HGA Architects and Engineers has won a national honor award for the performance and studio arts campus at Columbus State University overlooking the Chattahoochee River in downtown Columbus, GA. Sponsored by the Society for College University Planning (SCUP)/American Institute of Architects Committee on Architecture for Education (AIA-CAE), the Excellence in Architecture program recognized HGA for helping rejuvenate an historic part of downtown Columbus while raising the visibility of the college's growing arts programs.

"This project creates a reason to come and remain downtown," said the jurors. "The overall site plan provides great aspirations for the future." Blending two programs into a single structure to create synergy between disciplines, the 110,000-sq.-ft. performance and studio arts campus consists of a renovated cotton warehouse for studio arts and a new performance complex for theater programs. The arts complex is part of a campus master plan that reclaims the urban riverfront 10 miles from the main university campus. Over the last five years, the university has relocated its fine arts departments to new facilities in the city's downtown center in a commitment to urban revitalization. Sited near the Columbus Convention Trade Center, RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, and Springer Opera House, the performance and studio arts complex brings greater architectural definition to the downtown campus while reaching out to the larger urban community. 

The jurors cited the project for its successful approach to urban renewal; adaptive reuse;  downtown riverfront revitalization; ecologically sound and cost-effective reuse of old buildings; increased cultural exchange between the university and community.  HGA's project team included Gary Reetz, AIA, principal-in-charge; Loren Ahles, FAIA, project designer; Paul Asp, PE, structural engineer; Edward Clements, PE, mechanical engineer;  Benjamin Gutierrez, electrical systems designer.

The nationally recognized jurors, selected for their planning and design expertise, consisted of Stephen F. Troost, jury chair and campus planner for the office of campus planning and administration at Michigan State University, East Lansing; Mark H. Hough,campus landscape architect in the Office of the University Architect at Duke University, Durham, NC; Michael Jemtrud,associate professor and director in the School of Architecture at McGill University, Montréal; Eugene (Gene) J. Mackey, III, principal of Mackey Mitchell Associates, St. Louis, Miss.; Mark J. Maves, architectural consultant and campus planner; James Richard,principal at Richard + Bauer Architecture, Phoenix; Lisa Rochon, architecture critic for The Globe and Mail, Toronto; and Maria I. Wilpon,director of architecture at BL Companies, New York City.