Clarksville, TN – Turner Construction Company’s Nashville office has completed construction of the new Art and Design Building at Austin Peay State University. The new $21.3 million, 46,000-square-foot building will house the entire fine arts department and is located adjacent to the Trahern Building, which the Fine Arts Department had been utilizing.
The new Art and Design Building includes two gallery spaces, open classrooms, faculty office space and a lecture hall that doubles as a recital space.
The two-story steel frame building features a masonry exterior with ribbon windows and an industrial-style interior with polished concrete floors, exposed ceiling and wood ceilings with track lighting.
The building occupies what was a faculty/staff parking lot behind the Trahern Building. By redistributing parking to other lots on the campus, the site is transformed, offering expansive green space for students and staff to enjoy.
“This project offered a unique opportunity,” said Walter Smith, lead project designer with Street Dixon Rick Architecture, the architect on the project.
“The University had a chance to reclaim a dull parking lot in the middle of campus and turn it into a beautiful green space for the students and faculty. Strengthening connections between the central campus and the quickly growing section of campus along Eighth Street was at the heart of the project. It is our hope that this new building and green space will serve as a conduit between the students and faculty within the Department of Art and Design and the rest of campus,” Smith stated.
Turner completed mechanical renovations to the Trahern Building over the summer and finished in September 2016.
Faculty will begin holding classes in the new building this summer.
“Austin Peay has made great strides to improve its campus. The new Art and Design Building will further cement ASPU’s position as a premier school in Tennessee, and we’re happy to play a role in making that happen,” said Ben Loftin, Turner’s project manager for the fine arts center.
Turner worked with Street Dixon Rick Architecture, EMC Structural Engineers, I.C. Thomasson Associates, Inc. Barge Cauthen & Associates, and Hodgson & Douglas, LLC on the project.
Turner has worked with several colleges and universities in Tennessee, including a number of projects at Middle Tennessee State University, but this is the company’s first project on Austin Peay’s Clarksville campus.
About Turner Construction Company/Nashville
Turner is a North America-based, international construction services company. Since opening its office in the city in 1975 to construct several buildings for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Turner Construction Company/Nashville has played a significant role in shaping Middle Tennessee’s skyline.
Its Nashville resume includes such iconic buildings as the Davidson County Juvenile Court building, the Nashville Airport Terminal Complex, Bridgestone Arena, the Andrew Johnson and Davy Crockett state government office buildings, 14 buildings on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Campus and numerous buildings and renovations on the Saint Thomas Hospital Campus.
Among current active projects are the Hill Center Brentwood, an addition to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and the new Tennessee State Museum.
Learn more at www.turnerconstruction.com or follow Turner on Twitter at
