Friday, April 11, 2003

New convention center opens this month

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 by 10 by 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," adds 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."

Among those features are a Cyber Lock system, which significantly beefs up the facility's security at a cost less than traditional keyed locks by using a programmable locking system and enabling GICC's security staff to see which doors have been entered and by whom at all times. The GICC is the first convention facility in the country to use Cyber Lock, which is already in place at Lenox Square Mall and CNN in Atlanta. An exterior courier and mail delivery station will also enhance security.

The flexibility of the GICC's new space is another feature that Austin says was carefully planned with meeting professionals in mind.

"Our large spaces allow for conferences, conventions or events accommodating up to 20,000 attendees and yet, we can also make our space fit the smaller to mid-sized events by using our flexible walls."

Meeting planners will have a slew of options at the new facility, including the ability to change lighting dramatically in each room.

The building's theatrical lighting system, for example, would give a company like Mary Kay Cosmetics the option of bathing each meeting room in its signature pink color. Each meeting room has a Janus LCD system at the door, enabling custom displays and signage. Lights automatically turn on when conference attendees open the door.

The entire facility offers unblocked, secured Internet access through it high speed, fiber optic T-1 service and an in-house Intranet so that clients can easily communicate with event staff.

The GICC's 150,000 square foot Exhibit Hall, which is divisible into up to four separate halls, can fit up to 863 10 by 10 foot booths. Seventeen loading docks will make move-in and move-out much easier and there is drive-in access for each hall, with a ceiling height of 32 feet.

Its new ballroom will allow the GICC to serve a seated dinner for as many as 3,000 guests at one time. And its new state-of-the art, 9,800 square foot Culinary Arts Center has chef Dennis Graeff and his staff excited about the added room to maneuver for both meal preparation and service for such large events.

"The Culinary Arts Center was designed to improve the flow of movement for our cooking and wait staff, and it also features the latest and best tools: a garde-manger finishing cooler for salads; seafood and desserts at a constant temperature of 52 degrees with zero percent humidity; a top of the line Insinger dishwasher in our separate dish room; a can wash; ice machines with three foot grates to lessen spillage; a steward's office; a full-service commercial laundry and many other bonuses," said Chef Graeff.

A unique element from the ballroom leading to the kitchen is a series of black-out corners from ballroom to kitchen. The ballroom's design allowed for fabric covered corners which skillfully hide the blacked-out area, which keeps light from the kitchen from intruding on the lighting in the ballroom as servers go back and forth.

"It's always annoyed me during a meeting or artful presentation to all of a sudden see bright fluorescent light or hear the sounds of the kitchen come flooding into the ballroom," said Austin, a veteran convention center director and guest.

"Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates solved that little problem for us neatly."

A wide service corridor between the kitchen, ballroom and exhibit hall will aid the flow of food and beverage servers, along with fully-stocked beverage wait stations, meaning that servers don't have to go back into the kitchen