Canadian Jesuits Help Rehab Their Old School

Jesuits help convert building at Concordia
$1-million gift. Donation will help turn structure into conference centre

ALAN HUSTAK
The Gazette
May 15, 2008
The Jesuits of Upper Canada will donate $1 million to Concordia University to help convert what used to be the Refectory Building of Loyola College into a conference centre.The announcement, to be made today, is believed to be the largest donation to a Canadian university by a religious order. "The contribution reflects the Jesuit tradition of giving back to the community and will contribute to a lasting Jesuit presence at Concordia University," said Jean-Marc Laporte, the head of the Jesuits of Upper Canada. The $4-million conference centre, tucked behind the main building on Concordia's Loyola campus in Notre Dame de Grâce, will be known as Jesuit Hall. It will be used for lectures by eminent Jesuits or lay scholars from a range of liberal arts disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, journalism and communications.

The Refectory Building opened in 1916 when the college was still a private Roman Catholic boys' school. It was where resident students and priests ate their meals, and included a kitchen, scullery and an infirmary on the second floor. The Jesuits gave up their college in 1974 when Loyola merged with Sir George Williams University.

The Refectory Building became classrooms for Concordia's music department. The Scottish baronial-style brick building, designed by the Montreal architectural firm of Peden McLaren and Murray, features six-metre-high ceilings and sparkling leaded-glass windows. Its new incarnation will house an alumni centre, a lounge, a kitchen with catering facilities and multi-purpose meeting rooms. The project's architect, Jim Donaldson, said he wants to turn the 92-year-old building into "the type of facility where you just go in and you say 'Wow!' and you are overwhelmed by the marriage of contemporary and old." The Jesuit order, more properly known as the Society of Jesus, was founded in 1540 and pioneered groundbreaking teaching methods that challenged medieval scholarship.Today, there are an estimated 20,000 Jesuits worldwide, and more than 300 Jesuit priests in Canada.

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