CLEMSON, S.C.—The under-construction Clemson University Alumni & Visitors Center has topped out, marking a major mile post in its construction, due to be completed later this year.  Brasfield & Gorrie is working on the project at the South Carolina college along with design partners Goodwyn Mills Cawood and Cooper Carry.

This five-story, 98,000-square-foot building will be home to various Clemson institutions, including the Class of 1944 Visitors Center, the Michelin Career Center, alumni association and admissions office.

“Topping out is an exciting time because we get to recognize the people whose skill and hard work make construction projects possible,” Brasfield & Gorrie Vice President and Division Manager Ben Barfield said at the event. “The Alumni & Visitors Center topping-out milestone is particularly special because most of our project team are Tiger alumni.

“What a great feeling and accomplishment for our team to invest in their alma mater and college community.”

Brasfield & Gorrie’s other projects at Clemson University include the Memorial Stadium renovations and Clemson University Women’s Sports Program expansion. The firm has 13 offices in total encompassing 3,500 employees and was ranked by Engineering News-Record as the 21st largest contractor nationwide in 2023.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Engineering will soon have an impressive new home. After years of being housed in multiple locations, the school will relocate to the new Frances and Miller Gorrie Hall, part of the Science and Engineering Complex.

As UAB continues to see tremendous growth, the School of Engineering endeavors to build a facility that will support its goals of attracting faculty, increasing grant funding and training the next generation.

“Gorrie Hall, the new, state-of-the-art home for our School of Engineering will bring greater collaboration, innovation and competitiveness in attracting top students and faculty, as well as increased grant funding for leading-edge research,” said UAB President Ray L. Watts. The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees voted in 2022 to name the building after the Gorries in grateful recognition of the Gorrie family and Brasfield & Gorrie’s longtime efforts to support the university.

“We are grateful to the Gorrie family and to our other partners community- and statewide for helping us build on the excellence of UAB Engineering.”

Architecture and engineering firm Goodwyn Mills Cawood is designing the building, with Lord Aeck Sargent (LAS) serving as the lab and research spaces consultant and Brasfield & Gorrie as general contractor.

The sophisticated technology and design of Gorrie Hall will be on display in prominently featured “showpiece” spaces throughout the nearly 116,000-square-foot facility. These advanced labs, research suites and common areas will form the core of students’ college experiences and the heart of UAB Engineering for years to come.

To ensure that UAB’s diverse student population has every opportunity to thrive, the Student Success Center will be composed of three major components:

Peer Tutoring Lab: The peer tutoring lab provides face-to-face, individualized academic support for all first- and second-year courses, improving retention rates and encouraging successful academic outcomes.

Mentorship Programs: These additional student support systems will offer multiple layers of mentoring — from peers, alumni and local professionals.

Internship and Career Center: This center will provide students with hands-on, real-world experience through a guaranteed internship program while also introducing them to potential employers.

The 2,000-square-foot materials testing lab will house the equipment needed to conduct compression, bending, tensile and impact testing on materials ranging from concrete and steel to gels and foams. This lab will be crucial not only to graduates’ training, but also to efforts to introduce local K-12 students to potential careers in engineering.

Additional features of the building will include research and teaching labs, a design and rapid prototyping lab, transportation and smart cities research suite, student study commons, and outdoor patio.

“Design of science and engineering buildings has changed so much in the last 30-plus years,” said Jeffrey W. Holmes, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the UAB School of Engineering. “This building will allow us to bring the majority of our academic and research efforts together under one roof for the first time. Students, staff and faculty from all our departments will be constantly interacting in the hallways and the offices.”

Construction is expected to be complete in summer 2025.

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BERRY, Ga.—Architect Cooper Carry and general contractor Brasfield & Gorrie Construction jointly worked on the new Animal Science complex at McAllister Hall for Berry College, a school located near the city of Rome, Ga.

The $13 million, 26,500-square-foot animal studies department will offer the latest in scientific technology and focus on such disciplines as genetics, microbiology and physiology. Cross-disciplinary collaboration will be key to the research conducted in the Animal Science complex.

Natural light entering the building via larger-than-usual windows allows for easier wayfinding as well as lessens the need for artificial illumination. Furthermore, the design features exposed circulation and mechanical systems, thereby encouraging students to see an externalization of the holistic approach of biological studies.

On the exterior, the building’s skin features brick with metal panels and articulated fenestrations, meant to lend the structure an agrarian vibe. This also allows the Animal Science building to more seamlessly blend in with the existing McAllister Hall motif. Cooper Carry’s architectural flourishes include a two-story horse leg-inspired column on the facility’s exterior, which is made of stainless steel plates, laminated timber and cable to represent the musculoskeletal structures of the creature. Similarly, various canopies and porches in the building are meant to evoke various other skeletal features of animals that might be studied.

Educational flourishes include a necroscopy lab, lecture hall, teaching laboratories and various other research classrooms.

Tim Fish, principal at Cooper’s Carry’s Higher Education Studio, said in a statement that his company’s job was to “put interaction and collaboration at the heart of our design strategy.”

In a subsequent comment to School Construction News, Fish expanded on this notion and touched upon the importance of sunlight “illuminating” the process of scientific inquiry and discovery.

“Lab spaces and classrooms have an abundance of natural, carefully placed windows from corridors to lab and classroom spaces,” Fish remarked, “helping to further diffuse the light while putting science on display.”

“The animal science major has been a nationally recognized, top-performing program for many years,” Berry College President Steve Briggs recently noted. “We are excited to see how our students will work with faculty in the laboratories and specialized teaching areas to prepare for careers and leadership roles in animal-related industries. We know that great spaces inspire great performances.”

Although Berry College only has 2,100 students, its campus, at 27,000 acres, is in fact the largest of any institution of higher learning in the world.

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BROOKHAVEN, Ga.—When the Fall semester began on Aug. 19, science and business students at Oglethorpe University began attending classes in the newly completed I.W. “Ike” Cousins Center for Science and Innovation (formerly Goslin Hall). Located on the historic quadrangle of the campus, the original, three-story modernist building was reimagined into a union of contemporary innovative architecture and a reflection of the authentically crafted Collegiate Gothic buildings on campus. The new center now hosts laboratory classrooms and spaces for interactive study across numerous disciplines and the university’s newly established Q. William Hammack Jr. School of Business.

Cooper Carry led the design for the nearly 50-year-old building’s exterior and interior renovations as well as its 25,000-square-foot addition, a U-shaped structure wrapping three sides of the original 1971 hall. This approach limited the waste of demolition by reusing the existing structure and also preserves available land on campus for future growth. The redesigned Cousins Center incorporates modern elements such as extensive glass walls to let in light and provide expansive views, multiple new entryways that connect pedestrians from all corners of campus, and enhanced accessibility.

To forge a design that blends the historic with the new, Cooper Carry’s design team translated historic proportions for roof slopes, stone detailing, and windows after analyzing the original hand-drawn blueprints for Lupton Hall, the second-oldest building on campus, which have been preserved by the Atlanta History Center. Many of the innovative contemporary elements such as curtain wall, metal panels and roof overhangs were based on the fundamental proportions of the historic documents discovered by the design team. In addition, slate roofing tiles, granite walls and precast concrete detailing echo the campus’ dominant Collegiate Gothic architecture, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The exterior stone from the original building was also preserved and repurposed as interior walls after the addition was built around it.

“As a new central hub for the campus, the science and business schools provide a unified environment to spark creativity and encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration. This focus on communal innovation and collaboration was a critical component of the design,” remarked Brian Campa, principal at Cooper Carry. “By opening up the old spaces and creating interconnected environments, the Cousins Center puts learning and collaboration on display, capitalizing on the building location to create an important crossroads for students at the heart of the campus.”

The design team recognized the importance of providing ample daylight to maximize energy efficiency, save costs and improve the student experience. Natural light carries throughout the center with glass walls dividing classrooms and interior hallways, also benefitting interdisciplinary communication and interaction.

Inside the center, updated laboratories facilitate active learning with state-of-the-art technology. A new space called “The Garage” features a stage and tiered bleacher seating for events as well as an industrial garage door, which opens to a quad-level outdoor terrace. The operable garage door blends the indoor and outdoor realms, providing another area for students to gather with peers or find pause in nature. Upstairs, a loft space serves as a new incubation lab where students can develop startups or create products, with reservable meeting rooms, teaming furniture and technology for collaboration.

Brasfield & Gorrie, one of the nation’s largest privately held construction firms, ably handled the construction side of the project.

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