PRESCOTT COLLEGE SELECTS ARCHITECTS FOR $3 MILLION PROJECT
January 24, 2003 Prescott College has contracted with Weddle Gilmore Architects of Tempe, Ariz., to design and construct the College’s Crossroads Center, the first project of its kind for the independent, liberal arts College.

The $3 million Crossroads Center, to be funded by gifts and grants, is a new facility that will serve as a teaching and learning center and will be built on College-owned property adjacent to Butte Creek and the riparian habitat that runs through the College’s urban campus. The 14,000-20,000 square foot Center will house classrooms and meeting rooms, an information commons (a redefined concept of a library that incorporates academics, technology and social space), a student café, technology/multimedia services and lodging.

“From an academic perspective, we anticipate the Center will provide needed classroom space and expanded library and computer access, along with a large gathering space for community meeting,” said Prescott College President Dan Garvey. “We are building the Crossroads Center in part to allow us to invite members of the larger global community to Prescott College to work cooperatively to help address complex societal and global problems. The Crossroads Center is envisioned to be a central gathering point for sharing knowledge and strategies that will positively affect our world.”

The College’s philosophy, which centers on experiential education, environmental responsibility, sustainable systems and social justice, will be the driving force behind the physical construction of the Crossroads Center. It will be an ecologically sensitive building that does not compromise environmental or human health and makes use of renewable and recycled building materials.

To accomplish this goal, the College has employed the services of Weddle Gilmore Architects of Tempe as the result of a nationwide search. The Weddle Gilmore firm focuses on providing design rooted in and created from cultural, climate and site-specific conditions. Many of its public facilities, including the Desert Lives project with The Phoenix Zoo, Pinnacle Peak Trailhead and Foothills Academy College Preparatory, have earned Environmental Excellence awards.

“We found Philip Weddle and the Weddle Gilmore team to be the best fit for the College and this exciting building project,” said Prescott College Chief Operating Officer Steven Corey. “Their portfolio clearly demonstrates a commitment to sustainable design as well as socially and environmentally responsible practices as an inherent way of doing business. They also bring with them demonstrated success in working with diverse and complex organizations in the successful completion of multifunctional building projects.”

Weddle Gilmore Architects has a strong interest in community-based projects that have a significant environmental and educational focus. “The Crossroads Center project and Prescott College seem like a perfect fit with the focus of our design team,” said Principal Architect Philip Weddle. “Once we researched the project and met the people involved from the College, it just reinforced that belief.”

Over the next few months, Weddle Gilmore will finalize design plans for the Crossroads Center with input from the College community. The College anticipates a groundbreaking this summer, followed by an approximate 12-month construction phase, with the College occupying the space by the fall of 2004.

“The Crossroads Center encompasses more than a building. It embraces a notion that Prescott College can and does have a significant role to play in the global conversation about our world and the opportunities and challenges it faces today and into the future,” said Garvey. “As a facility oriented to this goal, it will position the College and its community of learners squarely in the crossroads of conversation, exploration and constructive action.”

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