Center for Arts Tops Out at College

Written by Terry Dickson of The Brunswick News, terryldickson50@gmail.com

Construction of College of Coastal Georgia’s Center for the Arts is within budget and on time, two phrases that college President Johnny Evans said he found exciting as he spoke Thursday at a topping out ceremony.

The college held the ceremony to give guests an update on the project and tours of the interior of the steel frame 1,000-seat facility.

The huge building on the southwest side of the campus will soon lose its see-through nature as workers begin to fill in the skeleton, said Joe Kinsey, vice president of operations for McKnight Construction Inc., the Augusta-based company building the facility.

“The structural steel is complete,’’ Kinsey said. “We’re starting the walls and the roof.

Company ironworkers erected 280 tons of steel in just eight weeks, he said.

McKnight, architects, the college and others began work on the project about three years ago. Kinsey said it will be complete in February, just over a year after construction started.

The project is nearing its completion after a decade of dreaming, Evans said.

The facility will serve as a venue for performances, conferences, creativity, learning and gatherings from small receptions to larger gatherings, Evans said.

The college will expose children to the arts in a way that many had never imagined possible, he said.

It is going to be a place for everyone, Evans said.

A centerpiece of the performances will be a Model V Steinway Spirio piano that Reg and Dianne Murphy provided for the center.

“A magnificent concert grand,’’ Evans said of the player piano that is said to be the finest quality high resolution player piano.

“We’re going to have that in the Golden Isles,’’ he said.

The guests toured the interior of the building and some signed a short section of beam that will be placed high in the building.

Photos by Terry Dickson. Republished with the permission of The Brunswick News. Originally published in The Brunswick News.