Twenty-one months following its official groundbreaking, and the doors are now open on MacEwan Students' Association Building (SAMU) located on the northwest corner of 109 Street and 104 Avenue at MacEwan University's downtown campus.

Ribbon cutting for the new SAMU grand opening, photo by Dave Sutherland

The Students' Association celebrated the grand opening of the new three-story Stantec-designed building today, where students were invited to check out the many study spaces, meeting rooms, and enjoy food catered by OPA! and Edo Japan, whom will be opening soon in the building.

Second floor, photo by Dave Sutherland

A quick walk through the open portions of the building - construction is still wrapping up on the main level and feature stairs - shows a building that has been designed for students and their needs above all others: The entire building is filled with spaces to rest, socialize, study, meet, and innovate, and filled with ample natural light via the large undulating glass windows.

Student Groups space, photo by Dave Sutherland

Work still continuing on the feature stair, photo by Dave Sutherland

The building is connected to the entire MacEwan downtown campus via the second floor, directly to the Sport and Wellness Centre and integrating with the existing pedway across busy 109 Street to the Robbins Health Learning Centre and Allard Hall.

SAMU building, photo by Dave Sutherland

SkyriseEdmonton will revisit the SAMU building when interior construction has completed. What do you think of the facility so far? Leave a comment below, or join the discussion in our Forum. You can also find additional information and images in the project Database entry linked below.

Editors note: A previous version of this article credited DIALOG as the architect for the SAMU building. The architect was in fact Stantec. SkyriseEdmonton regrets the error.