Clemson breaks ground on $31 million building project

CLEMSON, SC – April 23, 2010 – Clemson University broke groundFriday on a $31 million project to expand and renovate Rudolph E. LeeHall, home of the university’s design, build and visual artsdisciplines.

The bulk of the project money will go to new construction, with thebalance to renovate older parts of Lee Hall, including the originalsection constructed in 1958.

 Above Photo: Architects’ rendering of completed Lee Hall.  Imageby: Clemson University 

Lee Hall Groundbreaking Video – 4/23/2010

The 55,000-square-foot new building will stand at the south end of theexisting structure, where its footprint is intended to be light, even asit speaks loudly of design and innovation.

“We want a building that has some highly sustainable concepts in thedesign and a building that can teach students how a building comestogether, how it exists in an environment and how it can even give backto an environment,” said Brad Smith of McMillan Pazdan SmithArchitecture, lead architects for the project.

The university president says that’s important for a building thathouses Clemson’s graduate and undergraduate programs in architecture;art; city and regional planning; construction science and management;landscape architecture; real estate development; and a doctoral programin planning, design and the built environment.

“We are now poised to realize fully the vision of Lee Hall as ‘thebuilding that teaches,’ Clemson President James F. Barker said. In it,students will learn from their teachers, from each other and from thebuilding itself, because the new Lee Hall will be a model of sustainabledesign for the 21st century. We are fortunate that the renovation andrestoration portion of this project qualified for federal stimulussupport. This funding allowed us to get under way despite a weak economyand state funding cuts.”

The plan to expand, renovate and restore Lee Hall is funded by federalmoney and private support.

McMillan Pazdan Smith is working in association with Thomas Phifer andPartners of New York with Tom Phifer serving as the design architect.Phifer earned his bachelor’s degree from Clemson in 1975 and hismaster’s in 1977.

“We live in an extraordinary time now when we can begin to think aboutmaking a building that fosters a progressive approach to learning,”Phifer said. “It is my hope that this building will inspire students towork collaboratively in an open and welcoming environment, not only oneto another but to the broader Clemson campus. Likewise, thesustainability strategies will not only connect the building to itsplace but it will put students in touch with nature; the movement of thesun, the feeling of natural ventilation and the sound of the rain. Ithas been an honor to work on the college that meant so much to mydevelopment as an architect.”

The design calls for a simple interior that takes advantage of naturallight. It employs a geothermal system integrated with radiant heatingand cooling in the floors. Not in the budget for now but part of thelong-term plan is a green roof on the new addition, complete with livefoliage and photovoltaic panels on the existing buildings. If all ofthese measures can be put in place, the building actually may createenergy for the power grid, a zero-net energy building.

“It will be a ‘zero-net-ready’ building. It will use very little energyand possibly will give energy back to the grid,” said Smith, a 1982graduate of Clemson’s architecture program and 1983 graduate of theconstruction science and management program. “It’s an honor to work forthe university I graduated from and work on a building that is part ofthe architecture program and to have clients that are people I knew asprofessors. I’ve been involved in a lot of things at Clemson, but thisreally feels like giving back.”

Smith said he believes the new Lee Hall building will be one otheruniversities look to when undertaking future building plans.

“I think it will guide other universities. This is a pioneeringbuilding,” Smith said.

The Lee Hall project — the only major building project not halted by therecent economic downturn — is slated for completion by fall 2011.Holder Construction Co. of Atlanta is the construction manager. The firmspecializes in work on college and university campuses.

Lee Hall is named for Rudolph E. Lee, the first head of architecture atClemson. The original building was designed by Harlan McClure, Clemson’sfirst dean of architecture and a nationally recognized figure inarchitectural education. Those who studied under and after McClurecredit his Lee Hall design for bringing contemporary architecture toSouth Carolina and the region, and for cultivating generations ofinfluential architects.

McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture
McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture is a Greenville-based studio-baseddesign firm, with special focus in urban, campus, community, K-12,retail and health-care design, serving clientele desiring creative,innovative solutions.

Thomas Phifer and Partners
Thomas Phifer and Partners of New York makes innovative use oftechnology to create architecture with a different spirit that connectsus to nature, that makes permeable the boundary between inside andoutside, that enables inhabitants to experience the passage of timethrough the days and seasons.