GMC News

On July 1, after many months of anticipation, Georgia Military College assumed occupancy of Usery Hall and prep school staff and faculty began moving into their new home. The new 70,111 square-foot building provides a centralized state-of-the-art learning facility for GMC’s entire preparatory school program (grades 6-12) which was previously scattered throughout five campus buildings. The facility is three stories tall with 36 classrooms (each equipped with a 95-inch Promethean interactive white board), three science labs, two computer labs, two music rooms, administrative and counseling offices, a courtyard, space for Junior ROTC training and a Health Services Center. Named for GMC alumnus and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, W.J. Usery, Jr., classes will begin at Usery Hall in August. Usery Hall was designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent architects (LAS), and constructed by Skanska, a leading national and local provider of construction, pre-construction consulting, general contracting and design-build services, which will be addressing some finishing touches during the month of July. As a historic campus, GMC challenged LAS and Skanska to create this new building while respecting the existing architecture of the campus and, at the same time, integrating modern building materials and new technologies. The LAS design called for a quality, durable façade made up of a nearly two foot thick wall of concrete blocks, jumbo sized utility brick, dampproofing and nearly one inch of direct applied stucco. Anyone who visits the project and sees the exterior of this building would agree that is was designed and built to last for the long term. Landscaping crews work tirelessly planting shrubs and laying sod around Usery Hall.