It won’t surprise most Georgia Tech graduates to learn that their fellow alum, John Caddell (ARCH 1952) has a strong competitive streak, especially relating to matters of pride and his alma mater.

As a helluva Building Construction grad, Caddell built an internationally powerful construction company with a project list full of federal buildings, hospitals, airports, even the U.S. Embassies in China and Afghanistan.

But it’s the building that now bears his and his wife’s names that leaves no doubt about which Tech program he thinks is most forward-looking, most ahead of the collegiate pack.

“I wanted Georgia Tech’s Building Construction students to have the best start that they can possibly have,” he said. His generous gift to the School of Building Construction has not only rebuilt the school’s facility; it has sharpened the school’s focus on producing technologically-nimble graduates.

Clad in glass with a cantilevered canopy that shades the building’s windowed walls from the intense, Atlanta sunshine, it’s easy for anyone to see that this is no ordinary learning environment.

Inside, an enormous touch-screen media wall and energy-efficient climate control systems coexist with exposed pipework and concrete columns from the building’s original structure. This ambitious example of adaptive reuse is a LEED platinum certified building that offers students access to real-time sustainability performance information.

Students will learn from the building itself as well as from professors, said Daniel Castro, the chair of the School of Building Construction.

“In order to produce and operate highly effective and sustainable buildings, the architecture, engineering and construction industries increasingly interact through the use of digital tools and work together in new, more collaborative spaces,” he said.

The main “flex space” area of the John and Joyce Caddell Building is that kind of digital collaboration space: Reconfigurable classrooms, virtual modeling software and interactive display technology will train students to access and share information with colleagues from many other disciplines.  

“We expect to change the way Georgia Tech students from Architecture, Engineering, Building Construction, Business, Computing and beyond collaborate,” Castro said.

The John and Joyce Caddell Building will also be an international destination for lunch & learns, conferences and construction industry events. With an influential guest list, the School of Building Construction can break down distance barriers and introduce their students to the industry’s top professionals.

The building offers PhD students and visiting researchers dedicated study and collaborative spaces overlooking Atlanta’s skyline, which was largely designed and built by Georgia Tech grads.

It’s easy to get inspired here, and a far cry from Caddell’s student experience.

Before founding his global construction firm, Caddell used wages he saved from sanding floors for his father’s business to pay his Georgia Tech tuition.

Now members of The Hill Society (Georgia Tech’s most prestigious philanthropic society), John and Joyce Caddell have been supporting Georgia Tech’s Building Construction students through scholarships since 1986.

On Tuesday, April 28, Caddell and his wife will tour their namesake building during the dedication ceremony. Castro, the College of Architecture Dean Steven French and the president of Georgia Tech, G.P. “Bud” Peterson will be on hand to honor the Caddells.

The impact of this generous gift will be immediately evident to all who enter the building – but it will also be one helluva challenge to other Building Construction programs across the country.

It will be a while ‘till someone does better than Caddell.