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On Tuesday, Tuesday, June 7, 2022 Dalhousie University officially celebrated the opening of Cox Institute on the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus in Truro, Nova Scotia.

The Cox Institute of Agricultural Technolgy is the main academic building on the campus and on June 20th, 2018, a significant fire destroyed the east wing of the building. Although the renewed facility was officially turned back to the university in June 2021 and open to students this past September, today was the first time the Dalhousie community could officially celebrate the new space.

“The Faculty of Agriculture is a special part of our university campus,” said Deep Saini, President of Dalhousie University. “The fire was a terrible blow to our community, but today we see a beautiful building supporting the work of our faculty, researchers, students and staff. It’s a testament to them all that they continue to achieve excellence while not only facing impacts to their academic home, but that they also persevered during a pandemic.”

Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture is built on a proud history of industry-leading education and research. Home to a working farm, the campus has almost 1,000 acres of research fields, gardens and greenhouses, as well as cutting-edge technology, labs and resources to innovate new technologies in support of the agri-food and aquaculture industries.

“We’re so happy to celebrate our opening,” said Dean David Gray. “Our entire university community supported the Faculty of Agriculture to get us to this moment. It was extremely difficult time for us. But now we have a bright and modern facility for our students, faculty and staff. It’s a space in which we can continue to make an impact. It’s been a group effort and the result is remarkable.”

The scope of work was significant, not only due to water and fire damage, but also since the Cox Institute, built in the 60s had to brought up to current building and fire codes. The project took over 135,000 person hours. Up to 104 trades were on site at once with 40 different trade companies, suppliers and firms as part of the project. Stairwells were moved, layouts re-configured and a multitude of equipment replaced and upgraded, including:

• Over 1,300 light fixtures
• Over 3.3 km of ductwork
• Over 11.6 km of piping120 rolls of flooring
• 450 chairs
• 270 fixed seating/tables, plus 150 tables
• 50 private offices
• 6 Workstations

“We’re excited for the future within our Faculty of Agriculture,” said Dr. Saini, “I trust this space will continue to inspire and equip our students and faculty to make a continued impact on our region and world.”

Photo Credit:  Nick Pearce