Putting a New Spin on Things: CCTC Advanced Manufacturing Technology Training Center

Putting a New Spin on Things CCTC Advanced Manufacturing Technology Training Center

In a dim chapter in architecture and planning history, the 80’s brought a wave of big-box stores to landscapes across the country.

With brick and block construction, massive fluorescentlit interiors, and asphalt as far as the eye could see, these behemoths filled a niche for a time but, as a cohort, did not age well. When they started to look shoddy, the retailers often decamped to newer, larger, brighter buildings elsewhere and left their sagging buildings behind. These abandoned “ghost boxes” were a painfully visible reminder of community disinvestment as they quietly languished in a sea of empty pavement.

Sumter, SC had one of these ghost boxes. It was a shiny new Walmart, then an outdated Walmart, then home for a while to a bargain-basement retailer who left it full of leaks in the ceiling and creepy mannequin parts in the closets.

Central Carolina Technical College, however, is in the business of nurturing potential.

The college was not dissuaded by the leaks or the mannequins. The team was able to look past a zip code’s worth of asphalt and an uninspiring big box shell and see a new home for their Advanced Manufacturing Technology Training Center. The CCTC team worked with LS3P and Rogers construction to effect a jaw-dropping transformation.

That’s quite a transformation.

How does one even begin to break down a big-box into human-scale spaces?

Chris Stone and his team started by dividing the dim 103,000 SF interior into major avenues. Skylights at each intersection bring natural light deep into the building’s interior. The designers further reduced the sense of scale with a back avenue which functions as a secondary street front inside the building. Carved and re-imagined as high-tech training space, the new interior is humanscale, light-filled, and easy to navigate.

The program includes a large training and applicant space for Continental Tire of the Americas. As a major area employer, Continental’s workforce runs parallel to many of the academic programs in the building such as mechatronics labs, robotics, computer sciences programs, machine tool/CNC, and engineering graphics technology.

welcome to the future

The state-ofthe-art training spaces are geared towards the 21st century skills which will help students to thrive as part of an advanced manufacturing workforce.

Design For the exterior transformation, the team drew from a programmatic inspirations and worked with a series of layers to create a technochic façade with a dramatic entry. The brick and block building envelope was largely preserved, which minimized landfill impacts and demolition.

Working with imagery such as the grinding wheel, the tire tread, and spokes of a wheel, the designers added new layers for dimension, scale, and visual interest. A layer of standing-seam metal panels of alternating size and color recall high-tech bar codes or tire treads. An additional layer, a large-brick wall with subtle tread-like recesses, adds texture and shadow while creating a prominent and visible entry for Continental’s trainees.

“We are bringing opportunity and jobs to this area, and this building will be a part of that.�

SC State Senator Thomas McElveen

At the main entry, the metal panel layer evolves into a dynamic metal rolling form, with perforated aluminum fins canted and rotated to evoke a grinding wheel milling out the entrance and carving out a new life from the old “ghost box� shell.

Techno chic

From “placeless space� to place making Outside, the vast parking lot provided significant challenges in terms of scale, aesthetics, and sustainability. With the landscape design, the team shredded large portions of the asphalt, then created tree-lined avenues and courtyards within the landscape for place making, beauty, shade, storm water management, and clear circulation.

This was no small transformation, and it wasn’t just about the building.

CCTC serves nearly 4,500 students in a four-county area. The new state-of-the-art specialized training space not only benefits the students, but also provides an economic boost for the region with a newly revitalized neighborhood and a highly-skilled workforce.

Reminding us, as always, that design matters.

This is something that is going to change lives for many people. It is going to help the entire region.

Mayor Joe McElveen, Sumter, SC

.COM