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New college building breaks ground
Photo by Bridgett Baker
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Board of Trustees and Rowan County Commissioners shovel dirt during the groundbreaking ceremony for Building 400 at the North Campus Monday, March 30, 2009.
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Published: March 30, 2009
Salisbury - It has been more than 30 years since the last one was built, but Rowan-Cabarrus Community College celebrated a new classroom building on Monday that is slated to be completed in time for the fall 2010 semester.
Faculty, students, Rowan County commissioners and other community members attended a groundbreaking ceremony for Building 400, which will be a two-story, 38,000 square-foot unit. It will be used for the continuing education department, community programs, computer classes, GED classes, law enforcement training and other purposes.
The building will be constructed with state and Rowan County funding, which RCCC Board of Trustees Chairman Ray Paradowski acknowledged during the ceremony.
Rowan County Commission chair Carl Ford also spoke at the ceremony and commented on how crucial it was to have a new building on the campus.
"Times are changing," Ford said. "No longer can we go down to the mill to get a job. That is no longer an option. This place provides so much to so many people."
One of the unique features of the building is that it will be LEED certified, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Being LEED certified means that a building is environmentally compatible.
If it meets the LEED certification, it will be one of the first in the county to do so, according to Michael Chreitzberg, a design architect with YCH Architects in Concord, the group in charge of design for the project.
Not only will the building have features that include energy-efficient lighting and heating and recyclable materials, but the construction of it will serve as a teaching tool.
"We're going to use the building as it gets built to train 16 different teachers in how to teach LEED
certification," said Carol Spalding, president for RCCC. "After, we're going to label it so they can use it as a demonstration."
Spalding said the community college was able to do so because the building was under budget, so the school had more flexibility. Having the building LEED certified will allow the school to be on the cutting edge of technology, Spalding said.
As they celebrated the first classroom building on the campus in decades, those who attended the ceremony were already looking toward the future.
"I look forward to coming back here in about a year and maybe cutting a ribbon," Ford said.
• Contact reporter Jessica Groover: 704-789-9152
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