The Fields Institute Turns Twenty-Five 170725 Final book with covers | Page 35

Where it All Began
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the initial physical facilities and bringing on and training an
excellent new staff for the enterprise—in time for the first
research program.
Before long Sandra Valeriote joined us as Executive
Assistant to Jerry and me. She and Sue bore the brunt
of the huge load during the site selection process and the
construction of the building. Nobody could possibly thank
the initial Institute staff members enough.
Notes on the Site Selection Competition
and the Building
As it is the anniversary of the official opening that will be
celebrated this year, I will leave an account of the competition
to provide a permanent site and my final grand project,
the construction of the Fields Institute building, for a later
date. The transition from space first offered, which the
Fields Committee considered inadequate, to the creation of
the current home of the Institute involved an epic battle.
As Jerry Marsden noted in the Tenth Anniversary
Celebration, he and I were determined to secure the best
possible home for the Institute and decided that a true
competition was essential. That meant that both of us
had to remain strictly neutral throughout the process. We
were fortunate to have a distinguished group of people who
volunteered their time to the site selection process. The
competition produced many excellent offers and what must
have been a difficult decision for the Selection Committee.
The University of Toronto was the eventual winner, in spite
of, rather than because of, its proposal for physical facilities.
The University’s ability to improve upon its original offer to
one for a new building designed for the Institute’s needs was
only the beginning of a long and very difficult process.
I do, however, want to correct one uninformed assertion