TETC Wins National Education Design Award

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University’s Teacher Education and Technology Center (TETC) has been named one of the 10 best-designed new higher education buildings in the United States by College Planning & Management magazine.

As part of its 2009 Education Design Showcase, the magazine chose one winner, nine honorable mentions and 13 projects of distinction for “Outstanding Design in Architecture in Education” in the higher education division. Designed by Ayers Saint Gross Architects + Planners of Baltimore, the TETC received an honorable mention.

“The process of designing and constructing an academic building is not easy and Ayers Saint Gross Architects + Planners and contractor, Holder Construction Co., did an outstanding job. We are grateful that the excellence of their design and dedication to its completing are being nationally recognized,” said SU President Janet Dudley-Eshbach. “The TETC provides a striking gateway to our campus, and the state-of-the-art technology is allowing exhilarating innovations in teaching and learning.”

According to studies by the University of California-Los Angeles’ Institute for Democracy, Education and Access and others, student achievement is directly linked, in many cases, to learning environments. J. Eric Moss, the project’s design principal, kept such studies in mind when designing the 165,000-square-foot building.

“One of the most rewarding experiences in this project was the collaborative effort between the University, the design team and the construction manager,” said Moss. “The way the building is designed, it has provided not only a significant opportunity to learn in formal classroom environments, but also significant learning opportunities outside the classroom.”

These include such unique features as outdoor classroom space, as well as the May Literacy Center for children, the Instructional Resource Center with The Carol and Jim Powers Reading Room and the Eastern Shore Children’s Literature Collection.

The $65 million building, which celebrates its first anniversary in September, is home to SU’s Samuel W. and Marilyn C. Seidel School of Education and Professional Studies and also provides resources to music, art and communication arts students in the Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts.

Distinctive features include distance learning classrooms, eight computer labs and a state-of-the-art equipment in an 18,500 Integrated Media Center. The center houses one of the few campus-based high-definition digital video production studios in the United States, as well as the only 24-track audio recording studio on the Eastern Shore, one of only a few in Maryland.  A cutting-edge Electronic Gallery includes plasma screens.

Ayers Saint Gross also won honorable mention awards for Emory University’s Turman Hall and Northern Arizona University’s High Country Conference Center. The firm’s south chiller plant addition at the University of Virginia was named a project of distinction.

Along with SU, other institutions honored by College Planning & Management included the University of Kansas, Texas A&M University, the University of Virginia and New York University.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.