DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Paul Quinn College (Paul Quinn), the creator of the Urban Work College Model and one of the nation’s most innovative colleges, broke ground on its first new building on campus in 40 years, the Trammell S. Crow Living and Learning Center.
The Trammell S. Crow Living and Learning Center will be LEED-certified and will feature 30,000 sq. ft. of residential space and 10,000 sq. ft. of classroom and office space. The building will also include a dance studio and a 1,500-person capacity competitive gym.
“As Quinnites, we are charged to live by the standard of Isaiah 58:9-12, which, among other things, commands us to be the restorers of streets and dwellings,” said Michael Sorrell, President of Paul Quinn College. “Today, thanks to the generosity of Trammell S. Crow, the Simmons Foundation, the Hillcrest Foundation, Houston’s Church Without Walls, our National Alumni Association, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and others, we live up to those words. The Crow Living and Learning Center will be the first of many new structures built on this campus.”
More than $7 million in donations and pledges has been raised for the development of the Trammell S. Crow Living and Learning Center by partners Mr. Trammell S. Crow, the Simmons Foundation, the Hillcrest Foundation, the Paul Quinn College National Alumni Association, Houston-based Church Without Walls, and others.
“I have been committed to the vision of Paul Quinn College for many years and believe in the college,” said Trammell S. Crow, Founder of EarthX (formerly Earth Day). “Michael Sorrell is a true leader and has brought together an incredible team of partners to build a place for Paul Quinn College and its students to thrive. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with President Sorrell and Paul Quinn College on this milestone.”
The Trammell S. Crow Living and Learning Center will be designed by RBA Architects. Crimson Building Company and Burchfield & Partners will serve as the developers for the project.
The Texas Mezzanine Fund (TMF), a Community Development Financial Institution and Community Development Entity promoting economic growth in low and moderate-income communities throughout Texas, has allocated $11.5 million of its $75 million in new market tax credits to the project. The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program is a federal tax credit program that is designed to stimulate commercial investment in low-income communities. Through TMF’s NMTC program, it is able to provide low-cost, flexible capital to support large-scale capital investment in low-income census tracts throughout Texas. Partners in the new market tax credits from TMF include PNC Bank, Butler Snow, and Renaissance Capital Partners.
In a second ceremony, Paul Quinn College unveiled the Bishop and Dr. John Hurst Adams and Family Lecture Hall and Auditorium. The state-of-the-art lecture hall/auditorium, which is housed in the Adams Administration Building, was funded in part by the friends and the Family of Bishop and Dr. John Hurst Adams. The new auditorium will be used for classes, speaking engagements, movie screenings, assemblies, and meetings.
The new building groundbreaking and the lecture hall/auditorium unveiling follows the announcement of PQC-Plano, the first site in the planned national expansion of Paul Quinn College’s Urban Work College Model (“Model”). The Model aims to eradicate poverty through combining higher education with access to quality jobs, secure housing, and reduced student loan burden.
For more information on how to partner with Paul Quinn College, contact Shayna Stonom at SStonom@pqc.edu or visit http://www.pqc.edu/invest/.
ABOUT PAUL QUINN COLLEGE
Paul Quinn College, one of the most innovative small colleges in America, is a private, faith-based, four-year, liberal arts-inspired college that was founded on April 4, 1872 by a group of African Methodist Episcopal Church preachers in Austin, Texas. The school’s original purpose was to educate freed slaves and their offspring. Today, Paul Quinn has become a model for urban higher education by focusing on academic rigor, experiential learning, and entrepreneurship. The College proudly educates students of all races and socio-economic classes under the banner of its institutional ethos, WE over Me. Its mission is to provide a quality, faith-based education that addresses the academic, social, and Christian development of its students. The College’s president, Michael Sorrell, was recently named one of Fortune magazine's World’s 50 Greatest Leaders and the HBCU Male President of the Year by HBCU Digest for a record third time.
For more information on enrollment in either the Plano or Dallas campus or for how to partner with Paul Quinn College, please visit http://www.pqc.edu/.
