The new $43.6 million Student Learning Center—the largest capital project ever undertaken by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents—has brought dramatic change to both the Classic City skyline and academic life at UGA
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  SLC's most striking feature is the sheer size of the 200,000-square-foot, Georgian-style building. Those columns are 45 feet high with two of the three 300-seat classrooms located at the corners.   Semi-circular configurations make even large classrooms seem almost intimate.  These students are working in an actual computer learning lab, but SLC is crammed full of carrels with PCs and hookups for laptops.  The 96 group study rooms were extremely popular from day one. When they run out of space on dry-erase boards, some students have continued writing on the window.  The rotunda in the north tower.  Left: In homage to the buiding's library functions—most of which are electronic—SLC contains a beautiful wood-paneled reading room with a collection of books. Right: Why study in your room when the PC stations come equipped with a flat plasma monitor and a photo scanner?   Rivalling the Tate Center as the focal point of student life, SLC has a constant population of 1,000 to 1,500 students during peak study hours. "You can't blame them," says Honors student Reggie Williamson, an SLC security guard who has to count noses every hour. "The building is huge and open, it has a fast Internet connection, it's open as late as the bars, and the best thing is the group study rooms. They have soundproof walls, so you can hold meetings, plan group projects—and you can bring a sandwich with you and eat it right there in the study room!"  Rising above the trees at the bottom of Baxter Hill, SLC is particularly handy for students who live in residence halls. If you don't need all the capabilities of the Main Library, studying at SLC means not having to walk another block to Baldwin and then up that steep hill to North Campus.  "I don't like to study past midnight, but lots of people do" says seniuor Elizabeth Nathan, who notes that it's much easier to get a seat at the Main Library now that SLC is open.  |
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 rchitecture can have a profound effect on the way human beings think, feel, and behave. The ancient Greeks were acutely aware of this, as were the architects who designed UGA's new $43.6 million Student Learning Center that rises majestically into the Classic City skyline at the intersection of Lumpkin and Baxter.
"It's a grand building . . . stunning to look at and an exciting, happening place for students," says UGA's vice president for instruction, Del Dunn, who adds: "It's going to have a dramatic effect on academic life at the University of Georgia." With an assortment of large and small high-tech classrooms, extensive electronic library connectivity, 96 group study rooms, numerous one- and two-person carrels, PCs and laptop plug-ins everywhere—plus a coffee house with an open-air balcony—the four-story, 200,000-square-foot Student Learning Center could very well make studying in one's room obsolete. "We already have terrific students, but we think the Student Learning Center is going to make studying even more fashionable at UGA." In the planning stages since 1996, when long-standing shortages in classroom and library seating space reached the critical stage, SLC is the largest capital project undertaken by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents. "It's a combination classroom building and library—a true learning center with 2,400 classroom seats and 2,400 library seats," says university librarian Bill Potter. "Faculty have prep rooms with lockers and carrels where they can work. And students appreciate the fact that they can walk out of class and straight into a group study room." The building is open till 2 a.m.—two hours later than the Main Library. Classroom shades can be raised and lowered at the push of a button, and large windows provide breathtaking views of campus. "We already have terrific students," says Dunn, "but we think the Student Learning Center is going to make studying even more fashionable at UGA." "The first time they see it—from a distance coming down Baxter Hill or up close when they walk up the front steps—some people find the new Student Learning Center overwhelming. But when you see how the interior space is designed in a variety of user-friendly configurations, I think we've hit a home run."
"We got a good price—$154 a square foot," says Potter, who appreciates what architects do because his father was one. "Gauging the quality of the building as a whole, we invested in materials and furnishings that will last for generations." "We're making great strides on the Physical Master Plan with the Baxter Street Esplanade, the greening of Herty Field and Brooks Mall, and the new steps and terracing on Baldwin Street. The Student Learning Center makes its contribution to our pedestrian-friendly campus with attractive landscaping and an outdoor amphitheater."
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onceived when the '96 Atlanta Olympics was still fresh in people's minds, moved to No. 1 on the state's capital projects list by then-Gov. Zell Miller (AB '57, MA '59), and constructed during the tenure of President Michael F. Adams, the Student Learning Center benefitted from years of careful planning and budgeting—from an upgrade to a slate roof, to the beautiful cherry paneling and Moser furniture that Bill Potter and Paul Cassily, assistant director of campus architects, favored.
aculty have already coined a nickname for the new Student Learning Center: "The Taj Mah-Teach." Makes sense, says Del Dunn, when you consider the expanded teaching-and-learning capabilities of SLC's multi-media classrooms: "There are places on campus—like Baldwin Hall, where political science is located—where the faculty not only can't show DVDs, they have to wheel a portable VCR into the room to show a video. Or lecture hall 404E in chemistry, where there's no way an instructor can see all the way to the back of the room. Whereas, SLC classrooms were designed with DVDs and PowerPoint presentations in mind. With regard to size, even the 300-seat classrooms feel almost intimate because of the configuration of the seats. It's a remarkable addition to the University."