Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Berry College Renovates Historic Ford Auditorium

  • 07/23/19

ROME, GA – High-performance acoustics, digital lighting and sound systems, and reconfigured audience seating are among enhancements underway as JE Dunn Construction renovates and restores historic Ford Auditorium on the campus of Berry College in Rome, GA.

The renovation—funded by gifts from more than 400 alumni and friends—will enhance the experiences of artists and audience members alike, delivering benefits from improved sightlines to impressive multimedia capabilities, while preserving and restoring historic elements of the facility, which dates to the late 1920s.

Ford Auditorium is Berry’s signature venue for music performance. It also provides rehearsal and classroom spaces for the college’s music program. It is part of a group of campus buildings known as the Ford Complex, named after Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford, who along with his wife, Clara, were generous supporters in the earliest days of the school. These impressive English Gothic structures were featured on a recent USA Today list of 51 amazing university and college buildings.

Berry College Ford Auditorium

Improvements to the iconic auditorium will also include repairing the building’s leaded stained glass cathedral windows, enlarging the stage and upgrading curtain systems, new seating, reestablishing the plaster arches, refurbishing the lobby and restrooms, revamping MEP systems, and installing a new oak tongue-and-groove radiused ceiling.

The project’s architect of record is Cevian Design Lab. Kirkegaard Associates of Chicago is providing acoustics consulting.

The auditorium will be completed in time for start of spring semester January 2020.

Featured

  • abstract illustration of school gym

    How the Gymnasium Can Serve as a Model for Learning Space Design

    Multipurpose gyms work because flexibility was built into the brief from the start, not retrofitted later. The same logic applies to academic spaces.

  • KWK Architects Announces Full Transition to Lawrence Group Branding

    KWK Architects recently announced that it will complete its transition to the Lawrence Group brand effective July 1, according to a news release. The merger marks the end of a three-year strategic integration process that began in March 2023 to unite the firms.

  • St. John Fisher University

    Classroom Revitalization – Basil Hall Room 216

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. St. John Fisher University's Basil Hall Room 216 Classroom Revitalization has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of Spaces.

  • Philadelphia Middle School Facility Earns LEED Gold Certification

    The Alternative Middle Years (AMY) at James Martin Middle School in Philadelphia, Penn., recently received a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to a news release. The School District of Pennsylvania partnered with KSS Architects on the project.