{"id":1374,"date":"2026-03-20T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2026\/03\/20\/2026-03-20-smith-hall-wins-award\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:08:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:08:58","slug":"2026-03-20-smith-hall-wins-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2026\/03\/20\/2026-03-20-smith-hall-wins-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Smith Hall wins\u00a0award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Olivia Massucci<\/a> · Staff Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grove City College\u2019s renovation of Smith Hall of Science and Technology won a 2025 Master Builder Association (MBA) Building Excellence Award for its revitalization of one of the oldest buildings on campus for modern STEM education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The college shared the award, recognizing renovations of over $20 million, with contractor Landau Building Company of Allison Park, Pa. and architects Smith Group of Pittsburgh. The total cost of the renovation was approximately $48 million, funded entirely by donations and gifts to the college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful for the college to be recognized in this way. This was such a big project for us, bigger than anything we\u2019ve done in a very, very long time, if ever,\u201d Vice President for Advancement Jeff Prokovich said. \u201cIt was taking a building that hadn\u2019t been renovated or kept up to date as much as other buildings on campus, transforming it and making it into a design that would be great for the next 50 years was a big deal, a big accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The renovation provides students with a state-of-the-art academic environment featuring advanced technology, improved lab safety systems and a variety of study spaces. Vice President for Operations Susan Grimm said the updated facility also helps prepare students for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re providing a state-of-the-art technology package so when somebody walks out of here, they have a better understanding of how to function in a business environment or graduate program,\u201d Grimm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prokovich added that the building serves the entire campus, not only STEM majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have design classes and design faculty teaching and working out of Smith Hall as well,\u201d Prokovich said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s broader than just the STEM majors that one would think of in a science building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project aimed to keep the character and charm of the original science hall while transforming it into a building for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you look at the quad that was designed by the Olmsted brothers back in the day, that science hall really was the centerpiece or the showplace of the entire campus,\u201d said Prokovich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grimm added to that statement, addressing the historical significance of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the neat thing about the building, why it was important to us to renovate instead of replace it, is that it was built during the Depression. Part of the reason that we built Rockwell in the \u201830s was to keep the townspeople employed during the Depression,\u201d Grimm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was important to us to make sure that during that renovation, we still spoke to the history of the building. So, though it was modernized, every finish was picked to maintain the heart of the building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Prokovich and Grimm stressed that the project would not have been possible without Grove City\u2019s partners. Grimm highlighted the close personal bonds formed during the construction project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe successful completion of the Rockwell to Smith renovation was made possible through the trust, collaboration, respect and exceptional dedication shown by the entire team of architects, contractors and the college,\u201d Grimm said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much pride in this project because we had the most cohesive project team that I\u2019ve ever worked with. We were so bonded together as a team. \u2026 We\u2019re still friends, and we still do things together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith Hall was renamed from Rockwell following a lead gift to the project from alumni and technology entrepreneur William \u201cBill\u201d Smith and his wife Dieva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Building Excellence Award brought meaningful outside recognition to the project, Grimm said the team\u2019s pride in the project existed even before the honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that that award really represented what we\u2019ve done and what we wanted to achieve with the Rockwell to Smith renovation,\u201d Grimm said. \u201cThe award was the icing on the cake. If we wouldn\u2019t have won that, our team would be so proud of that building anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grove City College\u2019s renovation of Smith Hall of Science and Technology won a 2025 Master Builder Association (MBA) Building Excellence Award for its revitalization of one of the oldest buildings on campus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[14,51,79],"class_list":["post-1374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus","tag-front-page","tag-issue-2026-03-20","tag-olivia-massucci"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Grove City College\u2019s renovation of Smith Hall of Science and Technology won a 2025 Master Builder Association (MBA) Building Excellence Award for its revitalization of one of the oldest buildings on campus","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1704,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions\/1704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}