CNU's Ferguson Center top winner in design competition

News Release - July 7, 2006

Media contact:
Karen L. Gill
Office of Communications and Public Relations
(757) 594-8428

(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Center for the Arts has won a national education design competition.

College Planning & Management magazine named the Ferguson Center for the Arts the 2006 Grand Prize Winner in the 7th Annual Education Design Showcase. It is featured in the magazine’s June 2006 edition.

The contest showcases facilities at colleges and universities that help achieve the best possible learning environment for higher education, as well as being responsive to the needs of students and educators.

“It does what a theater is supposed to do,” said the judges about the Ferguson Center for the Arts. “A theater is as much about being seen as it is about being in it. It’s art. It’s great. It’s a nice project.”

The only other Virginia universities among the 25 winners were an Honorable Mention for Ruffner Hall at Longwood University in Farmville and a Point of Distinction for Centennial Hall at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg.

Judges for the competition were Tom Fernandez, executive vice president of Steed Hammond Paul; Russell Potyrala, director of Maintenance and Operations for the University of Dayton; and Douglas D. Purcell, vice president of Cannon Design.

Christopher Newport University is a four-year public university in Newport News, Virginia. CNU enrolls 4,800 students in programs through its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Luter School of Business and offers great teaching, small classes and an emphasis on leadership, civic engagement and honor. Visit us at www.cnu.edu.

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