Master Plan

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The Humanities Building

Figure 5.10 Hurt Park connection to the new University Plaza

Figure 5.10 Hurt Park connection to the new University Plaza

Figure 5.11 Proposed Humanities Building

Figure 5.11 Proposed Humanities Building A glass façade and exposed internal circulation will create a visual dialogue between those inside the building and those in the plaza. This creates an intimate scale and sense of place in the campus’ central space.

With more than 300,000 GSF, the Humanities Building was the first new building added to the Georgia Board of Regents Capital Projects list in 2005. This new facility will provide much needed classroom and office space and begin the transformation of the heart of campus within a very important part of the City of Atlanta. The Humanities Building will be located on the current site of Sparks Hall, one of the poorest performing buildings on campus, at the corner of Courtland and Gilmer Streets.

More salient to this project, however, is the unique opportunity to create a central space recognized as the heart of campus. While the university does not have a formal campus quad, one façade of The Humanities Building will be strategically located across Courtland Street from one of the oldest and most prominent downtown public spaces, Hurt Park. The building will also face the Student Center Building with all the activities and vibrancy its plaza generates. The building’s footprint is slightly carved away for a strong sense of entry and connection with the park and plaza. (See Figure 5.10)

The design should be two sided for an articulate urban relationship with the street and Plaza. The building’s street face should be solid with punched windows and appropriate urban scale and character. The plaza front should be broadly fenestrated and transparent, creating visual connections projecting a sense of theater inside and to passersby. The building is conceptually illustrated to reflect these points in Figure 5.11. Ground connections should be appropriately scaled with a pedestrian-sensitive base.