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Herty Hall expansion will provide much-needed classrooms, labs
President Dorothy Leland (center) and other officials participated in the ceremonial first shoveling for the expansion of Herty Hall.
he expansion of Herty Hall with a three-story addition along the south wall will add much needed space for the ever-growing science programs at Georgia College. The addition will house laboratories, classrooms and offices for the science department. An accompanying renovation of 45-year-old Herty Hall will allow program expansion for the recently incorporated physics degree. “Providing our students with state-of-the art science facilities and labs with enhance their learning experiences here at Georgia College,” said Georgia College President Dorothy Leland. “These future teachers, doctors, nurses and engineers will benefit from the hands-on laboratory experience and the one-on-one interaction with instructors the addition will offer.” The $3.4 million, 17,000 square-foot addition/renovation will construct laboratory and office space on the first and second floors for students studying biology and environmental sciences. The estimated completion date is August 2010. With the growth of enrollment topping 400 undergraduates, biology is the largest major in The College of Arts and Sciences. Built in 1954 as The Science Hall, the building’s name changed to Charles H. Herty Science Hall in 1956, memorializing the inventor best known for inventing a method to collect tree resin using a metal cap thereby sparing the tree’s life.
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College of Health Sciences celebrates new home he College of Health Sciences Building now houses 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 Dr. Sandra Gangstead, dean of the College of Health Sciences. The $8.7 million renovation united the health sciences programs and was celebrated with a ribbon cutting and open house in October. Widened corridors and updated classrooms better meet the needs of the health sciences programs and their students. Double doors open into a nursing lab complete with a nurses’ sta-
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tion 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. Beveled glass on faculty doors and transoms at the top of doors keep the feel of the original history of 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.”
Georgia College Connection • Spring 2010
Parks Memorial Hall