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New Building

Update: Follow Our Progress Blog to keep up with the latest news on the new law building. 

After 30 years of retrofitting space in Georgia State University's Urban Life Building, the College of Law is constrained by a facility never intended to support legal education. The college seeks to build its first building—one designed to support the programmatic demands of a 21st-century legal instruction.

The goal

To construct an architecturally distinctive and environmentally sustainable building that honors the historic context of the buildings around it. The new building will serve the college’s public mission, acting as a resource for the legal world and the greater community through the law library and a conference center. The space will be flexible and will allow for growth in the student body and developments in legal education. 

Timeline

  • Pre-design and programming phase: Fall 2008 to Fall 2010
  • Land purchased by university: December 2010
  • Design phase: Spring 2011 to Fall 2012
  • Groundbreaking: Thursday, Sept. 12 (Learn more)
  • Open for classes: Fall 2015

Building highlights

  • 200,000 gross square feet and 130,000 net square feet; sustainable construction standards   
  • 21 state-of-the art classrooms, including a 230-seat formal moot courtroom/auditorium 
  • Law library of the future contains a large variety of group study and collaborative learning spaces 
  • Faculty offices embedded on the teaching floors to better facilitate student-faculty collaboration.
  • Commitment to public service
    • A 200+ seat conference center and auditorium
    • Almost 10,000 square feet for clinics to provide legal services to the underserved 
    • A state-of-the-art arbitration center with three large hearing rooms and nine breakout rooms to support Georgia’s and Atlanta's commitment to serve the international and domestic venue needs for formal extra-judicial dispute resolution

Building Website

Looking for more information? Find building features, image galleries and construction updates at building.law.gsu.edu.


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Location

• Corner of John Wesley Dobbs Avenue and Park Place, north of Woodruff Park

• Just steps to Peachtree Center MARTA station

• Would serve as north entrance to the campus from landmark Peachtree Street terminus

• Convenient to Capitol, local, state and federal courts

• Adjacent to the planned J. Mack Robinson College of Business facility