Following a two-year plus period of building, the Department of Earth Sciences (or most of it) moved into the CEIT (Centre for Environment, Innovation and Technology) Building in September of 2003. However, a number of changes took place over the following six months, including a multitude of wall placements and the installation of museum specimens, and the building was formally opened on February 27, 2004.
BELOW: Opening CEIT. The robotic arm marks the precise opening of the CEIT building as the ribbon flutters down. Peter is on the extreme left of the photograph with George Dixon, Dean of Science to the right. President David Johnson is on the extreme right. Other dignitaries include, from the left of President Johnson, proceeding left; David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal, Ted Arnott, MPP for Waterloo-Wellington, and Bob Harding, Chair of the Board of Governors.
Since this is the "home" for What On Earth, and since Peter was a key figure in the "geodesign" we thought we would illustrate the lower floor and the one million dollar The March Atrium of CEIT. This is the principal area that displays some of the geological features and houses the small Museum area. The opening ceremony was marked in true Waterloo style with a machine ribbon-cutting ceremony. Everyone waited with anticipation, and, as the cameras rolled, flashed and beeped, the robotic arm snipped the black ribbon, to formally open CEIT.
ABOVE: The Great Lakes Fountain. Bob Harding, Peter (centre) and David Johnson on the US side of the Great Lakes. David is pointing out his home town of Sault Ste. Marie. Each of the Lake basins portrays the bottom topography in three-dimensional relief and is cut into a red granite. Water flows from Superior to the St. Lawrence, and is recirculated in a closed loop.
I was able to persuade President Johnson and Bob Harding, Chair of the Board of Governors, to pose with Peter beside the "Great Lakes Fountain" that runs along one side of the new Atrium. Some of the walking tours explored the building and one of the features that was admired was the huge gneiss monolith. The CEIT building was built around the monolith. This was installed very early in the construction phase and featured in the Fall 2001 issue of WAT ON EARTH. Beside the many cases of mineral specimens a ceiling area illustrates a series of drill bits that were donated by various companies in western Canada and gathered by a former student, Jerry Pilny.
ABOVE: The drill-bit ceiling area. Poking through the ceiling are various diameter drill bits that are used for drilling, water, oil and gas wells. These bits were donated by Security DBS, Calgary, Christiensen Mining Products and Walker McDonald Bits. They are mounted to show how they would look from below as they make their way through rock strata deep underground.
BELOW: The monolith. The large gneiss monolith rises through three floors inside CEIT. Originally lowered to the basement level on December 1st, 2001. The first view shows a group of admirers at the bottom of the basement stairway looking upward. Paul Karrow, an emeritus professor is over 2m tall and stands at the foreground right.
BELOW: This view illustrates part of the monolith from above. The new chair of Earth Sciences, Mario Coniglio (top centre) stands at the base. Most of the participants in the group have single page copies of the WAT ON EARTH article that describes the installation of the monolith.
