Emily Carr University gets $113M for new campus

The B.C. government is investing $113 million to build a new facility for Emily Carr University at the Great Northern Way Campus.

The funding means the art and design school will be leaving Granville Island, Premier Christy Clark confirmed on Wednesday morning.

"Emily Carr University had outgrown its old home," said Clark.

The original Granville Island campus was designed for 800 students, but now has 1,800 registered, and the university needs a larger space to grow and stay competitive, say officials.

"Too much success is a nice problem to have, and just as their graduates move onto bigger and better career options, we're pleased to help the university move into a bigger and better home," said Clark.

The new visual, media and design facility will cost a total of $134 million to build. The university and donors are expected to make up the $21-million gap in funding. Construction is slated to begin in May 2014 and be completed by July 2016.

Emily Carr, British Columbia Institute of Technology, the University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University all own a quarter share of the Great Northern Way Campus, a former industrial site in East Vancouver. 

President Ron Burnett said the aim is to bring art and technology together at the site.

"Emily Carr's Great Northern Way Campus will be at the centre of a new social, cultural, educational, entertainment and economic engine for British Columbia,"  said Burnett.

All four schools already jointly offer a Masters of Digital Media for graduate students.