Georgia Tech’s new Thomas A. Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center officially opened Thursday, completing a project that spanned “no less than eight years” and cost $90M, according to Ken Sugiura of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. The building replaces the Edge Center, which was opened in 1982. The building’s purpose is to serve Yellow Jackets athletes by “tending to their health, building their strength and supporting their academic endeavors.” The first floor features a “technologically enhanced weight room” that “adjoins a sports science lab.” Georgia Tech AD Ryan Alpert said that “80 to 90% of the center is focused on Tech athletes,” but it was nevertheless “built to gain a financial return.” The fourth-floor cafeteria “looks out onto the stadium above the northeast corner of the field,” with the room “opening out onto a veranda.” On game days, the space will be “converted into a premium seating area.” Alpert said that it “might be fashioned into a beer garden party deck, an area meant as much for socializing as it is for watching the game.” The building was named in honor of Tech alumnus Thomas A. Fanning, who has been a longtime donor to the institute and has “served on many of its most important boards” (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 5/14).
