UNCG Holds Groundbreaking for Two Buildings

Chancellor Patricia A. Sullivan leads the March 24 groundbreaking. She is flanked by (l-r) Provost A. Edward Uprichard, student Erin Ozer and Dean Timothy D. Johnston. Photo by University Photographer Chris English

“Excitement and promise are in the air as we take the next step in the bold transformation of the campus,” Chancellor Patricia A. Sullivan told about 150 people who attended the ceremony. “… When these buildings open we will provide a learning environment that matches the excellence of our faculty and students.”

The $16.6 million Studio Arts Center, located behind the Graham Building on the highest point on campus, will be the new home for the Department of Art in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Interior Architecture in the School of Human Environmental Sciences. With large windows throughout, it will include classrooms, design studios, a foundry, a ceramics studio, an art gallery and an outdoor sculpture garden.

The site strengthens the southeast corner of the campus as the area of design and art education. “Student learning and creativity will be enhanced by the proximity to the Weatherspoon Museum,” student Erin Ozer said during the groundbreaking program.

The university expects to complete the 99,000-square-foot building by summer 2006.

The main entrance of the Studio Arts Center on Highland Avenue will be a two-story space opening into a gallery. The uppermost studio level will feature exposed wood trusses and a wood ceiling.

The $16.9 million Hall for Humanities and Research Administration will house five departments – classical studies; English; German, Russian and Japanese studies; history; and Romance languages – and provide space for externally funded research and research administration. After Park Gymnasium is demolished, the building will rise at the corner of Spring Garden and Forest streets. It is slated for completion by summer 2006.

The three-story, 86,000-square-foot brick building was designed to complement the historic character of the campus. The primary entrance to the building on Spring Garden Street will be highlighted by a three-story glass cylinder framed in cast stone. A sloped, standing-seam, zinc roof will top the building.

For 40 years, these five departments have occupied the McIver Building. The new building will provide attractive and functional teaching and office space, as well as the latest audiovisual/digital projection equipment and network connections. It will make UNCG a more popular destination for faculty and students.

“Facilities like the Hall for Humanities and Research Administration and the Studio Arts Center play an enormous role in the recruitment of faculty and students,” said Timothy D. Johnston, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“The most important features of the new building will be better classroom acoustics and bigger faculty offices,” said Denise Baker, Department of English head. “We’re thrilled to be leaving the dungeon-like McIver for a light and airy new building.”

The amount of research at UNCG has increased dramatically in recent years. The amount of grants and contracts for research has increased from $18.2 million in 1998 to $30.7 million in 2003, an increase of almost 70 percent. The new building will provide modern office space for both externally funded research projects and the administration of research at UNCG.

“The offices associated with research administration are scattered across campus,” said Associate Provost for Research Rosemary Wander. “The new building will put them at the same location.

“This will dramatically increase the efficiency with which the research administration is managed, a feature that is important to the increased research activity at UNCG.”

The Office of Research including the administrative suites for Wander; the Office of Sponsored Programs; the Office of Technology Transfer; the Office of Research Compliance; the Office of Contracts and Grants; the Center for Youth, Family and Community Partnerships; and the Institute for Health, Science and Society will be located in the new facility.

Both buildings will be paid for with UNCG's $160 million share of the $3.1 billion N.C. Higher Education Bonds that the state's voters approved in November 2000. The bonds demonstrated the state’s commitment to higher education, N.C. Sen. Kay Hagan said during the ceremony.

“We in North Carolina are the envy of the nation for what we did back in 2000,” Hagan said.