Columbus State University - Corn Center for the Visual Arts and Riverside Theater Complex

Synergy Between Disciplines

At Columbus State University’s 125,000-SF Corn Center for the Visual Arts and Riverside Theater Complex helps rejuvenate the historic downtown while raising the visibility of the college’s growing arts programs. Consisting of a renovated cotton warehouse for studio arts and a new performance complex for theater programs along the Chattahoochee River, the campus seamlessly blends two distinct programs into a single building to create synergy between disciplines.

The two different programs required unique approaches. The Studio Arts program with nine studios fits within the 22-foot height of the cotton warehouse. The new theater complex, clad in locally quarried brick, occupies the site of two demolished warehouse bays. An expansive glass curtain wall and garden courtyards unite the new brick theater and existing warehouse, bringing light, and landscape into the buildings.