Jason Silvers/Tribune Photo The Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Art Center takes shape on the campus of Fort Scott Community College Thursday. [Click to enlarge]

The Fort Scott Tribune

The Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center, scheduled for completion in March 2009, continues to take shape on the campus of Fort Scott Community College.

Tim Carson, a representative of Crossland Construction Company, the Columbus, Kan.-based company that is overseeing construction of the center, said Thursday that crews have not encountered any major problems that resulted in delays since construction on the 44,000-square-foot building began a year ago.

The entire project remains on schedule as planned with a targeted completion date of late March, Carson said.

"The turnaround date for us is March 25," he said. "It's on schedule."

Carson said much of the facility's interior has already been built, including much of the theater and performing arts area, and workers have plans to install heating and air conditioning units in the building next week. Much of the building's structural framing, ceiling and drywall work, and sheet rock installation are also complete, as well as the installation of glass in various parts of the building. Brick veneer on the building's instructional wing will be complete this week, and the entire exterior of the building should be complete in about a month, Carson said.

Workers have also finished pouring a concrete floor in the portion of the building that will eventually be an art gallery, and have installed a protective cover for the floor. As construction progresses, the building is also showing signs of color in several areas. A dedication ceremony for the facility is tentatively scheduled to take place in April 2009, FSCC officials said.

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"They're well on target," FSCC Business and Industry Development Director Daryl Roller said. "They just about have the roof all done. They've got all the brick up. Inside, all the drywall is up and they're putting the ceiling in the auditorium."

Carson said the biggest challenge he and other workers had to face during the course of the project occurred when construction on the facility first began in November 2007. At that time, crews were in the process of completing much excavation work to create a path where the building would be located.

"One big challenge was the footings -- there's 40 footing steps," he said. "We have to dig the footings, which is what the building sits on. And with the height of the walls, the tallest wall is 42 foot, it's been very challenging. Other than that, there is nothing that really stands out (as a problem)."

Carson said working with FSCC officials on the fine arts center project has also been a pleasant experience, and that teamwork and cooperation have kept the project on schedule.

"College officials have been very helpful and involved," he said.

The idea and groundwork for the fine arts center came about in the late 1960s as the college continued to grow. College officials began designing plans for the center a few years ago following a feasibility study FSCC conducted to determine the preferences of the community for new programs or building projects on campus. FSCC officials and community members also indicated a desire to design a way to honor the late Fort Scott native Gordon Parks, a noted author, photographer, filmmaker, poet and musician who died in 2006.

The center will also help address a problem the FSCC music and theater departments have been experiencing for more than 30 years. Both departments, which are still temporarily located in the basement of the administration building, have not had proper production and performance space to meet the needs of students and faculty, who have been using off-campus facilities for rehearsals, performances and stage productions.

The $7.4 million fine arts center is being financed through private donations to the FSCC Endowment Association -- the college's non-profit fundraising department -- and state-approved industrial revenue bonds that the Endowment Association plans to repay over the next 15 years. The association has collected more than $6 million in pledges and donations through its capital campaign and various fundraisers the last five years. FSCC has donated $1.5 million toward construction of the fine arts center.

The association plans to pay for the bonds as pledges and donations continue to come in over the next five to 10 years, and will continue its capital campaign to raise money for the facility through the rest of the year, officials said.

The fine arts center will contain several speech, theater, music and art classrooms and studios, offices, dressing rooms and community meeting rooms, a performing arts hall and 600-seat auditorium for campus and community theater and music productions, an academic hall, an art gallery and exhibition space, an atrium, and the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity. FSCC broke ground on the center in October 2007. The community will also be able to use the center to host a variety of programs, workshops and speakers.

The center is named for local philanthropists Danny and Willa Ellis, who donated $1 million to the center in 2006. The Kathy Ellis Academic Hall inside the fine arts center will be named after the Ellis' late daughter, Kathy, a one-time teacher at FSCC who died in 1997.