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Mike Holmes partners with Algoma District School Board, White Pines shops to be refurbished (updated, 3 photos)

IDEA Inc. to design, SalDan to build ADSB Technology Centre

The Algoma District School Board (ADSB) will be launching a multi-year project to transform the existing technical shops area at White Pines Collegiate and Vocational School into the ADSB Technology Centre. 

The board will be assisted by Canadian celebrity contractor Mike Holmes.

Mike Holmes and The Holmes Group will join the board in a project consultant capacity, it was announced at the ADSB monthly regular meeting Tuesday.

The Sault’s IDEA Inc. (Integrated Design, Engineering & Architecture) has been selected to be the architect for the project, SalDan Developments to carry out its construction in partnership with The Holmes Group (THG).

When complete, the new ADSB Technology Centre will deliver traditional and new technology to help students develop in-demand industrial and technological skills.

“This is a really exciting night for us,” said Lucia Reece, ADSB director of education at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We have long talked about wishing to do something in our community and for our students around trades and technology…(this project) will really create a unique and innovative learning experience and facility that we are hoping we can maximize in terms of student access down the road so that we can create something that’s very special, very unique and perhaps a model that can be replicated elsewhere in the province,” Reece said.

“I’m excited to be part of the White Pines Collegiate and Vocational School renovation design team, to work with the local and national industry leaders, to introduce new ideas, new technologies and new ways to learn the skilled trades," Mike Holmes said in a recorded video addressed to the board. 

“This is not your average renovation.”

Holmes and The Holmes Group have joined a new advisory council with the ADSB to help guide the architectural team and encourage students to get involved in skilled trades in Ontario.

“We want to set an example for the entire country. I can’t wait to see this take shape, and I’m thrilled to be part of it,” Holmes said. 

Mike Holmes Jr. and Sherry Holmes, son and daughter of Mike Holmes, spoke to the board virtually at Tuesday’s meeting.

“This is a project we’re very excited about. I love the layout and design of this school,” Mike Holmes Jr. said.

“I love the idea of the maker space, having that collaboration area. I think this is going to be a showpiece for so many different districts, for so many different schools, to show them what a trade school, what a vocational school should look like. It really sets the bar, having separate areas for carpentry, for masonry and then having that area where everyone comes together. I think that’s brilliant. It’s bringing that real world experience to the school.”

Franco Pastore, IDEA principal architect and designer, and Jeanette Biemann, IDEA director of engineering, presented a digital preview of how the revamped centre will appear.

Carpentry, masonry, cabinetry, welding, sheet metal, machine and auto shops along with robotics and computer labs will surround a new, two-storey open concept maker space where students’ work will be exhibited.

The Foods program at White Pines will be moved closer to the cafeteria in the school's new Bistro project to make way for the mammoth shop renovations.

“What we’ve tried to do over the last few months is capture a vision as it was communicated to us by teachers and staff as well as The Holmes Group,” architect Pastore told the board.

“We want this project to be visually prominent within the community...to create an identity for ADSB’s Technology Centre for the purpose of reinvigorating technology and skilled trades within the community, particularly among students so that there’s a renewed interest in this area.”

“It’s essentially a hub of activity for the entire school. It’s where projects come together, it’s where projects can be assembled, where indoor collaboration can occur and where technology can be displayed,” Pastore said.

“I couldn’t be more excited...this is going to be something that not too many schools or boards can talk about or have even seen,” said Sam Biasucci of SalDan Developments.

The Holmes Group is seen by the board as a key partner, with its international recognition, to attract industry leaders to the ADSB’s new Advisory Council on skilled trades.

The Holmes Group, apart from providing consulting services to the design team, will also aim to encourage students to get involved with skilled trades by sharing stories of students and graduates who have succeeded in those fields.

“With only summer for major work, we are planning for three summers (in which to complete the project),” said Joe Santa Maria, ADSB executive superintendent of business and operations in an email Wednesday. 

The renovations will begin in summer 2022.

“(The cost of the project is) unknown at this time. We’ll need to work through this with the architect and contractor,” Santa Maria said.

The project will be supported through Ministry of Education capital funding.

Santa Maria, at Tuesday’s meeting, stated $17 million in Ministry of Education capital funding was received for 25 projects throughout the ADSB’s area for 2020-2021.

Those include new windows and lockers for Central Algoma Secondary School (CASS), new windows for the board office on Albert Street East and renovations at several elementary schools including Echo Bay Public School, Isabel Fletcher, Kiwedin, Mountain View, R.M. Moore and others.


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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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