Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia will relocate the College of Environment and Design, the Institute for Women’s Studies and the offices of The Georgia Review literary journal to new quarters, university officials announced today.
The College of Environment and Design will move from Caldwell Hall on North Campus into the former visual arts building on Jackson Street. The Institute for Women’s Studies will move from the Benson Building on Lumpkin Street to Gilbert Hall on North Campus in space now occupied by The Georgia Review. The Georgia Review will move to the visual arts building until an off-campus site can be located.
Arnett C. Mace Jr., senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, announced the moves. Mace said renovation of the 70-year-old Benson Building is too costly and it will be razed. The Caldwell Hall space that the College of Environment and Design vacates will go to the Terry College of Business, which already occupies four of the building’s six floors.
The Institute for Women’s Studies will move as soon as The Georgia Review can be relocated to the visual arts building, Mace said. However, the College of Environment and Design probably will not move to visual arts until necessary extensive renovation is completed. In the meantime, the building will be used as temporary space for units displaced by other construction projects, Mace said.
“The visual arts building will be an excellent new home for the College of Environment and Design, but that conversion is a major undertaking that requires long-range planning and preparation,” Mace said. “While that planning is underway, we’re fortunate to have the flexibility to use the building to meet several short-term space needs.”
The 50,985-square-foot visual arts building, which was completed in 1961, housed the Lamar Dodd School of Art until this summer, when most departments of the school moved to a new building on East Campus. A couple of departments that utilize large kilns and other heavy equipment were not moved and will temporarily remain in the building.
The 40,000-square-foot Caldwell Hall, completed in 1981, houses the College of Environment and Design in its top two floors. In addition to offices and classrooms, the space includes studios, research rooms, a library, an art gallery and a lounge.
The building is named for Harmon W. Caldwell, who was president of UGA from 1935-1948 and chancellor of the University System of Georgia from 1948-1964.
Gilbert Hall, completed in 1939, also houses the department of Romance languages and some offices and a computer room for the College of Arts and Sciences. The building is named for Judge Price Gilbert, a generous benefactor to UGA.
