St. Mary’s University has experienced remarkable growth in student enrolments over the past five years. With this growth comes a need for additional instructional, performance, and study space. As a result of the generosity of several of St. Mary’s long-time donors and friends to the university, the Heritage Center will be opening in September of 2016 to meet this need for additional space.

The Heritage Center project officially broke ground in April of 2016 and has since made astonishing progress. Although not yet complete the building has started to take shape. The progress of the building is a humbling experience that reaffirms the growth, invaluable relationships, and commitment from our donors that have brought us here. The multipurpose room exterior walls are complete, and all of the washroom and interior storage room walls are also complete. Next we are highly anticipating the installation of the timber exterior wall, which will complement our historic Father Lacombe site.

We are excited to celebrate significant milestones of this project by featuring a viewing platform at our July 14, 2016, Stampede Breakfast, which will provide an up-close perspective of the construction. We are grateful for the continued support of our loyal donors and supporters who have made significant contributions, which have made this project possible. The Heritage Center will benefit all students, faculty, staff and community members who visit our campus. Its 4,700 square foot design will include a main gallery space, a lobby, restoration and renovation of the Water Tower, and a theater space. These spaces will be used for teaching, research, and performance for our innovative programs and courses.

This new addition to our campus complements our landmark location while also serving our students, staff, and faculty as an urban conventional learning space with state-of-the-art technology. Not only will the Heritage Center contribute to preserving our history and maintaining our cultural heritage, it will also present our community a unique space for learning, creating, and coming together.

A series of supervised site visits will be conducted throughout the construction of the Heritage Center. These site visits will give you rare access to the project and information about construction status, and build pedagogy, complexity and functionality.  To attend a site visit please email therese.takacs@stmu.ca or phone 403.254.3139 to speak to Therese Takacs, VP Advancement.