The Tate II addition, set to be completed three years after the original Tate Center, is finally opening in June 2009.
The original cost of the Tate II project was estimated at $58.2 million, but the final cost will be around $62 million, said Greg Albanese, facility manager of campus life.
The building is comprised of six levels. The first and second floors are dedicated to parking, while the third floor is the main level of Tate II.
The third level consists of lobby space with furniture, a lounge area, and a food court. Tate II will subcontract from franchises such as Barberito’s and Larry’s Subs. University of Georgia food services has created Hotei’s, an Asian-style grill that will also be on the main level.
Seven or eight meeting rooms will be placed on the fourth level, which will be similar to the rooms in the Miller Learning Center. The Taste of Home Café, a sit down restaurant, will also be on the fourth floor.
Grand Hall, the ballroom on the fifth floor has the capacity to hold 1400 people. The ballroom will serve as a multipurpose room that can be divided into seven sub-rooms, where different events will take place.
Tate II contains no classrooms and will still be under construction when the building opens in June.
Throughout the construction of the building, UGA has strived to make Tate II the “greenest” building on campus. The building will use roof water to irrigate the landscape in the area instead of using water from other sources. The lights used in the building are energy efficient as well.
The building will serve to diminish the large amounts of people using the MLC and Tate Center and act as a hub for student life.
“Student enrollment, based on that, we’ve got the smallest student center,” Albanese said.
Students have been very active in the creation process of the building. The Tate II Center Student Advisory Board serves to represent the student body and make sure ideas are in line with what students want.
Victoria Lee, a Tate II advisory board member, is excited about the completion of the building and feels that the area will be the center of campus life.
“There will be a mix of students and diversity, which will draw more students to the center of campus and allow for a greater exchange of ideas,” Lee said.
“Not only will the building serve for a greater good, but students will be very happy when they don’t have to walk through the SLC to get to the Tate Center,” said Alyssa Hetlage, a senior at UGA.
Edited by Marcus Crawford
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Marcie, is this your story? There's no byline, but you took the picture. It's a very detailed story; a lot of it looks like background that should be attributed to someone or something. Your interviews come toward the bottom of the story, and there's some nice stuff there about people thinking it will be the center of campus and help complete the hub formed by Tate and the Miller Learning Center. Some of that stuff would have worked well higher, and could have been mentioned in the lead.
ReplyDeleteNote that numbers over three digits, like 1,400, need a comma; and many compound modifiers, like a sit-down restaurant, need hyphens.
Good job getting the original and final construction costs -- that's really important in a story like this.