A 71-year old cattle barn will be reborn as a modern classroom and laboratory building in a dedication ceremony on Oct. 22 at the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.
An artist’s rendering of the Ocean Sciences Instructional Center
University president Jere Morehead will preside over the ceremony, which will cap the year-long renovation of the reinforced concrete and steel beam structure.
The Ocean Sciences Instructional Center was built in 1948 by Robert and Dorothy Roebling who operated a cattle breeding facility they called Modena Plantation. It was designed as a show barn for their herd of black angus cattle. In 1967, the Roeblings donated their property to the State of Georgia to become the home of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.
The barn’s interior circa 1948
The Roeblings designed the new, state of the art barn to house show cattle and also to conduct auctions. It was the venue for the Roeblings’ annual cattle show that attracted buyers from around the country and Europe. They built a round structure, 110-feet in diameter, with a ring of stalls around the perimeter. It contained a second deck for hay storage and auction seating. At one end, there was a small silo with a feed mixing room and an attached apartment for a herdsman.
In 1950, two years after completion, a large crowd gathered at the barn for a wedding reception for the Roebling’s daughter Ellin. Tables and chairs for the guests were set up in the stalls, and instead of oats and barley, the mangers were filled with ice and bottles of champagne.
Ellin’s wedding
Wedding guests in one of the stalls.
Since Skidaway Institute took over the property, the barn has served primarily as storage and a place to prepare large pieces of equipment for cruises or deployments. With the support of the Chatham County Legislative Delegation, the Georgia General Assembly appropriated $3 million in 2016 to remodel and repurpose the building into functional laboratory and classroom space.
The OSIC interior today
The OSIC contains two state-of-the-art electronic classrooms. These can be used by either Skidaway Institute-based faculty to teach courses that include students at the UGA main campus in Athens, or for the reverse — students at Skidaway Institute receiving instructions from Athens-based faculty.
The building also houses a teaching laboratory designed to instruct up to 20 students. The lab design includes a large observation window that will allow visitors to watch research and instruction in progress. It is named for the late Albert Dewitt Smith, Jr., a UGA alumnus whose family made a generous donation to Skidaway Institute.
The Albert Dewitt Smith, Jr. Observational Laboratory
In addition to two faculty offices, the OSIC offers ample collaborative space for students and faculty to work together on projects.
The post UGA Skidaway Institute to dedicate Ocean Sciences Instructional Center appeared first on Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.