News Bites: the Phoenix reopens, new installations on campus

The Phoenix Bar and Grill reopened at the Refectory Rathskeller on Tuesday to a busy crowd eager to size up the new venue. The relocation of the 43-year-old campus bar from Wentworth House to the Refectory has been an ongoing project since summer 2011.

The Phoenix runs on reduced hours this week and will host an official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, Sept. 10. President Patrick Deane will attend the event along with members of the university administration, Graduate Student Association representatives and MSU executives. VP (Administration) Roger Couldrey will kick off celebrations.

Covenant, a new art installation, was cemented in front of the McMaster Museum of Art right before move-in weekend. The life-size bronze sculpture of an encounter between two coyotes is by Canadian First Nations artist Mary Anne Barkhouse. The sculpture adds to McMaster’s collection of over 7,000 art pieces.

Installation of a new $3 million outdoor track with a turf field nears completion after 4 months of construction during the summer. The eight-lane track, to be used by students and possibly rented for public use, has a new high-tech synthetic surface. The facility is expected to be ready for use in mid-September.

Second-floor expansion of the Psychology Building has reached the structural steel stage. The addendum will be home to a Large Interactive Virtual Environment (L.I.V.E.) performance laboratory. The lab will be dedicated to research bridging music and neuroscience, and will include a small concert hall. Construction is expected to finish by spring 2013.

As part of the City of Hamilton’s backflow prevention program, four water lines on campus have been undergoing construction, including one outside the Engineering Technology Building facing Main Street West (shown above).

Pipeline enhancements will prevent the university’s wastewater from entering pipes throughout the city.

The initiative is in compliance with a by-law passed in May affecting all commercial, industrial and institutional buildings over four storeys high.

Edwards Hall and Chester New Hall, both over 45 years old, now back onto a new walkway. Similar walkway and pedestrian crosswalk improvements have been made near the Burke Science Building, the Main Street West entrance at Forsyth Avenue South and parking lots I and E.