Company description::
Georgia Institute of Technology’s Technology Square, Atlanta
Architect: Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates [www.tvsa.com], Atlanta
Telecommunications, multimedia/audiovisual, acoustics: Shen Milsom & Wilke, New York City; Jon Burris, project manager
Size: 1.5 million square feet on 13.3 acres
Completion: October 2003
The Georgia Institute of Technology’s new Technology Square is, first of all, a high-technology campus/city gateway that combines education, research, economic development, and hospitality. But it is also a mixed-use urban development that is rejuvenating midtown Atlanta, creating jobs and breathing life into the formerly deserted streets.
The midtown area is separated from Georgia Tech’s existing campus by a formidable barrier: the 14-lane-wide Interstate 75/85. Linking the existing and the new campuses was essential--both functionally and symbolically--to the operations of the school and to the rebirth of this urban area and its emerging high-technology core.
Shen Milsom & Wilke and Georgia Tech worked together to design fiber-optic systems that carry data, video, and audio traffic, seamlessly linking the two campuses. The company designed the infrastructure and instructional technology systems in nearly all Technology Square spaces, which include the DuPree College of Management, relocated to Technology Square from the existing campus; the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center; the Global Learning Center that supports distance and professional education; and the new Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, an incubator working to grow the area's technology economy.
The university ran cabling across the highway in the underbelly of a nearby overpass. A distance learning master control, relocated to the new campus, is central in linking classrooms and studios on both campuses to remote sites worldwide.
This infrastructure was designed to support the advanced instructional technology systems designed by Shen Milsom & Wilke and installed in all of the Tech Square classrooms. “Smart” podiums, multi-screen projection, a high-speed digital and wireless network, omnipresent capability for recording and teleconferencing, whiteboards that electronically save and archive content, and a campus-wide control system that enables monitoring of all audiovisual elements over the network insure that technology is fully integrated into the curriculum.
At the DuPree College of Management, for example, common classroom activities include interactive polls, electronic discussions, access to network resources, and videoconferencing.
Technology does not end in the classroom, however. At the Global Learning and Conference Center, available to business and academic clientele for hosting corporate and association meetings, executive programs, educational seminars, and training and development events, users may send and receive learning programs via satellite, Internet, videoconferencing, and streaming video and audio. The center includes more than 25,000 square feet of meeting space and five amphitheaters. Wireless and hard-wired technology is available throughout the space.
Shen Milsom & Wilke [www.smwinc.com], an international technology consulting practice founded in 1986, offers comprehensive services in the areas of multimedia/audiovisual, information technology/telecommunications, building security, and acoustics. The firm has offices in New York, Princeton, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Houston, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas, London, Dubai, and Hong Kong, and a staff of more than 140 professionals. Shen Milsom & Wilke was named one of the 100 fastest growing A/E/P firms in the nation by Zweig White & Associates for the years 2001, 2002, and 2003.
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