St. Clair College Mediaplex « Downtown Windsor, Ontario

Posts Tagged ‘St. Clair College Mediaplex’

MediaPlex Exclusive Tour for WO!

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

The St. Clair College MediaPlex is a work of communications art.

Veronique Mandal invited me to the ribbon-cutting ceremony, so I went with my wife and daughter nice and early.
Glad I did.

I bumped into Karen Fallon, one of my Quark XPress teachers at St. Clair College when I was in Journalism and New Media. She offered to take us on a quick tour BEFORE the press conference. We jumped at the chance.

Once inside, we were told that we were the first people to use the elevator. The security force and the staff didn’t know the security features on the elevator at first, so it took us a while to get upstairs to the massive TV production studios and editing bays, AND computer labs.

Once we got upstairs, we walked into the immaculate tech space, where Dr. John Strasser (never met him before) and Veronique Mandal were chatting with some onlookers and family. We got a nice quick introduction (during my video filming, which you will see if you watch below) and a thorough walk-through of the media palace.

Afterward, Senator Mike Duffy, MP Jeff Watson, Mayor Eddie Francis, and emcee/TV personality John Fairley spoke and made announcements about the grand opening. It was great to see such activity and prowess being honoured in our downtown.

John Fairley kicking off the speeches before the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Teleprompters and green screen for broadcasting. AWESOME!

The line-up of dignitaries at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the St. Clair College MediaPlex

More amazing journalism gear.

MP Jeff Watson walks into the MediaPlex before the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Tags: Dr. John Strasser, grand opening, Jeff Watson, John Fairley, journalism, Karen Fallon, Senator Mike Duffy, St. Clair College Mediaplex, Veronique Mandal
Posted in downtown events, video, windsor news | 2 Comments »

A whole bunch of stuff

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

I thought I’d provide a slew of updates and video snippets of things that have happened recently, or are ongoing for the rest of the month. Let’s start with Broken City Lab’s Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation. On Saturday morning, the family and I went to the Downtown Farmers’ Market followed by a trip up Pelissier Street to see what exactly was going on during the Storefront Residencies. Most of the projects were still being figured out and installed. Jolie Inthavong’s “The Breakroom” was in full effect though, offering a virtual break room for anyone wanting to sit in some comfy couches and drink some free coffee. There was a mini-bar fridge with water and soft drinks, and there were coffee mugs available for anyone to make themselves a coffee or tea. Jolie was also making grilled cheese sandwiches for those hungry enough, and she was washing the mugs when people were finished their drinks. The ambiance-setting feature was the nearly 100-square-foot patch of sod (faux lawn) which had a picnic blanket and occasional loafer laying on it. Just the smell of dirt and grass in a normally cold cement room made The Breakroom even more of an anomaly. And she even had a frequent-customer card (for show, I’m assuming)! Here are a few more pictures of The Breakroom space. Jolie maintaining The Breakroom (above) and Mike Poirier posing on the indoor grass (below) In other activity, the St. Clair College Mediaplex has even more applications attached to the facade of the building, including a wrap-around scrolling marquee and what looks like a living wall. The photo I have of the living wall is more of the scaffolding that was holding the workers as they applied the living wall…but there looks to be a second patch on the top/front of the building facing Victoria Avenue. The work has been ongoing with the little details, and this is the newest significant change I’ve seen with the building. Here are a couple of shots of the new marquee and the living wall. In local film news, Windsor’s Mike Stasko has released the film Iodine! And it’s got some pretty recognizable faces! Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) stars along with, Jason Collett in his acting debut (Broken Social Scene), Mike Stasko himself (was also in Things To Do), and Vicki Rivard (2:22). This film is being screened by the Windsor International Film Festival at The Capitol Theatre THIS WEDNESDAY, June 16th! Here’s the link to the Facebook Event Page. This excerpt from the Facebook Event Page tells more about the event, some press quotes, and how to get tickets: “Iodine screened at Montreal’s World Film Festival and at Houston-WorldFest where it won a Silver Remi in the First Feature category.” PRESS QUOTES “A deeply metaphysical and reflective film as expressed through gripping dialogue…..” – Arts & Opinion – Sylvain Richard (three stars) “the acting is fine and the score is spare and sweet” – Montreal Gazette – John Griffin (three stars) Apart from being a great opportunity to learn about the larger film community in Canada, you can see the film and speak with Stasko about the ins and outs of being involved in a film of this calibre. More details below about tickets and socializing. WINDSOR CAPITOL THEATRE 121 University Ave. W Windsor, ON N9A 5P4 (519) 253-8065 www.capitol.on.ca WEDNESDAY JUNE 16th – 7PM Gold Tickets $10.00 VIP Tickets holders (after party) $15.00 www.windsorfilmfestival.com to purchase tickets Pre-screening cocktails @ 6pm Q&A with Writer/Director – Mike Stasko

Also, I ran in and did a quick update video of Behind The Wood. This is the bar supply store is now fully operational, and ready to take your orders for bar gear, glassware, ice, lemons & limes, and is also prepared to train you in flair bartending. Check out the 2-minute video to see what they’ve done with the place.

And lastly…to end this post…I’m providing a link to Windsorite.ca’s article about the new, exciting preospect of a riverfront amphitheatre! This article is wicked. Thanks Owen!

Tags: Behind The Wood, broken city lab, Capitol Theatre, Downtown Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation, Iodine movie, Jolie Inthavong, Mike Poirier, movie, riverfront amphitheatre, St. Clair College Mediaplex, The Break Room, WIFF, Windsorite.ca
Posted in downtown events, video, windsor news | 2 Comments »

Mediaplex – St. Clair College Building Evolves

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

When I heard about the money ($5 million in stimulus spending) that was going to be spent on the St Clair College MediaPlex, I sought to take photos of the building throughout its construction process so that we could see what it used to be, and what it was going to become. The MediaPlex has changed its face drastically in the very short time that construction had to be done. The funding needed to be spent by the end of March. Everyone involved has had their work more than cut out for them.

Recently at the DWBIA-hosted My Tale of Two Cities movie screening and discussion panel, Veronique Mandal (Journalism Co-ordinator at St. Clair College) discussed the fact that the St. Clair College MediaPlex is the first of its kind in Canada, offering training facilities for journalism students that are state-of-the-art. It’s a comprehensive complex, designed to totally prepare graduates for the professions in news reporting and new media laying ahead of them.

The program seeks to accommodate 200 students at first but with the ability to accommodate up to 1000 students, the significance is unmistakable. 200 more individuals possibly residing and studying in the downtown core is an inspiring opportunity for downtown Windsor as a whole.

In my personal opinion, it was a great idea to keep the building where it was, with no demolition, and choosing to retrofit the stagnant Salvation Army building. This symbol of rejuvination keeps a piece of downtown alive. It takes a stale spot and creates something contemporary, new, and hopeful.

Without further ado, there is a series of photos and videos I shot showing the progression of the building being switched over. You can find below the videos at the end of this post in “relatively chronological order”.

As an added bonus, I actually got to interview the gentleman who co-designed the switchover of this building. While shooting today’s photograph someone walked up to me and asked me what I thought about the building. I was very honest, saying I thought it was an amazing achievement for downtown and that it looked incredible.

He told me shortly thereafter that he was the one who helped design it and that he wanted honest opinions from downtowners about the look of the redesign.

Blake Chamberlain, of Architecttura Inc., located at 1361 Ouellette Avenue, was the gentleman seeking honest opinion. Listen to our quick conversation on the player below this paragraph. What dumb luck it was to run into him in the day I was putting this post together! And what a proud moment when I realized that the design was by a downtown company, with Windsor employees, retrofitting a pre-existing downtown Windsor building. Amazing. I had no idea how they would actualize the rendering at the top of this post, but I think it’s remarkably executed thus far.

Do you have some images of the progress of this building process you’d like to share with Downtown WO? Send me an e-mail and we’ll see if we can get it onto the blog in a future update.

Thanks to Blake at Architecttura Inc. for the rendering image used as the headline photo of this post.

Tags: Architecttura Inc., audioboo, Blake Chamberlain, construction, journalism, my tale of two cities, progress, St. Clair College Mediaplex, Veronique Mandal
Posted in video, windsor news | 4 Comments »

Sites of Apology / Sites of Hope

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Broken City Lab, to the uninitiated, is a multidisciplinary group of concerned citizens in Windsor. They get together weekly (at least) to discuss the goods and the bads of our fine city. Then they think of ways to emphasize these parts of Windsor through artistic expression, interaction, collaboration, and more.

Recently, Broken City Lab launched an initiative called Save The City. It’s a five-month series of interactions between Broken City Lab, Windsor citizens, and the city itself. The meet-ups and activities are designed to get more than just the conversation going about the kind of city we actually live in, and the kind of city we hope to live in.

Last month was the first such event which was focused on storytelling. It was titled “Listen To The City“. According to Broken City Lab, it was “a community workshop to brainstorm, uncover, and share personal histories of Windsor, inviting a range of community members to participate in the process. The workshop will begin with a discussion about the importance in personal histories alongside official histories of a city, and then lead to the opportunity for community participants to share their own stories about Windsor.”

Portable recorders were spread throughout the meeting space, and people were encouraged to share their perspectives. Over twelve hours of content was collected! A nice start.

February’s intervention with Windsor was described by Broken City Lab as:

As part of the Broken City Lab: Save the City project, and to better understand the city and its rich and failed history, Broken City Lab researchers will host an open community event on Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 1pm to map and invent two distinct community tours—Sites of Apology and Sites of Hope.

Throughout the first part of the event, Broken City Lab will lead community participants in brainstorming the numerous sites deemed to be worthy of apology—these could include failed strip malls, roads without sidewalks, or former auto factories—along with the numerous sites that give community participants hope for the city—these could include an especially great bike trail, sites of architectural significance, or places that can be imagined as being easily improved.

Immediately following the creation of these lists, Broken City Lab will set out to demarcate and officially designate each Site of Apology and Site of Hope. At each site, a short ceremony will be held and community members are welcomed to come along to help recognize each and every site.

A map demarcating each of the designated Sites of Apology and Sites of Hope will be made available online to encourage the ongoing investigation of these sites by community members.

The results were hopeful for the downtown. Making it onto the list of Sites of Hope were the St. Clair College Mediaplex, City Hall, Capitol Theatre, the new Downtown Bus Depot, the old Downtown Bus Depot, The Downtown Windsor Farmers’ Market, Windsor Workers Action Centre , Windsor’s Community Museum, The Windsor Armories, Artcite Gallery, and more…

Of course, there were sites that straddled both the positive and negative. An important stance on results like these is to acknowledge the positives, and investigate the negatives. If there are Sites of Apology in downtown Windsor, how can we fix them? How can residents and businesses alike contribute to making these spots more revered and honoured?

For more about this meeting, and future interventions with the city, visit this post on Windsorite.ca for photos of the Sites of Apology / Sites of Hope play-by-play.

What other places do you feel could have been mentioned as Sites of Apology or Sites of Hope in the downtown and why? Leave your comments below.