Construction of Faculty Building Commences

Twenty-five Years of Temporary Trailers Coming to an End

(Winter 2006 Newsletter)

At the October meeting of the Thomas Aquinas College Board of Governors, members of the Board authorized the College to begin construction of its Faculty Building, simultaneous with the construction of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. Construction of this long-awaited building is now underway.

Since its inception, the College has sought to unify its teaching faculty and administrative staff so that all employees would view their work as ordered to the paramount purpose of the school—teaching and learning. In planning for office space, therefore, it was decided that faculty and staff would be housed under one roof to both reflect and help maintain that unity of purpose. Having been asked to design a single building to accommodate the varied functions of all the College’s employees, the architectural firm of Rasmussen & Associates in Ventura, California, has met the challenge with outstanding success.

As the Faculty Building will also become the “front door” of the campus, a new road is simultaneously being constructed that will welcome visitors through the original Ferndale Ranch stone gate, guide them through a tree-lined lane, and, finally, open up to a parking lot adjacent to the new Faculty Building.

Designed in the Spanish Mission Revival style, the U-shaped structure will sit on the northwest corner of the academic quadrangle, between St. Augustine Hall and Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. The location of the Faculty Building will thereby facilitate the myriad interactions among students, faculty, and staff of the College and will increase the staff’s level of efficiency.

Visitors will approach the stately west side of the building from a new parking lot just outside the ground floor entrance to the building. An impressive door—to be constructed from planks made from a mighty redwood, recently fallen on the campus—opens into a large lobby area of space and light. A gracious guest parlor opens to the right, which can be used for receptions as well as extra classroom space when the need arises, and the Admissions office is on the left. Curved stairways rise above the lobby leading to a 42-foot rotunda with eight round windows encircling the top to illuminate the area with natural sunlight.

The Development offices, are located in the west wing, on the first and second floors. Their location, at the top of the stairways, allows easy access for visitors arriving for events or conferences. While Development staff offices are located on the first floor, the chief Development executives are located on the second floor, close to the President of the College.

The Business and Financial Aid offices are in the south wing on the first floor, facing the inside of the academic quadrangle. Since both offices are concerned with student accounts, their proximity to one another will facilitate the necessary communication between the offices. Their position on the first floor, on a level with the academic quadrangle, also makes them easily accessible to students.

Faculty offices fill the remainder of the first floor in the east wing, and on the second floor in the south and east wings. The Dean’s office is located on the second floor in the southeast corner.

In short, tutors, students, and faculty will be able to avail themselves of the College’s various administrative services that, for the first time, will be found in one, centralized location.

The Fletcher Jones Foundation of Los Angeles is playing a critical part in making the Faculty Building a reality, with a most generous grant for its construction fund. The College is deeply grateful to the Jones Foundation for its faithful partnership over the years and for its prior contributions for computer equipment, the scholarship fund and the endowment.

Likewise, it is impossible to reflect on the beginning of the construction for the Faculty Building without acknowledging the crucial role that the Fritz B. Burns Foundation of Los Angeles has played in this project: it is primarily due to the Burns Foundation’s magnificent $3 million grant that the College is able to begin construction. Moreover, the Burns Foundation has been a major contributor to the College for many years and has actively participated in many of the College’s capital projects: St. Augustine classroom building, Albertus Magnus Science Hall, and Blessed Serra and St. Bernard’s Residence Halls, the latter being named for the patron saint of Fritz Burns’ father.

Watching the earth-moving equipment prepare the ground for the Faculty Building, College president Dr. Thomas Dillon commented, “Without the help of the Fletcher Jones Foundation and the Fritz B. Burns Foundation’s steady and deeply generous assistance, the College simply would not exist, let alone thrive as it does today. Now, as we undertake the construction of the Faculty Building, which will strengthen the Thomas Aquinas College community even as it provides a fitting ‘front door’ to our campus, we are proud and thankful that the Fletcher Jones and Burns Foundations are playing such a pivotal role in the life of the College.”

-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 2006

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