Life is about to get significantly easier for members of the Georgia Military College community. Ground was broken, just before a light rain shower, early Tuesday morning for a new building that will house every aspect of several key departments of the school, such as Academic Affairs Administration, Registrar’s Office, Learning Center and many more.
The Academic Center of Excellence (ACE) building will greatly help with consolidating a lot of important offices scattered around different buildings on campus to create a more streamlined environment, according to President Lieutenant General William Caldwell IV.
“Right now if you want to find Vice President Isaac, you have to go into one building and more often than not they’ll say, ‘oh she just left,’ then you’ll go across campus and whoever is over there will tell you the same thing! Well now she won’t be able to leave anymore because she’ll always be right here,” joked Caldwell.
Before helping with the groundbreaking ceremony District 145 Representative Rick Williams made some remarks about GMC as a whole, praising the school for making another addition that will vastly improve the experience of everyone involved in both GMC and GMC Prep.
“I’m grateful for GMC’s legacy of developing leaders from legislators, governors and leaders all over the state. This building has been a long time coming, and I am very happy it is finally going to be a reality,” said Williams.
As several members of the community, including Mayor of Milledgeville Mary Parham-Copelan, prepared for the dirt-digging part of the ceremony, the assembled crowd began to feel more and more excitement. This is something that they have been waiting years for that is finally taking place. Alumni with varying levels of seniority looked on with smiles on their faces, and J.B. Altman, a football player for the school’s Junior College, recited the pledge of allegiance prior to the opening remarks.
The ACE building will be located at the corner of S. Jefferson St. and E. Baldwin St, across from the main campus and on the same block as the GMC Foundation & Alumni House. Designed and built by the Fry Design Group, the building will have two-story-tall glass windows to allow anyone to easily see in and out of the building, a similar design to Georgia College’s recently built Integrated Science building. As it is part of GMC’s campus, the tops of the walls will feature a parapet design in order to fit in with the military theme. Once the building is completed, which is anticipated to be by the fall of 2023, anyone part of the departments that will be housed within it will move into one of the many brand-new office spaces that will also allow for more room for people meeting in them.