GCSU Cuts Ribbon on New Building

Local and state officials gathered at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville on Friday, Oct. 16, to cut the ribbon on the new College of Health Sciences Building. Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission provided project and construction management on the $8.7 million project, which renovated a historic building into an instructional building with specialty labs, classrooms and faculty offices for nursing, music therapy and kinesiology students.

Students enter the recently renovated building through the beautiful facade of the main entrance. “The outside facade is very much historically accurate, and that is important to the goals of our campus,” said Sandra Gangstead, Dean of the College of Health Sciences.

To preserve the historic integrity of the 73-year-old building the windows received special treatment. “The original windows were transported offsite for refurbishment and brought back and reinstalled,” said Mark Bowen, GeorgiaCollege project manager.

The project, completed last spring, unites the health sciences programs. Widened corridors and updated classrooms better meet the needs of the health sciences programs and their students.  Construction workers removed the first-floor pool and excavated the space creating a second floor. Double doors open into a nursing lab complete with a nurses’ station and 30 hospital beds. Music therapy offices and classrooms have replaced outdated locker rooms. Wide corridors have replaced the former second floor maze. And the third floor’s former gymnasium has been incorporated into the current design. The original hardwood flooring has been repaired and maintained to provide a welcome contrast to the carpeted first two floors.

Faculty offices on the third floor provide students easy access to professors and room for the programs to expand. Additional administrative and faculty offices are located in sister building Parks Memorial Hall, also newly renovated.

Beveled glass on faculty doors and transoms at the top of doors keep the feel of the original history in Parks Memorial Hall. Originally the infirmary of the college, the building now offers health sciences spaces.

“We wanted to be sensitive to the importance of these facilities to our university,” said Gangstead. “We also wanted to be sensitive to the importance of the professions.”

GSFIC Construction Management Team
Project Manager – Andrew Morton
Project Executive – Ann Littlejohn
Contract Compliance Specialist – Chris Bell
Regional Quality Assurance Manager – DonCenters
Design Manager – Ronald Kern