Grad’s gift supports Clemson’s architecture building project

Published: January 28, 2010

CLEMSON — A 1980 graduate of the Clemson University architecture program has pledged $150,000 toward the expansion, renovation and restoration of Lee Hall, home to architecture and other building- and design-related disciplines.

Wes Carter is president and CEO of Acorn Industrial, a full-service mechanical contractor based in Raleigh, N.C. Carter founded the company, which specializes in commercial and industrial work, in 1997.

Carter’s pledge supports Clemson’s top construction priority. The gift goes toward an estimated $31 million project to expand and restore Lee Hall, home of graduate and undergraduate programs in architecture; art; city and regional planning; construction science and management; landscape architecture; real estate development; and a Ph.D. program in planning, design and the built environment. The project includes designs for a new addition and renovations for the older facilities.

Alumni from the architecture program often remember spending more time in the cramped studios of Lee Hall than in their dorms.

“Having lived in the old Lee Hall while a student at Clemson, I am especially pleased to be part of building a new and sophisticated space for the future design students,” Carter said.

“Clemson University is grateful to Mr. Carter for his support of the much-needed expansion and renovation of Lee Hall,” said Dean Clifton S.M. “Chip” Egan. “More studio space and additional classrooms are essential for our students in design and building and visual arts. This gift puts us closer to that goal.”

While other building priorities on the campus were postponed for budgetary reasons, the university has moved forward with raising funds for the Lee Hall project because the project qualifies for federal stimulus funding restricted to renovation and maintenance projects.

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