Facility upgrades at Coahoma Community College were presented by architect Joey Henderson, president of JBHM Architecture out of Tupelo, during the Coahoma Community College board meeting Monday morning.
Henderson talked about building a new dorm and upgrading the cafeteria on campus. Improving both facilities are part of CCC’s master plan extending several years.
Henderson said the new dorm would be “L” shaped and consist of a shower quad, closet space, a night stand and more. He added the dorms would accommodate the Americans with Disabilities Act laws.
The goal is to have approximately 200 beds, according to Henderson.
“We wanted the dorm to have men and women separated,” Henderson said.
Henderson said the elevators would be separate, but there would be a common laundry space and lounge area.
The form would likely be a three or four-story facility.
Henderson presented the option of a three-story facility having 102 rooms and 402 beds with the building being close to 48,000 square feet.
The four-story options could have 196 rooms with 104 beds or 192 rooms with 208 beds. Both would be close to 50,000 square feet.
“Our square footage has gone up,” Henderson said. “If we need to do the four-story, then we will work on reducing some of this square footage.”
The facility could be near the tennis courts and safe room. The three-story option may have to be two separate buildings.
“A three-story building because of its length is very difficult to fit,” Henderson said.
CCC president Dr. Valmadge Towner stressed the importance of an ideal location for the new dorms.
“It takes students 12 minutes to get from these dorms over to the storm shelter. To me, that is a reason why I would prefer to have dorms by the water tower.”
On the issue of improving the student center, Henderson said goals are to have a new cafeteria kitchen and gain 100 seats. He noted the cafeteria currently has 200 seats.
“We can simply take in the commons area and gain about 100 seats,” Henderson said.
“That’s a real simple basic option for us.”
Henderson said the grill space could be expanded to gain 50 to 55 seats, in addition to the other 100 new seats. He added another place for storage on campus could be found.
“We can accommodate all of those things without doing an addition,” Henderson said.
Expansions could be made outside of the student center to meet all necessary accommodations.
“Our purpose in this was to see how we could accommodate those existing needs of about 100 more seats,” Henderson said.
