Facilities

Brenau’s strategic plan, together with our facilities master plan, envisions using inspirational living and learning environments to promote positive experiences across the university . Our strategy to reconceptualize living and learning spaces couldn’t be more fundamentally represented than our exciting changes around the square in Gainesville .

Brenau University is expanding its footprint in downtown Gainesville to coalesce into a true downtown campus location focused on health sciences, including the revitalization of the former Georgia Mountains Center and the addition of the Gainesville Renaissance . While we’ve all become used to referring just to Brenau’s Downtown Center, we like the sound of Brenau’s Downtown Campus even better .

In spring 2022, the Lynn J . Darby School of Psychology and Adolescent Counseling at Brenau University moved into its home on the second floor of the Gainesville Renaissance, one of the downtown area’s newest buildings . The move from Brenau’s historic Gainesville campus will facilitate expansion of the school’s counseling clinic and academic programs . The growth of our psychology program, driven by the nationwide mental health crisis, has been funded through the generosity of Doug and Kay Ivester and is energized by the involvement of their friend and the school’s namesake, Lynn Darby .

Brenau also has invested more than $1 .95 million for exterior construction of the Downtown Center facility to create a new, easily accessible main entrance and improvements at various entrances . The enhancements will visually and architecturally connect the two buildings, allowing for a new downtown Gainesville campus location to truly take shape .

Major facilities projects were undertaken all across our campuses, from the refurbishment of the Wheeler House — home of our admissions efforts — to a refresh of Norcross location interiors, to exterior work on the Parklane Apartments .

We’re excited to have new spaces and thankful to the donors who made them possible, but it’s not just a physical space that will bring about positive experiences . We’re also committed to becoming a national leader in innovative and engaging teaching and learning, and in fall 2022 we launched the Center for Teaching and Learning at Brenau . Established through the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan, the center will work with faculty and staff to prepare students for a lifetime of successful collaboration with those from other cultures in our increasingly global society . We recognize the importance of evidence-based, high-impact teaching practices, so the center also will offer professional development for all faculty in the scholarship of teaching and learning .