The ATC rant
| Where do I begin? A logical place would be the entrance, the door. Ladies and gentlemen, as part of your tenancy at the ATC, you receive a constant non-functioning door/entrance! I know this sounds too good to be true, but it is. Let me expand on this point a bit....for all the money they spent on this building, they can't get the doors to work properly. I don't know how many times I walk by there, where I see "use other door" or "under construction". It's been 2 years and they haven't figured out a simple "technology" as the door. And that's just the door, there's also a nice piece of work on the Fitzroy entrance sidewalk. Gravel says high tech to me!
So you don't mind the entrance. Ok, no problem. You go into the building to the lobby. I'm snackish. I wouldn't mind some lunch. Hmm.....no cafeteria. In a year of trying to get a service counter in the empty space all they have to show are the vending machines. Again....to me this is a small expense to pay for when you have rent as high as they do. Maybe offer free operating space for a company for the first couple of years of business? Be flexible. It would go a long way. staying on the first floor/basement, we come up to the subject of the high priced/state of the art editing bays. This is great! Prince Edward Island can finally become a world class production community! We can begin learning and producing content for off-island marke.......what's that? It's practically off-limits to the general public? Only big productions in town seem to be using it? So it's quite good at collecting dust then? Well that's money well spent. Offer training programs. Offer deals to local movie productions. Or, just leave it sitting there. And now we come to the rental spaces. You like bland? Well have we got a deal for you! Now don't get me wrong here. Cudos to the Centre for having vast technologies streaming through the building, offering tenants easy access to the world. But, if I wanted to pay that much money for what's basically a small cube, I might as well by a house. I did spend a bit of time in this building, and the major plus was the windows. So I will give credit where credit is due. Vast amounts of light. I just don't know how you go from a nice look on the first floor, to nothingness on the office floors. And last but not least.....and this is a thorn in my side, not only with the ATC, but other areas of government, is the constant shipping of work off of this Island. "ATC! A tech centre for Islanders! We want to bring work to the Island!"......but we'll ship our own jobs off Island. Both the graphic identity of the ATC and their brand-spanking-new website were done by firms in Toronto. Bravo ATC, bravo. So there you have it. And that's just a few items. I didn't even get to the supposed wellness centre that was proposed when the thing was being built. |
Although 2003 didn't bring the riches I was hoping for, I was able to be involved in a terrific project. Living on the Island doesn't bring graphic designer many choice jobs, but last year's Reel Island Film Festival program was a welcome exception.