If you have been part of McGill for as long as Brian Karasick has, you might remember a time when McTavish Street was open to traffic, cars parked along the Y intersection and bike racks were hard to come by.
Karasick played a central role in making McGill’s campuses what they are today, and in bringing about changes, big and small. But after 36 years at McGill, he’s retiring this month. The new Associate Director of Planning and Manager of Space Allocation and Compliance will have big shoes to fill.
“Every time there’s a fire or flood – and we’ve had both – people get displaced, and I found space,” he said. “I’ve worked on projects ranging from the design of a single office to the preparation of a campus master plan.”
Still, he is modest about his role.
“A campus is a microcosm of a city; a living and evolving entity,” said Karasick. “As planning professionals, we are merely its stewards.”
The master planner
Of course, Karasick played an active role in that stewardship.
He remembers the University negotiating with the city of Montreal to get cars off the downtown campus.
“Today it would be encouraged, but that wasn’t always the case!”
He was there when McGill bought three downtown hotels to serve as student residences.
“We went undercover as American investors,” he recalled.
He also helped plead McGill’s case when it asked the city to divert bike traffic and create the University St. bike path.
“We were getting up to 2,000 bikes a day through campus.”
Karasick’s job has also made him the ultimate campus tour guide. He knows all the history, like how the Islamic Studies Library was modelled after Canada’s Library of Parliament; the Davis House meditation room was built as a private chapel for its original owner and the James Administration Building was once the Biology Building (a sculpted frog still sits above the front door).
He also knows the locations of all the tunnels – including ones that don’t belong to the University – reasons for peculiar infrastructure and other unusual elements of McGill’s century-old buildings.
“The Mount Royal rail tunnel actually runs under our campus, along with a number of major water supply lines from the reservoir,” he noted.
There have been plenty of challenges, but Karasick is proud of what he and the team at Campus Planning and Development have accomplished over the years. They’re responsible for responding to emergencies, advancing campus greening initiatives and, in 2019, they released a 180-page master plan meant to guide development of the downtown and Macdonald campuses for the following two decades. It includes sustainability targets, Indigenous representation and pedestrian zones.
“It’s very detailed,” said Karasick.
A future of transformation
So, what does McGill’s future hold?
Karasick says there’s much to be excited about, such as the renovation of the Y-intersection, the construction of the Sylvan Adams Sport Science Institute and the New Vic Project.
“I consider [the New Vic Project] to be the most transformative project of McGill’s modern era,” he said. “Because it’s all about collaboration: three faculties are involved, but no one will own it, and that’s a real game changer. It’s going to revolutionize how we teach and do research.”
He’s looking forward to seeing how the University’s campuses continue to grow and develop, but after more than three decades on the job, retirement beckons, and he can look back with satisfaction.
“It’s been a very positive, enjoyable and rewarding time, and in all those years I have never ever been bored.”