Exploring the benefits of exercise, improving athletic performance and treating sports-related injuries will be the focus of a new building that officially opened today at the University of British Columbia.
The Chan Gunn Pavilion, a new facility for the Faculty of Medicine, will house physicians and physical therapists who treat about 3,500 patients a month. It will also be used by faculty and students from the school of kinesiology, which is part of the faculty of education, to explore the body’s response to exercise. The building includes rehabilitation space, gym and labs for research into movement mechanisms, injury recovery strategies and optimal exercise training for people with cancer and other chronic diseases. The Chan Gunn Pavilion is also the new home to the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Clinic.
The building, named for the Vancouver physician, Dr. Chan Gunn, who donated $5 million to the Faculty of Medicine for its construction, will become a collaborative laboratory to develop and test cutting-edge methods for diagnosis and rehabilitation, and to apply new methods of helping all people– whether elite athletes or those interested in staying fit – reach their full potential.
“Exercise and sports have become an ever-larger part of our culture, as simple recreation, as a way to stay healthy, and as events around which whole communities – and even whole countries – can rally,” said UBC President Santa J. Ono. “The Chan Gunn Pavilion demonstrates our commitment to understanding the science of physical activity and applying those insights to help people recovering from injuries, grappling with chronic disease, or striving to win Olympic medals.”
The two-storey, 20,000-square-foot building, which sits next to the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, includes a state-of-the-art gym named for Jack and Darlene Poole, whose foundation donated $1 million for the space. Many users of the gym will be people with cancer and other chronic diseases, so they can engage in safe, supervised workouts while enabling UBC researchers to explore the healing power of exercise.
Upstairs from the gym, the building has equipment for measuring body mass index, bone density, energy consumption and organ system responses to exercise.
The $11.6-million building is the first completed project in B.C. that received funding from the Government of Canada’s Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund, which provided $4.73 million for construction.
“This historic investment by the Government of Canada is a down payment on the government’s vision to position Canada as a global centre for innovation,” said Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains. “That means making Canada a world leader in turning ideas into solutions, science into technologies, skills into jobs and start-up companies into global successes. This investment will create conditions that are conducive to innovation and long-term growth, which will in turn keep the Canadian economy globally competitive.”
