NCCC building to open in August

WINSTED —  After several years of planning, construction on Northwestern Connecticut Community College’s (NCCC) Joyner Health Science Center, will be ready to open on Tuesday, Aug. 29, according to college President Michael Rooke.

Rooke said a ribbon cutting ceremony is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 12.

The building will house NCCC’s Allied Health programs starting in the fall semester.

Plans for the center have been in place since 2008, when NCCC received a $4 million donation.

In July 2015, the state’s Bond Commission authorized $24.7 million to construct the new building, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held last October.

The new building is located next to where the college housed its programs at 100 South Main St.

The previous building was built in 1955 as a supermarket and was purchased by the state in September, 1983, for use by the college.

The building was at one point used as its library, then eventually used as its Allied Health Center.

In a previous interview, college President Michael Rooke said the Joyner Health Science Center is the college’s third new building since it opened in 1965.

NCCC’s Learning Resource Center opened in 2003, while the college’s Arts and Science building opened in 2008.

“Construction is going very well,” Dean of Administration Steven Frazier told The Winsted Journal. “Most of the interior of the building is complete. There has been a slight glitch with the fact that the installation of the building’s handrails for its stairways has been delayed. The handrails are not expected to be delivered until July 20. We can’t get our certificate of occupancy until then.”

Frazier said the college cannot move its equipment from the old Allied Health building into the new building until it receives a certificate of occupancy.

“But once we receive our certificate, we should be in decent shape,” Frazier said. “The building will be ready. There will be parking spaces available at the old building. New parking spaces won’t be available until the end of September.”

The college plans on tearing down the old building in order to use the space for parking.

“The building looks beautiful inside,” Frazier said. “Both the old building and the new building have the same amount of space, 24,000 square feet. The problem with the old building was there was a lot of space in it that could not be used because of the way it was designed. It ended up being wasted space.”

According to NCCC public relations associate Susan Stiller, artwork by Natick, Mass., artist Michele Gutlove will be installed.

According to Stiller, Gutlove was chosen through the state’s Office of Culture and Tourism, which awards funds for art projects in public spaces.

Via email, Stiller wrote that the state has set aside $135,000 for the art project.

Gutlove wrote about her art project for the building in her proposal to NCCC. She wrote that the project will be “an impressionistic sculpture of the Still River, dynamic art in glass, color and light.

“The artwork will illuminate the location by celebrating beauty in the river, which runs along the campus. [The sculpture will be] an impressionistic, three-dimensional rendition of the flowing river and ubiquitous life above and within the water, barn swallows and striped bass. In a celebration of life-giving sunlight, it will invite the viewer on a journey of imagination. Viewers will discover other imagery as they view the sculpture over time.”

Gutlove wrote that the suspended sculpture will be made of numerous pieces of handmade glass elements.

“While the glass itself is transparent, its effect on the space is colorful and dynamic,” she wrote. “Colors transform dynamically as the glass, its shadows, reflections and refractions, are observed in changing light and from different angles. The subtly changing artwork enhances the character of atrium space, and the lobby of the center becomes a signature for the college.”