After an extensive renovation, primarily to repurpose old science laboratories and classrooms into an expansive academic space for Wesleyan’s growing business, education, and psychology programs, Taylor Hall now contains the best features of the building’s original 1928 design paired with 21st century technology, mechanical systems, and furnishings. The result is a beautiful space with history, character, and charm that is also quite modern in its interior design and functionality. Modular furniture allows classrooms to be set up for lectures, small group discussions, individual study, or presentations.
Education students now enjoy space on both the first and second floors. The first floor includes two education classrooms, six faculty offices, a resource room, and a model early childhood classroom. The fieldwork supervisor’s office, a science teaching laboratory, and space for the Center for Educational Renewal are located on the second floor. Each of these wings honors significant donors to the project – the Peyton Anderson Foundation and the Knox family of Thomson and Augusta.
The new early childhood model classroom is a particularly innovative and literacy-rich environment. This unique college classroom is set up to represent an actual early childhood classroom with learning centers modeled throughout the room. From the alphabet and world map rugs on the floor to the kidney-shaped table for guided reading, the room mirrors an early childhood classroom in which student teachers will teach when they enter the workforce. Around the walls are separate writing, reading, research, computer, math, and science centers along with a classroom library.
The Education Department is joined in Taylor Hall by the departments of Psychology, Physics, and Business. The Psychology Department, which continues to attract more than 10% of declared majors at the College, is located on the first floor. This wing contains a lobby that is adjacent to the office suites for psychology professors, along with several large and light-filled classrooms. This growing department also gained a clinical research space on the ground floor, complete with an interview room and student lounge area.
The research suite is fully equipped with recording equipment for research projects, classrooms and labs, a computer lab, and an observation room where research teams may observe interviews in progress. The specially designed research suite and labs allow psychology majors to collect data in-person.
The second floor area across from the Peyton Anderson Wing is the Marvin and Ruth Schuster Wing – the new home for Wesleyan’s thriving Business Department, which year after year produces the highest number of majors on campus, and the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program. The wing honors Marvin Schuster, a Wesleyan Trustee, who embodies the spirit of a true entrepreneur.
While two classrooms, a seminar room, the EMBA Conference Room along with faculty and administrative offices are designated specifically for the Business and Economics Department, the most significant upgrade for this department is that all learning spaces are located in one easy-to-navigate area and all rooms have access to much-needed technology
In total, Taylor Hall now features fourteen electronic classrooms, most of which contain Smart Boards. Specially equipped classrooms include one particularly large computer laboratory offering fifteen computer workstations and two projectors suitable for a wide variety of presentations. Wi-Fi is available throughout the building in addition to wired network connections. Even the lights turn on and off with motion sensors, both for convenience and energy savings.
Wesleyan College received Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification for the Taylor Hall renovation project. The award, from the Green Building Certification Institute, recognizes the building’s energy efficiency and the sustainability of the design and building materials used in its construction. Taylor Hall is Wesleyan’s first LEED-certified green building, and according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) project directory, is the first LEED-certified project in Macon, Georgia. It is among approximately 115 other projects in Georgia to have received certification at the Gold level.
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