First Peoples' Gathering House Timeline

First Peoples' Gathering House Objectives

• Create a shared gathering/social space for Indigenous students, staff and community
• Welcome Indigenous peoples from around the world
• Promote greater understanding of Indigenous Peoples and culture among the SFU community
• Provide an additional space for Indigenous Elders not housed in the Indigenous Student Centre
• Provide a place for Indigenous and campus-wide cultural events, workshops and celebrations  
• Encourage more Indigenous students to pursue post-secondary education, and
• Demonstrate recognition and respect for Indigenous peoples’ contribution, culture, history and knowledge.
  

Building Committee

The purpose of the Building Committee is to provide executive direction and general oversight to ensure the project fulfills the Project Charter mandate, commitments to all funding partners and is completed within the approved budget and schedule.

Membership and Operations

The Committee is composed of the following:

• Vice President, External – Committee Co-Chair, Project Sponsor Joanne Curry 
• Associate Vice President, External – Committee Co-Chair, Sobhana Jaya-Madhavan
• Director of the Office of Aboriginal Peoples (OAP) – Committee Co-Chair Ron Johnston
• Representative, Indigenous Studies Eldon Yellowhorn
• Associate Vice-President, Facilities and Campus Planning - Jennifer Sanguinetti
• Representative from the Indigenous Student Centre – Kaylena Ryan

Resource Persons to the Committee consists of:

• Director, Campus Planning & Development – James Meschino
• Associate Director - Paul Cowcher
• Project Manager - Ilya Nepogodin
• Prime Consultant Architect Ouri Scott, Urban Arts Architecture
• University personnel including Finance, Procurement, IT, Facilities, Risk Management, Sustainability, etc.

For more information, please refer to the terms of reference. 

Stakeholder Group Committee

The Committee is composed of:

• Ouri Scott, co-chair, Urban Arts Architecture
• Kaylena Ryan, co-chair, ISC
• Jeannie Morgan, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Studies
• Ron Johnston representing OAP
• Kaylena Ryan representing Indigenous Student Centre
• Kali Stierle, FNMISA representative
• Audrey Heath, ISSU representative
• Julie Seal, Indigenous student representative 2

For more information, please refer to the terms of reference.

Request for Proposals

SFU posted a Request for Proposals (RFP) in May 2020 to seek prospective proponents to submit proposals for the provision of architect/prime consultant services for the Gathering House. The Prime Consultant’s Design Team provides architectural services, sub-consultants including landscape consultant, structural and mechanical engineers. The successful proponent chosen was Urban Arts Architecture Inc.

The full Request for Proposals includes the evaluation scoring of proposals and contract of services and can be read at Architect/Prime Consult Services Report.

SFU posted an RFP in October 2020 to engage a construction manager. The successful proponent is Scott Construction Ltd.  

SFU posted an RFP in October 2023 to engage with Indigenous carving artists for one of four house posts for the First Peoples' Gathering House.