The College of Charleston (CofC) unveiled in August the anticipated new Albert Simons Center for the Arts following the building’s multimillion dollar, three-year-long renovation. Those who studied at the College and took classes in the old Simons Center will be blown away upon seeing the building’s transformation: from dingy, dated and dark, to bright, clean and spacious, with updates to technology, sustainability and accessibility features.
The four-story Simons Center, located on St. Philip Street in the heart of the college’s campus, closed in the fall of 2021 to undergo extensive renovations. Students studying arts management, theater, music and more had classes relocated to different campus buildings during the interim. August marked the first time students were taking classes in the new facilities.
Improvements to the Simons Center include additions to the theater department such as a new, two-story black box theater, as well a state-of-the-art costume shop, scene shop and theater design studio. Art students in will enjoy new studios for printmaking and drawing, and revel in the addition of two kilns for ceramics, as well as spray booths for use of aerosols. There’s also improved exhaust venting in studio spaces and a gallery for student solo exhibitions and guest artists.
“The new students just take it for granted, but the ones who know what it was like to work in that cramped-up, old studio are totally thrilled by it,” Professor Barbara Duvall said of the new printmaking studio. “It’s a huge improvement.”
Students on the arts management or music performance tracks will get to take advantage of the new recording studio space, the digital lab, music practice rooms and improved acoustic experiences in the recital hall.
The building also has improvements in its mechanical, electrical and plumbing functions.
Fulfilling a need
Built in 1979, the Simons Center served around 800 students. With the largest first-year class in the college’s history enrolled this semester — around 11,000 students — the renovation of the facility could not have come at a better time, instructors say.
Theater professor Todd McNerney said the college has been working towards this renovation since before he started at CofC back in 1995.
“The planning of this goes back to the significant growth of the entire institution between 1973 and 1998. During that 25-year period, the institution sort of exploded. The need for this has existed for 20 years or more,” McNerney said.
“The Simons Center was built to support about 800 students of a campus population that was maybe 3,000, where they’d come and take an arts appreciation class or two. These days, we have approximately 800 arts majors alone.”
What took so long to get the ball rolling? According to McNerney, the renovation got split into two separate projects, with the decision made in 2008 to renovate the Cato center first. It faces Calhoun Street and houses the Halsey Institute. That got done in 2009.
“For a number of reasons, the price tag made it difficult or challenging or impossible. As time goes on, that price tag changes. You invest in the institution, and the state invests money in one portion of a building, but then there are other buildings on our campus that need attention. And like with any construction project, you discover things along the way that slow you down.”
Other renovations also happened in segments, he explained, like the Rita Liddy Hollings Science Center, which opened on Coming Street in the fall of 2018 after a four-year, $65 million renovation.
“The renovation of the Simons Center offers all kinds of new things to our students,” he said, “and allows us to be positioned to deliver outstanding arts education for another 40 years.”
From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 14, the college will host the grand opening of the new Simons Center, featuring performances, creative work on display, and an opportunity to meet the new dean of the School of the Arts, Jayme Host, who started in July. Learn more online at cofc.edu.
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