Master Plan Steering Committee Meeting Summary - 04/16/09

Attendees:

Steering Committee Members:
Mr. Ray Calvert
Mr. Rodney Clements
Ms. LaVerne Cooper
Mr. Duane Harris
Dr. Valerie Hepburn
Mr. Mike Hodges
Ms. Pat Hodnett-Cooper
Ms. Diana Murphy
Mr. Floyd Phoenix
Ms. Jessica Ramirez
Mr. Tom Saunders
Mr. Ray Snow
Mayor Bryan Thompson
Dr. Andrea Wallace
Mr. Tony Wege

Absent:
Mr. Ashton Stripling
Mr. David Zimmerman
Ms. Cynthia Atwood

Ex-Officio:
Regent James Bishop
Mr. Gary Colberg
Director Connie Patrick

CCGA Staff:
Mr. Gary Strickland

Eva Klein Associates:
Mr. Joe Carter
Ms. Sarah Freidel
Ms. Eva Klein
Mr. Aaron Schwarz

Meeting Summary:

Greetings and Updates:

1. Dr. Hepburn introduced CCGA’s three new Vice Presidents who are guests at today’s meeting: Dr. Phil Mason, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Jim Lynch, Director of Institutional Research, and Dr. Jerry Kiel, Vice President for Student Affairs.
2. Feedback on the Master Plan has been mostly positive at the 22 public presentations Dr. Hepburn conducted in the community.
3. Dr. Hepburn shared the good news that there has been an increase in the state budget allotment to initiate the immediate campus projects identified in the Master Plan.
4. Relevant parties from the Board of Regents were supportive of the college’s residential funding options thus confirming their commitment to enrollment growth.
5. The legislature has approved funding for the new Health and Science Building.
6. Business After Hours was a success with the College hosting approximately 300 guests.
7. Mr. Reg Murphy chaired the first official meeting of the Athletic Futures Committee.
8. WI-FI will be installed throughout the entire campus. The cost will be about $180,000 which will be paid from student tech fees.
9. The Compton Lecture was the most successful one to date. It was the first held on campus and Mr. Pete Correll was praised by faculty, staff, students and community members.

Space Capacity Analysis (Space Need Projections Handout) Review and Discussion –
Eva Klein

A. Space Capacity Analysis Summary (information in handout)

1. CCGA needs to grow from a little less than 200,000 Net Assignable Square Feet (NASF) in baseline 2010 to about 450,000 NASF by 2020.
2. At Endgame the College would need to grow to about 930,000 NASF. With the Community Arts Center and Central Plant included, the total would be in the range of 1 million NASF (or 1.5 million Gross Square Feet).
3. CCGA needs its Capital Projects Plan and Capital Investment Program to have achieved about 63,000 new NASF of education and general space and 189,000 new NASF of residential space in addition to the Community Arts Center and the Central Plant facility.
4. Only one building, the existing Student Center, is scheduled for demolition.

B. Summary by Space Types

1. Instruction will require a space distribution as follows: 60% General Classroom, 15% Low Intensity Labs and 25% High Intensity Labs.
2. Total existing instructional space of all three types is sufficient to serve the 3,000 headcount enrollment expected in 2010.
3. Total office space on campus is roughly adequate at present.
4. Converting the present Science Building into a Faculty Office Center should provide 100 – 115 faculty offices. That number would be enough to reach 2015.
5. It may prove wise to renovate existing buildings to meet growing office needs and to focus on new instructional space in constructing new buildings.
6. It seems unlikely that a library expansion will be needed although a renovation certainly will be (2019).
7. Conversion of the Applied Tech Building into a temporary Student Center resolves the large immediate deficit of Student Life/Campus Life space in Baseline 2010. The deficit of this space type will grow with enrollment.
8. When a new Student Center is built, its space will need to exceed the then existing quantitative requirement in order to accommodate future growth. A new Campus Center is currently estimated at 60,000 GSF.
9. Residential space on the campus is likely to be a mix of suite-style and semi-suite style. 300 beds will be added immediately, to open in Fall 2011. There will be a total of 900 on-campus beds by 2020 and at “Endgame” there will be 2,000 beds.

Master Plan Design Review – Aaron Schwarz

A. 2020 Vision

1. The vision for 2020 includes 16 new buildings, renovations of 6 existing buildings, 900 residential beds and the addition of close to 2,000 parking spaces.
2. A formal quadrangle area will be created in the core and landscaping will be reworked.
3. Consideration will be given not only to building around the lake but to increasing the water features resulting in enlargement of the lake.

B. Endgame

1. Although Endgame figures are 10,000 students and 2,000 residential beds, most of the campus property will not be disturbed.
2. Dormitories will continue to be built on this side of campus.
3. Academics will be increased to the north.
4. Buildings will be relatively low scaled (2 – 3 stories).
5. Construction of a parking garage will have to be considered if no public transportation system exists.
6. The committee unanimously agreed that the Master Plan document needs to show accessibility to both the health system and Brunswick High School. Water mains, fire hydrants, bicycle lanes, walking paths and accessibility for fire engines also needs to be visible on the plan.

Capital Projects Plan and Capital Investment Program:

A. Four Categories of Needs

1. There are 4 broad categories of capital needs. They are capacity, condition and functionality, special purpose facilities, and infrastructure general campus features.

B. Projects: 3 Phases; Project Sequence; Cost Estimates; and Financing Concepts

1. For CCGA, capital projects in the Plan are coded as new, renovations (4 levels), and campus which includes infrastructure and campus features.
2. Mr. Carter identified different funding sources including State General Obligation Bonds, General Fund Appropriations, Revenue Bonds including Public/Private Ventures (PPV), the Georgia Higher Education Facilities Authority (GHEFA), partnerships, and donor support.
3. The project sequencing outlined on the handout corresponds to the college’s mission change, program development, growth requirements, infrastructure requirements and renovation/modernization/use conversion requirements.
4. The projected costs are in order of magnitude estimates of construction costs. They include allowances for project-related soft costs like soil testing, surveying etc. Estimates also reflect allowances for inflation to projected bid dates.
5. Projects 1 – 7 (see chart in packet) are urgent and pipeline projects with expected completion dates prior to 2011.
6. Most of the Applied Tech Building renovation will be completed by Fall 2009 except for the bookstore which will be completed by January 2010 or shortly after.
7. It may be beneficial to prepare a summary of changes for students entering or returning to the college this fall. A suggested title is “What’s New in Fall 2009”.
8. Verbal approval has been given by the Southeast Georgia Health System food service to handle the 24 - 7 needs of the first 300 dorm residents. In the following expansion, a more permanent arrangement will be made in the Student Center.
9. Construction of a new Teacher Education & Learning Center will begin in 2011 between the Science and Allied Health buildings using G.O. Bond dollars. It will take the place of a tech building that was previously asked for that was to be built in 2014. The state will be asked to repurpose the building and increase the dollars assigned by $10,000,000 to $18,000,000 and for the start date to be moved forward to 2011.
10. The cost of the Capital Projects Plan and Capital Investment Program to 2020 is approximately $215,000,000. That does not include the cost of a new or additional Central Utilities Plant.

C. Implementation Considerations

1. Naming decisions were made by the committee.

a. The Performing Arts Center will be officially called the “Coastal Community Center for the Arts”.
b. “Information Commons” will be the new name for the library.
c. “The Campus Center” will be the new name for the Student Center.
d. The Applied Tech Building will be referred to as the “Student Activities Center”.
e. The existing Student Center will be renamed “The Andrews Center Student Services Building”.

Architectural and Landscape Vocabulary – Presentation and Discussion

A. Transition Suggestions

1. Mr. Schwarz shared ideas for renovating existing buildings such as utilizing covered ground level walkways composed of strong vertical elements in strategic locations, installing balcony railings, adding color with brick, stucco or clay tile in muted shades, and using metal windows, clear glass and wood.
2. Existing buildings have constant height and flat roofs resulting in a lack of visual interest. Mr. Schwarz recommended that roofs for new buildings be predominantly flat in order to complement the existing masses and sloped roof areas be introduced to the campus on small areas of new buildings as well as on additions to existing buildings. He thought that limiting sloped roofs to 20% of the total building roof areas would allow new and existing buildings to successfully blend on campus. He stated that a pitched roof cannot be added to a box because it would be visually unpleasant. If buildings are mix and match they will tend to blend.
3. The visual connection can also be changed by adding more openings to the facades. More use of overhangs and shadow will help as well.
4. Mr. Schwarz offered viable ideas in his Architectural & Landscape Vocabulary 1 handout but the committee would like to see something more specific. They need more direction in how not only to retrofit the older buildings to look like the newer buildings but also direction to make the newer buildings look like the older buildings. A middle ground needs to be found, something between Mizner and Gill.
5. The first new building needs to make a statement and set a tone. The committee questioned the sameness of a boxy look and would like to see something more dramatic and different from what is presently on campus. They felt that nothing presented so far is visually making a statement about what the new buildings would look like. Seeing more vignettes imaging the types of buildings the committee wanted to see would be helpful. It is not necessary to stay with what we already have. Adding arches and more details to the drawings needs to be done. The committee is seeking something similar to the airport building and the buildings at Valdosta State because they focus on the future.
6. Mr. Schwarz will go back and create a “softer” image for the committee’s review. He will revise the draft of the Architectural & Landscape Vocabulary to include vignettes showing a marrying of the old and the new to bring to Perkins & Will. Revision material will be emailed to Dr. Hepburn by Monday, April 20, for distribution to committee members. Feedback from the committee is desired as quickly as possible as the plan needs to be finalized by Friday, April 24th.

Final Deliverable – Outline and Concept

A. Final meeting

1. On May 7, 2009, Eva Klein & Associates will make their final presentation of the Master Plan and distribute the completed document. The Board of Regents, Foundation members, the Chamber, Development Authority and School Board, as well as the general public, will be invited to attend. The location will be the auditorium of the Conference Center.
2. The Master Plan, entitled “2020 Vision – A Decade and Beyond: The College of Coastal Georgia Strategic Master Plan” will not read like a report but will be written in the voice of the Committee. The report will be in two volumes. The first will be a 20 – 25 page document that would be analogous to an executive summary suitable for distribution and use in promoting the plan. It will contain highlights, outcomes and answers on everything from the strategic plan to its implementation. The second volume would be significantly more extensive in documentation of all relevant materials integral to executing the plan.