Cranes dominate the sky of East Campus as construction continues on the Lamar Dodd School of Art.

All year students have watched the flurry of activity as bulldozers and concrete trucks have come and gone and the new building began to take shape from the old Hodgson School of Music parking lot.

Crews began pouring concrete last October, and construction will continue for at least another year, said Danny Sniff, associate vice president for facilities planning.

“The building should be completed during the spring semester of 2008 and open to classes in the fall,” he said. “The building is three weeks ahead of schedule. The only set back was bad hot dogs at the topping off party.”

Everything has proceeded smoothly so far, Sniff said.

“The contractors are excellent.”

The construction of this building has been 15 years in the making. The plan for building was made in 1989, but it did not receive funding until 2004, Sniff said.

“I am very excited about this building,” Sniff said. “It should be a wonderful addition to the campus”.

The Board of Regents approved the building three years ago.

The building is going to be 171,000 square feet, nearly two-thirds the size of the Student Learning Center.

The Lamar Dodd School of Art has more than 1,000 undergraduate students and nearly 100 graduate students.

The new building will allow the art school to have a central location instead of being spread across the campus in seven different locations.

The new building is located next to the School of Music, The Performing Arts Center and the Georgia Museum of Art.

“I love the idea of having more space,” said Cristina Elena Sirbu, a senior art and fabric design major from Sigheta-Maratei, Romania. “The new building is a great idea. I’m going to miss the old visual art building. It is the only building that has won architectural awards on campus”.

The new building was designed by Menefee & Winer Architects to include facilities that would accommodate painting and drawing, fabric design, printmaking and book arts, graphic design, scientific illustration, foundations, art education, digital media and photography in one building.

“I guess it will be nice to be in one location,” said Sirbu.