Spring Break
Dedication held for new Old College
OE MASON
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With fanfare from a 22-piece brass band, the University dedicated the recently renovated Old College building Friday.
University officials marked the 200th anniversary of the building with a dedication ceremony celebrating renovations completed in August.
Old College now will be used by the dean and senior administration of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
"It's an integral part of the master plan as we continue to improve our historic buildings on North Campus," University President Michael Adams said.
The renovations were started in February, and the design and construction of the project cost $2.7 million. Personnel from Franklin College moved into the building in August in time for the start of the fall semester.
Local politicians including Athens-Clarke County Mayor Heidi Davison and Commissioner Tom Chasteen attended the dedication ceremony.
Old College is the oldest building in Athens, said Tom Jackson, vice president for Public Affairs.
He said the building was the largest public building in Georgia at the time of its construction.
The renovations included updating the building to make it accessible for the disabled with ramp access and an elevator.
A modern central heating and air conditioning system also replaces window air conditioning units.
Paul Cassilly, director of the University Architects, said designers took great pains to route the new air conditioning system so that the building's original ceiling heights could be restored.
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He said the University also replaced the windows with new energy efficient double-paned replicas of the original windows.
All three floors now have restrooms. The University replaced carpeting and repainted walls in the building.
Designers tried to preserve the building's floorplan, which probably dates from the 1940s or 1950s, said Scott Messner, campus preservation planner with the University Architects.
But planners added a classroom with updated technology in the east end of the building, a return to the early days of the University when students attended classes in the building.
The building originally was known as Franklin College, and it housed the entire college that later would become the University. Students lived in the building and attended their classes there.
The building's design was patterned after Connecticut Hall at Yale University, Jackson said. He added all the early presidents of the University of Georgia were Yale graduates.
