Wednesday, April 9, 2003
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Wednesday, April 9, 2003 |
New convention center capitalizes on locationAirport's fifth runway leads to new facility
If necessity is the mother of invention, then the city of College Park, Georgia can thank the rapid growth and expansion of Hartsfield International Airport for its grand new convention and meeting facility. The new Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) which opens for business this month and with an official celebration in June was necessitated by the planned Fifth Runway at Hartsfield. The land at its old location, in place alongside Sullivan road near I-285 since 1985, will eventually be used to complete the new runway. Location for the new facility is at the centerpiece of the planned Gateway Center complex at Camp Creek Parkway and Roosevelt Highway, a stone's throw from the main street of College Park. Gateway Center will be a multi-purpose complex combining the convention and meeting capabilities of the new GICC with 2,000 hotel rooms, a consolidated rental car compound serving Hartsfield, a people mover and office buildings. Its proximity to Hartsfield dictated much of the GICC's building structure, which had to be both low enough to accommodate low-flying planes and sturdy enough to withstand and buffet the noise from the hundreds of take-offs and landings at Hartsfield each day. In addition, after visiting other similar facilities throughout the US, the GICC's building committee directed its architectural firm to design something contemporary and cutting-edge. Starting with a rectangular box-like structure, the architectural firm of Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart and Associates, was quickly inspired to add roundness and dimension to the building. "Curves and circles became a pervasive theme of our work, both inside and outside the building," said Jack Pruitt, the firm's interior design lead on the project. "By sheer necessity, this building had to have a lot of hard edges, primarily to make it soundproof, so we added a lot of circular forms to soften them." Another restriction for a building in the midst of Hartsfield's flight patterns is that a lot of glass is a no-no. "Instead, lighting has ended up playing a key role," said Pruitt. "And our circle theme extends to the lighting in the ceiling, where we used cloud-like shapes." It also extends to added details in the pre-function spaces of the facility, where large architectural elements encompass curved wood panel grids with dozens of smaller circles inside. A giant mobile made by Los Angeles artist Brad Howe suspends more than 2,000 ovals and other curved shapes in an 80 x 10 x 10 foot space in the Exhibit Hall Concourse, the prefunction area outside the GICC's grand Ballroom. Inside the Ballroom, which is Georgia's largest at 40,000 square feet, circular patterns are repeated in the ceiling and in the swirling carpet underfoot. "We intentionally made the carpet intensely colored and full of shapes, to add contrast to the neutral wood tones, white walls and metal accents in much of the building," added Pruitt. Metal accents were a natural for the building, both inside and out. "We used metal sculptures to play off of the materials of aviation," said Pruitt. "At the entry drive to the new GICC, for example, we placed seven tall windsail sculptures fabricated in the same way that airplane wings are made, and inside the building, metal shapes play into the signage and the commissioned artwork." Extensive artwork for the new building was commissioned by the Atlanta firm, EDL & Associates, from ten artists who live and work in California, Georgia and North Carolina. Brightly colored paintings, wall sculptures, glass vases and a series of black and white photography join Howe's mobile. "The GICC committee provided a wonderful template upon which to build art," said EDL Project Manager Brenda Locke. "Our artists were all quite impressed with the creative freedom they were given, and I think it shows in their work." "We have taken the opportunity we've been given by the fifth runway to create a world-class new facility that has many new, cutting-edge and state-of-the-art features," said Hugh Austin, executive director of the GICC. "We're immensely pleased with the physical beauty of the building, but also wanted its features to add to the experience of the meeting professional and the guests that they bring with them."
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