Tag: Watt Family Innovation Center

By Anna Simon, Office of Media Relations

As social change in the 1950s and ’60s transformed Clemson College into a university for all students across South Carolina and the world, a surge of campus construction provided modern classrooms, housing and amenities of that era and set the stage for Clemson University to become the respected research institution it is today.

Brackett, Lee I, Newman and Earle halls, Poole Agricultural Center, the President’s House, Harcombe Dining Hall and Thornhill Village are a sampling from a long list of projects that added more than 844,000 square feet of facilities to the campus during the 1950s – more square footage than all of the current campus buildings constructed prior to that time, starting with Fort Hill.

Looking back 50 years, Manning, Lever and Daniel halls, Strode Tower, Schilletter Dining Hall, Redfern Health Center, Littlejohn Coliseum and Rhodes Engineering Research Center were among 26 projects completed between 1965 and 1970. Now Clemson looks ahead to a new wave of construction to prepare for the next 50 years.

Next week, work will begin on the Douthit Hills project, a $212 million residential village—one of the largest residential projects in the university’s history. Douthit Hills, to be built along Hwy. 93, will dramatically enhance one of the main gateways to campus and provide much-needed housing for the university’s upper classmen and Bridge to Clemson students. Additionally, the complex will offer dining and mixed-use facilities for the Clemson community.

To make way for the state-of-the-art complex, the university is working closely with a certified arborist to identify and assess the trees that will be removed from the site. When the project is completed in 2018, many new trees will be planted; ultimately resulting in more trees than were removed and greater species diversity.

A nearly complete addition to Freeman Hall, home of the Industrial Engineering Department, will open this fall, along with WestZone Phase 3 and suite improvements in Memorial Stadium and an addition to the Doug Kingsmore Baseball Stadium.

Next year will see completion of the Watt Family Innovation Center and Core Campus development. The $30 million Watt Family Innovation Center, a four-story 70,000-square-foot innovation incubator made possible in part by a gift from the Watt family of Kennesaw, Ga., will connect students, industry partners and state-of-the-art information technology to take ideas from concept to marketplace. The $96 million Core Campus project, behind the Edgar A. Brown University Union, includes student housing, dining facilities and the new home of the Calhoun Honors College.

Work starts this summer on a Littlejohn Coliseum renovation and addition to open for the 2016-17 basketball season, and a $212 million residential village and central hub at Douthit Hills to house upperclassmen as well as freshmen in the Bridge to Clemson program beginning in the fall of 2018.

Campus visitors often ask what’s inside the Sheep Barn. This historic turn-of-the-century agricultural relic outlived its original use long ago. In December 2016 it will reopen as the Barnes Center, another new amenity made possible by a generous gift from the Barnes family in honor of Frank S. Barnes Jr. of Rock Hill.

A west campus energy plant to add capacity and mitigate outage risk and an Advanced Technological Education Center that includes a workforce development center, both in planning and design, also will open during 2016.

Perhaps the most dramatic future project is a new home for Clemson’s College of Business and Behavioral Science. A majestic glass entrance to this new home of Clemson’s second largest college will look out on Bowman Field from across Highway 93, in front of the alumni and visitor center. Bobby McCormick, interim dean of the College of Business and Behavioral Science, describes the planned academic building as “a home for these students, not just a place to go to class.” It will be “part of a corporate culture” where coming to class will be akin to going to the office, McCormick says. Architects’ renderings show a large ground-floor atrium with a coffee shop and illuminated stock market ticker data running along the walls.

These are some of the coming attractions that will transform the Clemson campus in the next few years. Other plans include electrical infrastructure upgrades, a football operations facility, an outdoor wellness and fitness center, a child care center and renovations of Vickery Hall and Lightsey Bridge I. Plans further down the road include Mauldin and Daniel hall renovations, a tennis center, a wastewater treatment plant upgrade and demolition of 1950s-era Johnstone and Harcombe hall.

Construction fences will come and go across the campus like curtains on a stage, each lifting to reveal another piece of Clemson’s next act. Please pardon our progress. The reward will far outweigh the temporary inconvenience. Clemson is building for the future, to serve 21^st century students and offer greater opportunities for all South Carolinians.

Clemson has created a website that provides more information about the revitalization of its main campus. Learn more here.

By Jackie Todd, Office of Media Relations

The Watt Family Innovation Center reached a construction milestone when the final exterior steel beam was installed in a “topping out” ceremony on Feb. 19.

In keeping with tradition, a steel beam that completes the building frame was hoisted hundreds of feet into the air. As the beam made its ascent toward the blue sky, three flags unfurled. The American flag, a fixture in most construction sites, was joined by a banner bearing the Clemson University paw print and a banner from Turner, the construction company that was engaged to erect the four-story, 70,000-square-foot building.

Catching a ride on the steel beam was a small evergreen tree, courtesy of the South Carolina Botanical Garden. The tree will be planted on the grounds of Botanical Gardens at a later date. No one knows for certain the origin of including a tree in a topping out ceremony. But Turner Construction’s project engineer, Allison Ford, shared that the tradition was thought to have come from either Native Americans who believed that nothing should ever be taller than nature, or ancient Scandinavia where home builders used a tree or greenery to celebrate the setting of the final highest wood beam.

Regardless of the tradition, Ford, a former civil engineering student who graduated from Clemson in 2008, was excited about the event and the building.

“It’s just going to be a very innovative space,” she explained. “Architecturally it’s going to stand out and set the stage for projects to come on campus in the future. With it being a research and technology-focused center, it’s going to take Clemson into the next generation in terms of research and technology and innovation.”

Dr. Charles Watt, whose family pledged $5.25 million toward the center, was equally excited. And he gave high praise to those who made it possible for the construction to reach this milestone.

“To all you workers: you’ve done a phenomenal job,” he said. “You can know that what you’re doing is going to last a long, long time and make a fundamental change to higher education and the world we live in. This is the first building in America, and maybe even the world, to have the capabilities this building has.

As part of the topping out ceremony, Turner Construction Company presented a $5,000 check to Safe Harbor, a nonprofit organization that assists victims of domestic violence. Company officials indicated donations to local charities are considered tradition with every construction project.

Now that the Watt Family Innovation Center’s exterior frame is complete, workers will begin construction on the building’s exterior walls. The project is expected to be complete in spring 2016.

• View event photos here.
• Learn more about the Watt Family Innovation Center.