Gift names Clemson University lab for Barkers

Published: February 2, 2011

CLEMSON — With money from home at an end, a financial gift kept academic hopes alive for an aspiring young student in Clemson University’s architecture program. The 1968 Langdon Cheves Scholarship not only brought James F. Barker back for his senior year, it led him eventually to the top post as Clemson’s president.

The story of his widowed mother’s struggle to keep three sons in college inspired a Georgia couple to give $50,000 to name a Lee Hall space the Jim and Marcia Barker Tech Lab. The gift honors the leadership of Barker in the same building where he learned the fundamentals of architecture, and it honors Marcia Barker for her leadership role as Clemson University’s First Lady. The lab, which will be used by students in Clemson’s Master of Real Estate Development program, is part of a project to expand and renovate Lee Hall.

The gift from Douglas S. and Rhonda D. Gray of Marietta, Ga., is part of The Will to Lead capital campaign, a multiyear effort to raise at least $600 million to support Clemson University students and faculty. Doug Gray, class of 1982, chairs the university’s Advancement Board for Real Estate Development.

Designed by the late architect and educator Harlan McClure, Clemson's Lee Hall/Lowry Hall complex has earned a place on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places. Clemson broke ground in April 2010 to expand and renovate Lee Hall, which houses the university's architecture, building arts and visual arts programs.

The plan to expand, renovate and restore Lee Hall is funded by federal money and private support. The project is slated for completion by fall 2011 and to be ready for classes in spring 2012.

The expansion portion of the project is a 55,000-square-foot building at the south end of the existing structure. It will be a net-zero-energy ready building that uses very little energy. The design calls for a simple interior that takes advantage of natural light. It employs a geothermal system integrated with radiant heating and cooling in the floors.

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