New chancellor to visit GSC; new academic building to be dedicated

GAINESVILLE - The dedication and ribbon-cutting for the new Gainesville State College (GSC) Academic IV Building will be held on Friday, the same day the new University System of Georgia Chancellor makes his first official visit to the school.

The Academic IV Building is 135,000 square feet in size, cost $37.5 million and took approximately two years to complete. The project nearly doubles the instructional space and thereby dramatically improves the College's ability to meet the demands of its students.

From the beginning, President Martha T. Nesbitt described it as "must have building, not a nice to have building."

The building is the new home of the School of Humanities and Fine Arts and the School of Business, Education, Health and Wellness and houses the faculty members from each of these schools as well as additional faculty members from other disciplines.

The ceremony will be held on the Lower Plaza which affords guests a view of all five stories of the beautiful and functional building. In addition to GSC President Martha T. Nesbitt, Georgia's Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, University System of Georgia (USG) Chancellor Hank Huckaby and USG Regent Philip Wilheit are scheduled to take part in the Dedication Ceremony. Faculty, staff and student representatives are scheduled to be part of the program as well.

The five-story structure is designed with two "main entrances," one facing the interior campus from the third floor level and the other entrance, on the first level, facing the green space to the north. The two wings are joined by an open glazed five story lobby space which gives a clear understanding of the special organization and circulation inside. The building includes 24 general classrooms, 12 instructional labs, specialty labs for foreign languages and media production (including a soundstage), a 48 seat ACTT (Academic Computing Tutoring and Testing) Center, conference rooms and a 260 seat multipurpose dividable room.

The building has a number of sustainable and energy saving features both inside and outside.

Lyman Davidson Dooley, Inc. and Flynn