Construction is well underway at 3800 Paramount Drive in North Charleston – the new home of the College of Charleston North Campus and Lowcountry Graduate Center (LGC). The brand-new facility will offer modern, flexible learning spaces while ensuring students taking courses at this site feel very much a part of campus life.
In December 2012, Boeing purchased the building the College’s North Campus and the LGC occupy on International Boulevard by the airport. The building is immediately adjacent to Boeing’s operations, so it was an ideal location for the company to expand. The finalized deal with the SCRA was the College’s official notice to find a new location for the North Campus and the LGC. In January 2013, the College began to define its building programming needs, which then resulted in a lease solicitation in March. After exploring various options, the College decided to move forward with a newly constructed 50,000 square foot building located at 3800 Paramount Drive. The new location will allow the building to be visible from I-526.
The building has been designed to cover several aspects of a campus. The site will include administrative offices for the operations of CofC North and the LGC and faculty offices for both of these entities. Students will learn in a variety of instructional spaces from traditional lecture-style rooms to flexible learning spaces to lecture-capture rooms. There will also be a library with separate spaces for individual or small group studying and three computer labs. The Center for Student Learning will also have a presence to allow for individual tutoring sessions. The College will also provide a café/student lounge space with grab-and-go options available through a Provisions On Demand (P.O.D.) kiosk, similar to the one in the Education Center. There will be power and data ports throughout the building in recognition that students and faculty use a variety of devices to work and learn.
The new site will offer a long-term home to the operations of CofC North and the LGC, and most important, provide a true sense of ‘campus’ to students. The opportunity to program a new building is also beneficial to the College in that we will have input on the design and infrastructure to ensure it supports the needs of students, faculty, and staff. The site is accessible via I-26 and I-526 and other local roads.
All current programs will be relocated to the new site at Paramount Drive. An important driver to increase the size of the facility is the new Bachelor of Professional Studies program that was implemented in Fall 2013. There will also be a renewed effort to increase collaboration with local institutions to offer more graduate courses and programs through the LGC. CofC North expects to increase non-credit courses and programs to meet the needs of local businesses.
The move-in process is expected to begin early August in order to be fully relocated in time for the start of the Fall 2014 semester.