UBC Okanagan Skeena Residence

Project Snapshot

Occupancy: August 2020
Budget: $24.980 million
Project Manager: UBC Properties Trust
Architect: PUBLIC: Architecture & Communication
Sustainability: Passive House Certified

Project Summary

UBC’s Department of Psychology, ranked first in Canada and tenth in the world by Times Higher Education in 2018, has reached this distinguished status from its primary home in the Douglas T. Kenny Building (the Kenny Building). Department members conduct leading research in a broad range of areas, including behavioural neuroscience, clinical, cognitive, developmental, health, quantitative, and social/personality psychology. The department expects to welcome five new faculty members in the near future and needs to create lab space to support their research.

The fourth floor of the Kenny Building was originally fitted out as a dedicated animal research facility. It was decommissioned in spring 2017, and the research relocated to newer, custom-built research spaces elsewhere on campus as part of the overall consolidation of animal research facilities. As a result, the approximately 15,600 sq. ft. fourth floor will be fully renovated to create research labs, similar to other labs in the building, that will accommodate the expansion of the department.