Western University, FIMS and Nursing Building (Faculty of Information & Media Studies and the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing)


“Be Extraordinary” describes Western University’s aspiration for on-going transformation and growth. It is an ambitious campaign that reflects a campus celebrated for its global reputation and competitive drive in recruiting the best students, faculty, and research candidates. The new FIMS and Nursing Building is the home for the relocated Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing and Faculty of Information and Media Studies. Provided here will be the interdisciplinary, interactive, and hands-on spaces that support a stronger international presence in learning and research-intensive universities. In pursuit of this, the new FIMS and Nursing Building will offer a range of environments; flexible instructional spaces, clinical training and computer laboratories, media studies studios, library science facilities, faculty/staff offices, research/scholarship spaces, and student spaces.

Shared common spaces encourage collaborative synergies and boundary-crossing through meaningful shared, places of convergence for people and ideas. General use classrooms – available for use by other campus faculties – offer a choice of instruction spaces, from 48-seat Active Learning Classrooms, to 60-seat flexible general purpose rooms, as well as a 130-seat tiered formal lecture room. The site is a highly visible location for the celebration of the Western “brand,” the physical representation of the University’s life/learning experience. 

aTRR clearly understands their role in the design/build process and brings a positive energy to each commission. The result of their design abilities has been recognized with two recent architectural design awards for University College and the FIMS/ Nursing Building which are both excellent examples of Western’s campus architecture. Their personal commitment to getting the job done right, on time and very importantly on budget has led to the reason why Western University has had them working continuously on the campus for the past two decades.

Victor Cote Professor and Chair, Executive Director, Facilities Development and Engineering
Western University