{"id":100452,"date":"2025-04-02T15:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T19:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=100452"},"modified":"2025-04-03T16:49:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T20:49:22","slug":"then-and-now-entering-a-new-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/04\/then-and-now-entering-a-new-era\/","title":{"rendered":"THEN AND NOW: Entering a new era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>To mark\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/60\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Brock\u2019s 60th anniversary<\/em><\/a><em>, The Brock News is running a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/tag\/then-and-now\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">monthly series<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0looking back at the University\u2019s history through photos.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For decades, Brock University\u2019s main entrance has played a key role in welcoming people to campus.<\/p>\n<p>Just like the University, the space has transformed with time, from a focus on fountains and gardens to a modern gateway that bridges Brock\u2019s past and future.<\/p>\n<p>The main entrance has evolved from a purely outdoor space into a dynamic, modern hub that reflects the growth and progress of the institution.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1970s, the entrance to Brock\u2019s iconic Arthur Schmon Tower made quite the splash \u2014literally. A set of fountains welcomed visitors, but on windy days, they had a habit of giving people an unintentional shower. The solution? The fountains were turned off, and in their place, a peaceful garden was planted, offering a more serene and less soggy welcome to students, staff and faculty.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_100460\" style=\"width: 394px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/OutdoorFrontEntrance-scaled.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-100460\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-100460\" src=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/OutdoorFrontEntrance-1050x737.jpg\" alt=\"A building with a few plants in front, showcasing architectural features and a concrete structure.\" width=\"384\" height=\"270\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-100460\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students pass the garden outside Brock University\u2019s original front entrance, a serene replacement for the former fountains that once greeted visitors in the 1970s.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Despite these aesthetic updates, the entrance remained entirely outdoors, with the tower standing tall but somewhat disconnected from surrounding buildings. A \u2018moat\u2019 still visible today from the window near the tower Tim Hortons hints at the early design\u2019s unique structural elements.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to today, and the entrance to Brock University has been completely reimagined.<\/p>\n<p>The Rankin Family Pavilion, designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, has transformed the space into a two-storey, open-concept hub that seamlessly connects the Schmon Tower to the Thistle Complex.<\/p>\n<p>The 2019 addition not only provides a campus focal point but also creates a space where collaboration and innovation meet.<\/p>\n<p>The modernization includes a dramatic staircase anchoring the second storey, engineered to appear as though it\u2019s floating, floor-to-ceiling glass walls allowing natural light to flood into the space, a skylight that enhances the bright, airy atmosphere, classroom, research and innovation spaces and a Silver Badger display showcasing Brock\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_100455\" style=\"width: 1060px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-100455\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-100455\" src=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ModernRFP-1050x700.jpg\" alt=\"Students gather and move through the bright, open-concept Rankin Family Pavilion at Brock University.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-100455\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rankin Family Pavilion, Brock University\u2019s modern front entrance, has become a hub for events, meetings, studying and social gatherings.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For decades, Brock University\u2019s main entrance has played a key role in welcoming people to campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":100459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[13423,6635,13818],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100452"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100461,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100452\/revisions\/100461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}