Petro-Canada donates building

By Markus Andersson

This month’s donation of the Petro-Canada Building, which currently houses the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, represents the second largest donation to the University of Calgary.


The building, constructed in the University Research Park in 1978, has been on lease to the university from Petro-Canada since 1991. The building houses offices for professors, several research labs and classrooms. Calgary-based Petro-Canada, which donated the building, has a history of partner- ship with the university, dating back to the early 1980s.


“We felt that it was the opportune time to generate benefit for the community,” said Allyson Zarowing, Corporate Communication for Petro-Canada.


A wide variety of research takes place at the building, ranging from stealth submarine technology and sour gas pipeline development to spinal testing techniques and work on the space-based Canadarm2.


‘The donation of the building was in the works for some time, but the official announcement took place Thu., Feb 12 with Alberta Energy Minister Murray Smith, Petro-Canada CEO Ron Brenneman and U of C Pres- ident Dr. Harvey Weingarten attending the event. The gath- ering included a short comp- etition using Formula SAE race cars as well as the unveiling of a sculpture created by some of the department’s undergraduate engineering students to comm- emorate the event


“[The donation] allows us to leverage the value of the building when looking for research money,” noted Krysko.


In addition, the university will no longer pay the building’s lease.


“Our partnership [with the university] is very important to us,” said Zarowing when asked if further cooperation would occur between the university and Petro-Canada. “We look forward to continuing that.”