A new Brenau landmark soon to appear

GAINESVILLE - It is a stack of wooden crates right now on the lawn of the main campus in front of Brenau University's historic Pearce Auditorium, but within a few weeks what's in those crates will make its own history.

There's a new landmark about to appear for Brenau and for Gainesville. A 17-foot tall, 17-foot wide Italian marble gazebo will invite students to contemplate Brenau's new direction into the 21st century, according to Dr. Wayne Dempsey, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

"The purpose of the gazebo is to give a visualization of the new strategic plan for Brenau University to be accomplished by the year 2025," Dempsey said. "That plan calls for four portals our students will pass through, one for world view, one for science, one for creativity and the other for communication."

Dempsey said as Brenau is restructured into a graduate and undergraduate school, every course would tie to a portal.

"When our students leave Brenau, we hope we have equipped them to have an appreciation for the world and to understand what it means to really lead an extraordinary life," he said.

The gazebo, designed by Gainesville architect Garland Reynolds, represents the four portals and will for years to come, according to Dempsey.

"Ten, 15, 20 years from now when students think back on Brenau, we hope they'll think about the time they spent in this gazebo reflecting on the true meaning of what Brenau offered them," he said.

The gazebo had a long journey to its final destination.

"The marble was purchased in Italy, then shipped to China where it was constructed, then it was shipped to Los Angeles, Calif., and freighted around until it arrived here last week," Dempsey said.

All that marble weighed a lot, much more than the expected 16,950 pounds, and the crane waiting to unload it could not budge its actual 45,000 pounds.

"We had to do some improvisation pretty quickly to get it off the truck," Dempsey recalled.

Assembly should begin in about three weeks, with completion some time between the end of October and mid-November.

Dempsey said a member of the Brenau trustees donated the entire cost of the gazebo.

"It will embrace what we have been as a university since the 1870s and the excitement that we have over what the university will continue to evolve into over the next 100 years," he said.