968 and 1969. Richler’s desk, typewriter, private papers, books and mementos are now on public display.

On the ground floor of the LB, facing onto De Maisonneuve, is 4TH SPACE. Open since 2018, the site showcases Concordia’s research and teaching.

4TH SPACE is a ‘living lab’ offering a behind-the-scenes perspective on academic research that is on display with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Free activities make learning accessible, experiential and open to the public. Initiatives include video interviews, podcasts, research-creation experiences, workshops, hack-a-thons and conferences.

DID YOU KNOW? In 1992, Concordia hosted La Ville en Rose, the first international conference on Lesbian and Gay Studies of its kind. This took place in the lobby of the LB Building and featured more than 700 scholars.

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Head across the LB atrium, and you’ll find SHIFT, the Centre for Social Transformation, founded in 2019. Its mission is to connect diverse communities, institutions and ideas to create a more just, inclusive and prosperous society.

SHIFT supports more than 50 community partners on the ground working towards social transformation. The centre also offers a welcoming space where students, faculty and community members can collaborate to address the challenges facing society.

DID YOU KNOW? University of the Streets Café is a program that organizes bilingual, public conversations in cafés and public spaces around Montreal. Since its inception in 2003, University of the Streets Café has hosted more than 400 bilingual public conversations.

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Southwest at Guy and Sainte Catherine streets stands the Faubourg Tower, or the FB. Purchased by Concordia in 1997, the FB is home to many important units such as University Advancement, Human Resources, the Equity Office and Concordia Continuing Education, which offer hundreds of non-credit courses and programs aimed at lifelong learners.

DID YOU KNOW? Concordia’s most ambitious fundraising campaign to date, the Campaign for Concordia: Next-Gen Now, will have raised $350 million by the end of 2025 in support of student and research success.

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The Faculty of Fine Arts has many outstanding programs, including Canada’s largest university centre for film animation, film production and film studies, the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024, the Mel Hoppenheim School is known for its many talented alumni who have been nominated — and won — Academy Awards, Emmys and Canadian Screen Awards. Alumni have had their work screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.

DID YOU KNOW? Concordia has been home to the Fantasia International Film Festival for more than 20 years. What Quentin Tarantino calls “the most important and prestigious genre film festival on this continent,” Fantasia attracts thousands of spectators every year, with many film industry titans among them.

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The FB sixth floor features Concordia’s District 3 Innovation Hub, a startup incubator. District 3 mentors provide budding entrepreneurs with the support to launch successful new firms in high tech, healthcare and biotech.

Additional to Concordia students and alumni, District 3 supports entrepreneurs from sister institutions to help them build new business models.

DID YOU KNOW? Philanthropy has accelerated District 3 programs and helped fund its next-gen work environment. The collaborative space provides shared desks and interactive equipment to create a model workspace for the future.

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Back towards Guy and de Maisonneuve stands the 15-storey John Molson Building  — or MB — which is one of Sir George Williams’s newer buildings, completed in 2009.

The MB is home to Concordia’s John Molson School of Business, whose learning and research environment empowers students for the betterment of business and society.

The John Molson School offers programs in accountancy, marketing, finance, management, supply chain and business technology management.

Bloomberg ranks the John Molson School of Business MBA program as number one in Canada for entrepreneurship studies.

The John Molson School is also focused on hiring faculty with an interest in sustainable development. Its David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise Research leads in developing business practices that support corporate social responsibility.

DID YOU KNOW? The MB’s southwest wall is the world’s first-ever solar wall. With solar panels covering 300 square meters, it generates 25 kilowatts of electricity and 75 kilowatts of heat.

Thank you for much for joining me. It’s been a blast exploring my old campus with you. That’s the end of Chapter 4: Building a Better Tomorrow.