When returning Lee University students arrived on campus for the fall 2014 semester, they found the Southern end of their campus transformed from the way they left it in May. The property and grounds of the former First Baptist Church of Cleveland underwent extensive alterations, all of which are still in progress.
What is finished is the new $10 Million Communication Arts Building. The gleaming new structure sits majestically on the corner of Ocoee Street and Central Avenue, with the primary entrance facing a newly expanded Church Street “boulevard.”
Inside the 41,000 square foot building is the very latest in communications, containing perhaps the most sophisticated infrastructure of any building in Lee history. Encased in walls and under floors are thousands of feet of wiring and gadgetry creating a web of technology needed to power the building’s features.
[1]The new Lee University Communication Arts Building was completed in time for returning students (click photo to enlarge)
Among those features is a 175-seat black box theater outfitted with a series of catwalks and theatrical wizardry built to dazzle in a small space. A television studio and sound stage are equipped with the latest equipment that rivals Hollywood. A film-screening and editing room contains a Sony 4K projector with a 4K screen. Other student spaces include a computer lab, eight video editing suites, eight much-needed classrooms of various sizes, and a journalism lab that accommodates the staff of the student newspaper Clarion and yearbook, Vindagua.
The Communication Arts faculty has long outgrown the space in the Dixon Center, built in 1992. For years, the department has been spread among various buildings across campus, sharing space with other academic disciplines. There are now 22 faculty offices in three office “clusters,” with reception areas on the first and second floors. There is also a designated faculty workroom.
Entering the primary doorway off Church Street, there is an impressive two-story lobby anchored by Sandella’s Flatbread Café, the first such eatery in Southeast Tennessee. The restaurant joins other campus-based, name-brand food options like Subway, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Einstein Bagels.
Outside, the City of Cleveland worked with Lee crews to install new street lights, sidewalks, and the most noticeable alteration, the temporary closure of three blocks of Church Street to remove several levels of asphalt, bury utilities, pour sidewalks, and create a two-lane avenue with landscaped median. To the east, the former First Baptist parking lot was buried over the summer under multiple tons of earth. When the earth movers were done, what was left was acres of future green space with areas designated for pedestrian walkways leading to the future home of the Business Department, the new Pangle Hall (former First Baptist sanctuary), and the Communication Arts Building.
A dedication ceremony called “Celebration 2014” is scheduled for September 19 on the Lee campus.
–Cameron Fisher, Church of God Communications