Groundbreaking Ceremony at Georgia Tech

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Georgia Institute of Technology's Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, will be held on Monday, April 5, 2010 at 2:00p.m. During the ceremony the building's namesake, G. Wayne Clough, the tenth president of Georgia Tech, will be formally recognized as President Emeritus.

The 220,000 sq. ft. Learning Commons is situated at the heart of the campus, adjacent to the main library and forming a new edge to a reconfigured campus green. It will be the academic hub of the campus for Georgia Tech undergraduates, providing classrooms and group study spaces, including all introductory science labs, designed to foster experiential, collaborative learning supported by cutting edge information technology. The building will also house other departments supporting undergraduate learning, including Tutoring, Undergraduate Studies, the Communication Center and the Office for Information Technology.

One of the project's chief goals was the integration of sustainability into all aspects of the design, including an expansive roof garden, varied sun control devices, rooftop photovoltaic panels and thermal hot water collectors, extensive energy recovery, and a rainwater harvesting cistern with a capacity of nearly 1,000,000 gallons for toilet flushing and irrigation.