The Culp Center will be undergoing a multimillion dollar renovation that will update almost every aspect of the building.
The renovation will begin Aug. 28 and will last anywhere from four to five semesters. “We see this project ending in fall 2007 or possibly spring 2008,” said Tony Warner, director of the Culp Center. “We chose to start it (in August) because it misses the major events that happen in the summer, like orientations.”
The money for the renovation will be coming from several locations. An amount of $6.5 million will come from the money used to pay the mortgage on the Culp Center.
“Every student pays an activity fee of about $72 that was used to help pay off the bonds on the Culp Center and the Mini-Dome,” Warner said. “Both of those buildings will be paid for this year. We will take the money that was used for that and pay for the renovation. The student fees will not be raised. They will stay the same.”
Additional funds will come from the state which will provide the money needed to give the Culp Center a new roof. “Altogether the money will all add up to $8 million or $9 million,” Warner said.
The proposed changes for the Culp Center will take place in four different phases.
The first part of this will begin in August and will result in the closing of the Auditorium, the Cave and the section of the third floor that contains the Counseling Center, Career Placement, the East Tennessean office and some of the meeting rooms. “Everything from the elevator down will be closed,” Warner said.
During the renovations, students will still be allowed to enter the Culp Center. “The only parts that will be closed off are the ones that will be undergoing the changes,” Warner said. “You may get a little dusty and you may have to take the long way around but you will have access to the building.”
The offices that will be in the affected areas will be moved to the old student center that is located across from the old Sherrod Library. “We are doing everything we can to make this as easy as possible on everyone,” Warner said. “I have ordered signs that will direct people to the new locations for the offices and hopefully that will help some.”
Warner said that that “biggest hunk” of the funds will be spent on a new HVAC system for the Culp Center. “Right now there are no thermostats,” he said. “We either have air, or we have heat or we have nothing at all. With these changes the Culp Center will be more comfortable.”
The aesthetic changes that will be made during this renovation are what Warner said he feels will make the biggest change. The Martha Street Culp Auditorium will receive new carpeting, new wall coverings and new upholstery for the seats. “This hasn’t been changed in 30 years,” he said.
The Cave will also undergo many changes. The lighting will be upgraded and the seating will be changed.
“We will lose some of the tables and chairs and we will put in more comfortable seating,” Warner said. “We will also be putting in some wide screen plasma TVs.”
The patio of the Cave will have the cement barriers on both levels knocked out and wrought iron railings will be installed on the upper level. Stairs will also be added that will connect the upper and the lower levels of the patio. A permanent stage will be added on the upper level and a double sided fireplace will be installed.
“We hope that this will add some usability to the patio and make it a more welcoming place for students to be,” Warner said.
A small but much anticipated change that will occur will be with the clocks.
“President Stanton said the only thing he really wanted to see out of this renovation was clocks that work,” Warner said.
Currently the clocks in the Culp Center are radio frequency clocks that rely on a radio signal to update the time.
“The problem with that is this building has really thick walls,” Warner said. “The signal can’t reach the clocks. We will fix this by putting a receiver on the roof the runs on Global Positioning technology, like cars have. This also has an accurate time with it. We have tested this and it works, so the Culp Center will have working clocks.”
Other changes that will occur in the Culp Center will be the replacement of every floor and ceiling tile, upgrading of the restrooms and an overhaul of the passenger elevator.
The main building doors outside the bookstore will be move out under the ramp and the area in front of Bucmart will be glassed in.
Another area that will be glassed in is the ramp. “When a building is update the entire place has to be brought up to current fire codes,” Warner said.
“If an open space is more than two stories tall it has to be enclosed or it has to have a large fan at the top to suck the smoke out if there was a fire. The most cost effective thing to do was to glass the area in.”
Warner said that students don’t have to worry about opening doors on every floor because the doors will remain open unless there is a fire, then they will automatically shut.
The Culp Center won many awards in the 1970s for the energy-efficient design.
“We had architects and people from other universities come here to look at our building,” Warner said.”This was built during the energy crisis of the ’70s so it was good. Now we are spending millions of dollars to undo what we once won awards for.

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