CED on Campus

This building stood in stark contrast to the traditional architecture of North Campus when it opened as the Visual Arts Building, home of the Department of Art. Designed by the Atlanta architect Joseph Amisano to symbolize the creative energy and artistic vision of the department and its guiding light, the legendary UGA artist and art professor Lamar Dodd, the modernist fifty-three-thousand-square-foot structure was derided as the “Ice Plant” for its glass walls, high vaulted ceilings, and geometric lines. But it won national awards for innovative design and served almost five decades as a training ground for thousands of aspiring artists, sculptors, designers, and teachers, many of whose creations were displayed in the building’s galleries and on its lawns. In 1996, the department became the Lamar Dodd School of Art, and in 2008 the school vacated the building for a new home on East Campus. The building served as transitional space until 2011, when a $9.9 million renovation – a model of environmentally sustainable design – converted it into the new home of the College of Environment and Design.

The building, received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification, is the first on campus to have rooftop solar panels, which were installed on the south-facing slopes of the roof’s skylights. The seventy-two photovoltaic panels capture enough sunlight to generate about thirty thousand kilowatt hours of electricity each year – sufficient to power up ninety florescent light fixtures – and will pay for themselves in fourteen years through lower electricity costs. The building’s numerous glass windows were replaced with glass that transfers less heat but allows natural light to filter into spacious open studios. Highly efficient heating and cooling systems were installed, along with a twenty-five-thousand-gallon cistern that collects rain and condensate from the cooling system for reuse in mechanical systems and for toilet flushing. About 90 percent of the glass and other materials removed in the renovation were recycled.

Dendy, Larry B, Through the Arch; An Illustrated Guide to the University of Georgia Campus, (University of Georgia Press, 2013)

Though not part of the North Campus quads, Bishop House is among the oldest existing university structures. Thomas Bishop came to Athens from Massachusetts in 1835 and opened a grocery store. He bought several acres of land on Jackson Street from the university Trustees and built this house, which remained in the possession of his descendants for more than one hundred years. One of the earliest remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in Athens, the house was part of a farm that included a carriage house and stables, barns, a smokehouse, and fields for growing corn and vegetables. It is believed to be one of the first in Athens with running water, and it was long noted for beautiful landscaping that included boxwood paintings, flowering shrubs, and giant shade trees. UGA bought the property in 1942, and the house has been remodeled several times. It has been used as a residence hall for students and faculty members, offices and studios for the Art Department and home of the Classics Department. Bishop House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Dendy, Larry B, Through the Arch; An Illustrated Guide to the University of Georgia Campus, (University of Georgia Press, 2013)

This building was erected as the campus dining hall, and students called it the “beanery,” an uncomplimentary reference to the quality of food it served. When the dining hall was moved in 1956, most of the building was converted into classrooms, studios, and office space for the Landscape Architecture department. A small luncheonette called the Co-op, relocated from New College in the early 1950s, remained in the basement for years.

Brantly Denmark, Class of 1871, was a prominent Savannah banker and university trustee. In 1897 the Alumni Society chose him to lead the university’s first organized fund-raising drive. The effort brought in $40,000 for an endowment that later was used to begin construction of the War Memorial Hall (not called Memorial Hall). When Denmark died in 1901, this building was named for him. The metal sculpture in front of the main entrance, titled Field Cell, was created by Jack Kehoe, a UGA art professor, and presented to Hubert Owens, the founder of the landscape architecture program, on his retirement in 1973.

Dendy, Larry B, Through the Arch; An Illustrated Guide to the University of Georgia Campus, (University of Georgia Press, 2013)

The historic rose-brick Greek Revival style house serves as an active center for the Founders Memorial Garden. Originally built in 1857 as a faculty residence, it was the first recorded address on Lumpkin Street, and is referred to as the Lumpkin House. The house was used from 1898 to 1919 as student housing and a dining hall; as the residence for Mary Lyndon, the first Dean of Women in the early 1920s; as home to the first on-campus sorority, Phi Mu, in the late 1920s; home to the Department of Landscape Architecture from 1939 to 1956.

After the Department of Landscape Architecture moved from the building in 1956, the Student Placement Office took its place. In 1959, the Garden Club of Georgia obtained use of the kitchen building and restored it for their use as state headquarters. In 1961, they entered into an agreement with the University to lease the main house, which they restored with the assistance of architect Edward Wade of Augusta. The work was completed in 1963, and the house decorated and furnished with antiques reflecting the antebellum period and opened to the public as a house museum. The house now serves as a period museum and is the headquarters of the Garden Club of Georgia. The property is individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

As originally constructed, the house consisted of two stories. Each floor featured two rooms and a central hall. A single 20 by 40 foot room was later added to the rear at the end of the hall. It features a single chimney at the end. Two small one-story wings, one of clapboard and one of brick, were later added to either side of the main block. The house was built in conjunction with a kitchen building and smokehouse. The kitchen building has two doorways leading into two interconnecting rooms. It features interior chimneys at either gable end. Windows are six-over-six. The smokehouse has a door that opens into the courtyard at the rear facade, and a bay window that is a later addition.

The Garden houses over 300 species of plant material and features historic trees, shrubs, and perennials. It was conceived, designed, and installed under the guidance of Hubert Bond Owens, the founder and first dean of the UGA landscape architecture program. Today, this 2.5 acre award-winning garden and associated historic buildings are managed by the College of Environment and Design and serve as a teaching resource and public garden for all campus users and visitors to appreciate.

This building began as a 50-foot-by-50-foot wooden structure erected in the late 1880s or early 1890s as a warehouse for the Central of Georgia Railroad. The Carter-Moss Lumber Company bought the structure in 1896 and added this brick building in 1909 as the front of the business. The brothers Tom and Gus Dozier purchased the business in 1926 and operated it as the Dozier Company until an employee, Johnnie B. Tanner Sr., bought it in 1947, when it became the Tanner Lumber Company.

Tanner and his eldest son, J. Bryson Tanner Jr., operated the company until the senior Tanner’s death in 1995, by which time the building and the 1.3 acres it occupied were surrounded by UGA property. The university, which wanted the land for a parking deck, bought the building and the land in 1996 for $800,000, with the understanding that the building would be preserved. In 1998, it underwent a $245,000 renovation to install air-conditioning and update its electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems. The building housed programs of the Lamar Dodd School of Art until 2008. Behind the building is the $10 million North Campus Parking Deck, with spaces for more than twelve hundred vehicles, which also opened in 1998.

Dendy, Larry B, Through the Arch; An Illustrated Guide to the University of Georgia Campus, (University of Georgia Press, 2013)