I think there may not be much info/opinions about it from this forum; architecture schools (both accredited and not) are incredibly numerous in the US - compared to Canada's 11 and soon to be 12th. Being that this seems to be a predominantly American forum, the opening of a new school probably doesn't have the same effect that it would have to a Canadian group, just because it seems to be a more often occurance there.

Personally, I'm a little hesitant about the amount of "inspiraton" one might find in Sudbury. However, the opportunity to start in the first wave of a brand new school would be pretty interesting. It could also address a great niche in architecture for the Canadian North - something I doubt is covered very often in the rest of Canada's schools.

I think this is good idea if they keep the school small and intimate.  Likewise, it'll be interesting to see new design research perhaps focused on the north, and to see how the school distinguishes itself further from the others. 

I lived in Sudbury for around 8 years. I went to a few conferences showing plans for both the curriculum and physical space of the school and was pleasantly surprised to see that Yale had submitted a proposal in the design competition. Yale's plan was fantastic and really addressed a lot of concerns about Sudbury's spacing issues. The winning proposal was from a Brazilian school that still had a great concept, but I think it was harder for them to contextualize. In any case, the winning proposal was eventually scrapped and the school is now being designed by Levitt Goodman; whether or not that's a good thing is still to come. 

My main point should be, though, that the school will open before the permanent space is complete. I've been told that an ephemeral campus will be held downtown for the first year. This concerns me because the space in question is not at all adequate. You could certainly insert studio space, classrooms , etc, but lecture theatres are not possible and there's no word on the first semester's intake. Another concern is that this temporary campus will be held at least 5km from the main Laurentian campus. If the school insists on broadening units, it will become very tedious for arch students to travel back and forth from campuses; Sudbury's transit system is absolutely horrible. With regard to a workshop space for cutting, welding, 3D etc, I have absolutely no idea where they plan on housing that sort of equipment.

As far as the curriculum is concerned, we'll just have to wait and see. If it's anything like the rest of Sudbury, the school will be very conservative and I doubt it'd come to compete with the likes of Waterloo in a while. I do agree that the school should remain small. Being selective with the intake will serve them well.

This all sounds very pessimistic but it's hard to be anything other when it comes Sudbury. I considered waiting around for the school to begin but am now very glad I left.

Hopefully there can be some sort of discourse about this school on Archinect. The individual most involved with the school, Kate, seems like a forward-thinking individual. 

"Yale's plan was fantastic and really addressed a lot of concerns about Sudbury's spacing issues".  interesting.

Who is kate? Where is she from?

Curious about this above mentioned design competition I found this on flicker with images of all the entries. I'm perplexed that it's only students that entered, it wasn't a student competition.  the Yale concept is the most interesting, turn all of downtown Sudbury into a giant architecture school campus. saturate the downtown with architecture schooling.   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurentianarchitecture/

From what i've found out it looks like they want to repeat what was at done for Waterloo's new building in Cambridge, rehabing an old building downtown, they even hired the same architects to do it.