Students can find PokéStops at each George Brown campus
For adventurous George Brown College (GBC) students, Pokémon GO can provide experiences beyond hatching an egg during break or encountering yet another Pidgey. The app’s many PokéStops, or game item pick up points, are an opportunity to discover the sights surrounding each campus.
For one George Brown student, the PokéStops have already provided a means to explore the city. “I’m new to Toronto, and I got to know a few places. I haven’t been to Casa Loma before Pokémon GO to be frank,” said Manish Shinde, a postgraduate student in information systems business analysis.
Building E’s entrance serves as the GBC PokéStop for Casa Loma Campus. While the owl overlooking Casa Loma Child Care Centre continues to keep watch, the George Brown Moose was not so lucky. Some aspiring Pokémon trainers may have taken the “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” tagline a little too seriously, given how the moose has been absent from its post since mid-July.
As is to be expected, the campus’ namesake landmark receives its fair share of attention. The gate and gardens serve as PokéStops of their own, while Casa Loma itself is a gym where players battle for control in a king-of-the-hill fashion.
“I just came here six months ago (and) I didn’t know Casa Loma was such a nice place. I actually went to that place, played Pokémon, caught some, then went inside and saw it,” said Shinde.
The PokéStop for St. James Campus is appropriately centred on the main entrance plaque celebrating George Brown. Marked with sites such as the James Beaty Statue and Imperial Bank of Canada, the area’s designated locations could easily pass as a historic walking tour. To the west, St. James Park is home to four separate stops, including one for the plaque of Francis Collins, Canada’s first professional parliamentary debates reporter.
Unlike Casa Loma and St. James, Waterfront Campus does not feature its own designated GBC PokéStop. In its place is the Tree of Life, an acrylic sculpture found in the lobby and designed by Luigi Ferrara, dean of George Brown’s centre for arts, design and information technology.
Waterfront lends itself to a PokéStop mixture of leisure and artistic expression. Public art projects Troika’s Shoal and David Trautrimas’ Sweet Sediment, each located in the Corus Quay building next door, co-exist alongside Canada’s Sugar Beach and the Sherbourne Common.
