Spring 2003

Volume 6 Number 2
A publication of Macon State College

Building Success

A second-floor entrance to Phase I of a professional science complex features a glass-topped atrium. Photo by Bruce Radcliffe

Macon State's new Warner Robins Campus is well on its way to completion, while the College's new professional sciences complex begins to take shape.

By Renee Pearman

Talk about a room with a view. From the third floor of what will be Phase I of a professional sciences complex at Macon State College, you get a panorama of the campus lake, the surrounding flora and fauna, and the eye-catching Student Life Center, which peeks from behind the pines.

Of course, to be standing on the third floor at this stage of construction means you must be wearing a hard hat and fighting any fear of heights. But just wait until this time next year.

“I’ve never seen a building like this,” said MSC President David A. Bell. “Simply put, it’s going to be spectacular. This project has been in the works since 1997. We’re fortunate that its completion will coincide with the expansion of our nursing program.”

The first of two academic buildings that will comprise a nursing, health sciences and outreach complex should be completed early in 2004, according to David Sims, director of Plant Operations at Macon State. It will be the College’s first three-story structure.

Phase I, with a price tag of $16.2 million, was designed by John Portman & Associates, an architectural firm in Atlanta that has received worldwide recognition for its distinctive work in mixed-use urban complexes and collegiate campus environments.

Its distinguishing features include a glass-topped atrium, barrel-vaulted standing seam metal roof and glass curtain wall overlooking the campus lake. The 76,000-square-foot building will be completely prepared for information technology and distance learning, Sims said.

Preservation of the architectural features of the Thomas School, such as these windows, are part of its renovation. Photo by Bruce Radcliffe

Phase I will be home to the Division of Nursing and Health Sciences and the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

“Offices, classrooms and labs for Natural Sciences and Math will occupy the third floor,” Sims said. “On the second floor will be the health sciences programs, including health information technology, health information management, health services administration and respiratory therapy. A lecture hall, as well as nursing classrooms and state-of-the-art labs, will be on the first floor.”

The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents has appointed the renowned architectural firm Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates (TVS) in Atlanta to design the 100,000-square-foot Phase II, which has an estimated cost of $21.3 million and is 10th on the Regents’ capital construction priority list. The academic divisions of Information Technology and Business will move to Phase II, which also will have a conference center, according to Sims.

Warner Robins Campus

More Macon State construction goes on 20 miles from the site of Phase I.

On Watson Boulevard, between the Nola Brantley Memorial Library and the Robins Federal Credit Union, is Macon State’s new Warner Robins Campus, which will open in time for fall classes. “We’re on schedule, and everything is going very well,” Sims said.

Workers have completed the frame of the 24,000-square-foot, two-story annex located directly behind the Charles Thomas School, which is undergoing major renovations.

The renovation and modernization of the Thomas School and construction of the annex, designed by SP Design Group, began last spring. The 58-year-old Thomas School, located a half-mile from Robins Air Force Base, was purchased by the Warner Robins City Council and donated to the Board of Regents for use as a college campus. Last year, State Rep. Larry Walker of Perry helped secure a $5 million appropriation for the Warner Robins Campus project from the Georgia General Assembly.

The new Warner Robins Campus includes the Thomas School and a two-story annex, shown here under construction, located directly behind it. Photo by Bruce Radcliffe

“The Thomas School is one of the oldest buildings in Warner Robins,” Sims said. “In our rehabilitation of the school, we’re following the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s standards for treatment of historic properties. Throughout the project, we’ve had wonderful support from Mayor Donald Walker, the Warner Robins City Council and the entire community.”

The original Thomas building will house classrooms, information technology labs, and some faculty offices while the annex will include technology-driven “smart” classrooms, administrative and faculty offices, a multimedia lecture hall, a conference room and a student lounge/study area.

Students have been attending Macon State classes in Houston County since 1970, when the University System opened the Robins Resident Center at Robins AFB. The new Warner Robins Campus is Macon State’s first permanent campus in Houston County.

“This is just the beginning,” Bell said, referring to the new campus, which will have triple the space of the College’s 12-year- old Warner Robins Center in the Advanced Technology Park off Houston Lake Road. “Macon State’s expansion in Houston County is what Houston County deserves.”

Houston County residents comprised more than 26 percent of MSC’s fall 2002 enrollment, while military and out-of-state students, the majority of whom are connected to Robins AFB, made up another 14 percent. The combined enrollment at the Warner Robins Center and Robins Resident Center last fall was more than 1,500.

Macon Campus Master Plan

Back in Macon, the geese and ducks nesting around the campus lake appear not to be disturbed by the constant noise of bulldozers and tractors. In fact, construction equipment has been part of the Macon State landscape since the mid-1990s.

The original campus, which opened in 1968, included six buildings totaling 133,400 square feet.

Geese do not seem to be disturbed by noises from the construction site across the MSC campus lake. Phase I of a professional sciences complex will be the College’s first three-story structure. Photo by Bruce Radcliffe

Within a few years, another academic building, an auditorium and a gymnasium were completed. In 1995, the Humanities and Social Sciences building and the Arts Complex and Theatre opened. Three years later, work started on the 75,400-square-foot, two-story Student Life Center. One year after the Student Life Center opened in 2000, a campus road project got underway, and that was followed by the groundbreaking for Phase I of a professional sciences complex. With the addition of these buildings, the original campus facilities nearly doubled in size.

The physical growth of the campus has been part of Macon State’s master plan, which included building new academic and other facilities, reconfiguring roads and pedestrian pathways, and shaping well-defined east and west campus areas.

Several years ago, the Board of Regents required Georgia’s 34 public colleges and universities to devise physical master plans to help them determine what kinds of facilities and other infrastructure they need to support their academic missions.

“The master plan is a sketch of the campus of the future,” Bell said when the College’s plan was being developed. “Our task is to build on what we have to create a modern, warm, inviting campus that students and faculty find engaging and is more conducive to learning.”

With the development of Phase I on the west side of the campus comes a new 200-space parking area, additional lighting and landscaping, and a pedestrian plaza leading from the Library to the latest building.

Scenic Route

One of two new MSC signs was located at Columbus Road entrance, which reconfigured to align with Interstate Parkway. Photo by Bruce Radcliffe

Other projects include new signage and road improvements.

The Eisenhower Parkway and Columbus Road entrances to the College are now more clearly marked by 10-foot lighted signs mounted on brick pedestals. The blue and white signs featuring the MSC logo were designed by Bob Brown of the Macon architectural firm Brittain, Thompson, Bray, Brown Inc. Also, intersection signs better direct students and visitors to east and west campus buildings and parking areas.

“The new double-sided entrance signs are not only more attractive but can be seen by people traveling both east and west on Eisenhower Parkway and Columbus Road,” Sims said. “The signs they replaced were brick with aluminum lettering on one side only, which means they could only be seen by west-bound travelers on either road.”

And finally, a $1.2 million campus road project — funded by the Macon-Bibb County Road Improvement Program, the Georgia Department of Transportation and Macon State College — was completed last fall. Moreland Altobelli and Associates Inc. managed the project for Macon-Bibb County.

The reconfiguration of College Station Drive, which is a county road, not only improved the traffic flow in and around the campus but also changed and renovated the Eisenhower Parkway and Columbus Road entrances to the campus, provided a loop road for east-to-west access and added curbing.

“The Eisenhower entrance was shifted a short distance to the west, plus a median was added, and we created two lanes entering and two lanes exiting,” Sims said. “The original entrance from Columbus Road was just beyond the I-475 overpass, which made it hard to see west-bound traffic coming from the bridge. That entrance is now aligned with Interstate Parkway.”

Improved roads, enhanced signs, new buildings. What’s next? Stay tuned.