WINTER HAVEN — The Winter Haven Fine Arts Building is nearly three times as old as many Polk State College students, and until recently it was showing its 47 years.
The 65,000-square-foot facility gleams anew after the completion of a nearly two-year renovation that brightened its appearance and yielded an array of enhancements that benefit students and instructors.
A pair of professors radiated delight during a recent tour of the building, while Nancy Lozell, program manager for the arts, shed happy tears.
“I’m just so grateful for all of what they’ve done,” Lozell said in a voice clotted with emotion. “It’s a beautiful transformation. My heart is just so full of gratitude.”
In 2021, the Florida Legislature allocated $16.2 million in Public Education Capital Outlay funds for the renovation of the building, which opened in 1978. Construction began in March 2023, led by Rowe Architects, with AD Morgan Corp. and DuCon serving as construction managers.
Lozell credited Craig Collins, who retired in January as associate vice president for corporate and leadership development, with shepherding the renovation plans.
Polk State College held a ribbon-cutting event Jan. 21 to celebrate the project’s completion. The gathering also served to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the school, which opened in 1964 as Polk Junior College.
Polk State now has nearly 15,000 students and operates main campuses in Winter Haven and Lakeland, as well as four others, with plans for a Haines City campus to open in 2026.
The Fine Arts Building holds classrooms and practice spaces for students seeking associate of arts degrees in music, visual arts and theater, most of whom continue their studies at four-year colleges or universities, PSC spokesperson Madison Fantozzi said.
Theater gets an overhaul
The renovation began with replacement of the roof and installation of a new heating and air conditioning system. The contractors carried out the project in stages, Lozell said, allowing classes and performances to continue, even as she moved her office several times.
During the first phase, the music wing was mostly closed.
“So we transformed the gallery into a band room,” Lozell said. “Basically, we didn’t have an art display or anything like that. It was storage and a band room. And our lobby ended up being kind of a rehearsal (space) for performances. And we did end up having performances; they were just outside. We rented a stage, and we brought the community to the outside instead of the (inside). So, we never really missed a beat.”
In the second phase, classes and other activities shifted to the music wing as the arts section was closed for renovations.
Among the changes to the art gallery, contractors created a glass entry way in what was previously a solid wall. The gallery reopened with an exhibit called Canvas of Community, displaying works from Polk State professors Holly Scoggins and Juan Rivera, as well as photos by Daryl Ward, executive director of the Polk Arts and Culture Alliance, and by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
Workers upgraded lighting throughout the building, replacing most light fixtures and converting others to use LED bulbs. That transformed a previously dim building that could appear dark and dormant from the outside, said Andrew Coombs, an art professor and chair of the Department of Fine Arts.
The building’s theater received a thorough overhaul. Scaffolding remained in place throughout the space for about five months, said Jeff Boisseau, the technical supervisor. Workers installed acoustic clouds in the ceiling and placed baffles along the walls, while transforming flat walls into curves to further improve sound transmission.
The theater received a new array of Adamson speakers, which hang from the ceiling in front of the stage, along with an upgraded sound mixing console, Boisseau said. Workers refinished the entire stage floor and hung a new cyclorama curtain.
The stage gained an improved fly rail system, a network of 28 nylon ropes employing counter weights to control battens that hold curtains, lights and props.
The theater lost two of its 490 seats, as crews added steps to create new center access to the lower rows in the center.
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Behind the stage, student performers have new dressing rooms and makeup rooms, dazzling spaces with rows of lights arrayed around large mirrors. Manufacturer’s tags still hung from newly acquired chairs in the room.
The renovation added speakers to the makeup rooms, so that performers can hear what’s happening onstage. Video screens will soon be added, Boisseau said.
Professor: ‘Phenomenal’ improvements
Coombs, who has taught at Polk State for 10 years, stood with a small cluster of students on a recent afternoon in the building’s Design Room, leading a critique of artistic submissions. The spacious room has high ceilings lined with rows of LED lights and individual lights that can be directed toward the sturdy work tables.
During a break from class, Coombs described the changes the renovation brought to the space.
“It’s phenomenal,” Coombs said. “We’ve always had such a unique space, like, these huge rooms. But I think over the last, what, 40, 50, years, the needs have changed, and they’ve become kind of crowded and not nearly as functional as they should be. So with the renovation, we’ve been able to be here and see, ‘OK, these are the problems we’re having,’ and solve them with redesigning and make these spaces just work really well for what we’re doing, for what we’re teaching, so that the students, they’re able to move around, do the work that they need to do and do it all comfortably.”
Electrical supplies are built into the ceiling, allowing students to pull down cords toward their work tables, rather than having electrical cords snaking all over the floor. Sinks set in the room’s center, clogging the space, have been replaced by ones along the walls. Crews also installed two new ceramic kilns during the renovation.
The teaching space now contains separate Design 1 and Design 2 zones. In the former, students do “clean work,” drawing designs on paper. In the smaller, connected Design 2 area, students translate designs into three-dimensional objects, working with such materials as concrete, sand and metal.
“Before, we were all using the same tables,” Coombs said. “Of course, we always have to clean up well, but there’ll always be some little bit of Styrofoam, or some grain of sand. That one grain of sand, when you’re drawing, all of a sudden, it’s like — wow.”
Even the floor of the design room is less slippery when wet, Coombs said.
Sarah Brewington Baarns, a professor of visual arts and photography, could not stop smiling as she led a tour of the photo department.
“If you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited,” said Brewington, who is only in her second semester at Polk State.
The main classroom, dedicated to digital photo processing, contains rows of desk with computer monitors and two large screens for critiquing images — an improvement on projectors the classes previously used.
One corner of the room serves as a photo studio, an area Brewington envisions as a flexible space for students’ experimentation.
The photo department also has a modern darkroom — perhaps an oxymoron — with red safelights installed in the ceiling. A collection of vintage Beseler enlargers are the legacy of David Woods, a photography professor for 35 years who died in December.
Music students feel lucky
The renovation has upgraded elements of the music department.
On a recent afternoon, three members of the Polk State jazz band — Carmine Burke, Joshua Castro and Edgardo Marrero — sat in the band room, rehearsing an instrumental jazz piece. The formerly tiered room now has a flat floor covered with tiles colored to evoke keys on a piano. The ceiling continued the black-and-white motif, holding a series of pyramid-shaped acoustic baffles.
Red, sound-dampening panels affixed to walls completed the Polk State color scheme.
“It’s definitely very refreshing — very, very nice,” said Castro, clutching his baritone saxophone. “We’re first-year students, so it’s kind of nice, showing up and having something new.”
Burke, a bassist and a freshman, said that older students have told him they appreciate the upgrades.
“A lot of them enjoy the changes,” Burke said. “It was great for them. We were just lucky enough to come here as it was being done.”
A dedicated percussion room abounds with drapes and panels designed to contain the din of drumming. Workers installed a rubber-based isolation sub floor to prevent sound transmission to adjacent rooms.
A piano lab room contained rows of desks holding keyboards and computer monitors. The whiteboard at the front of the room displayed musical staffs upon which professors could write notes.
Though the renovation is officially finished, Terry Lilling, senior project manager for AD Morgan, still occupied a small office last week in the Fine Arts Building. Lilling was overseeing “punch list” items, small details still being addressed after the project was substantially completed.
Lilling described the changes to the building as “astronomical.”
“It really was a building that served a purpose and served it well for many years,” Lilling said. “It was time to bring into the 21st century. There were a substantial amount of challenges through the construction, a lot of unknowns since we started tearing things apart to rebuild them, and a lot of things that we had found that required additional work.”
Lilling said that his team worked closely with Lozell and Robbie Manikis, PSC’s manager of planning and construction, to complete the assignment within the school’s budget constraints.
Local residents can explore the refreshed Winter Haven Fine Arts Building when the Polk State College Band performs a concert on March 13 at 7 p.m. The art gallery will display the exhibit Canvas of Community through February 21.
Gary White can be reached at [email protected] or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.