Savannah College of Art & Design Thomas Center
completed: 2010
location: Savannah, Georgia
Originally the convent of the Franciscan Sister of Immaculate Conception, this 7,000 square foot facility, built in 1908, has been transformed into classroom and workspace for SCAD's historic preservation department. This Greek Revival building is located on Broad Street within Savannah's historic district, and includes a conservation laboratory, a restoration workshop, an outdoor work pavillion, lecture and drafting classrooms, a computer lab, exhibition space and a lecture hall. The building is named for the Supreme Court Justice who studied at the adjacent school run by the sisterhood in the 1950's. The department's conservation laboratory, one of few such academic facilities in the United States, is equipped for testing architectural materials, analyzing restoration treatments and experimenting with conservation techniques.
