Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood to oversee Challenger Learning Center construction

Greg Bailey, Gadsden Times
·2 min read

Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood has been tapped to design, engineer and oversee construction of the Challenger Learning Center planned for Etowah County.

Its selection was announced in a news release from the Community Foundation of Northeast Alabama, a major financial benefactor of the project.

The center, which will provide STEM-oriented activities targeted at middle schoolers, will be in Rainbow City on a 5-acre plot off Lumley Road near John S. Jones Elementary School, Rainbow Middle School and the Etowah County Mega Sports Complex.

Sierra Middle School sixth-graders work at their assigned roles in the simulated Mission Control at the Las Cruces Challenger Learning Center on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021.
Sierra Middle School sixth-graders work at their assigned roles in the simulated Mission Control at the Las Cruces Challenger Learning Center on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021.

Barry Cherry, chairman of the Challenger Learning Center of Northeast Alabama Advisory Council, said the hope is that the center will be operational by the 2025-26 school year.

GMC is a top architectural and engineering firm based in Montgomery, with offices across the Southeast. It currently is developing a new comprehensive plan for the City of Gadsden.

According to the news release, it can handle civil, electrical and geotechnical engineering; environmental services; interior design; landscaping; and various types of planning. It also has experience in designing commercial developments, hospitals, parks and schools.

Challenger Learning Centers use mission control and space shuttle simulators to offer hands-on lessons for students.

There are currently more than 30 of them across 24 states and three countries. This would be the only one in Alabama (one previously was in Birmingham’s McWane Center) and is projected not just to serve Etowah County students, but those from Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, DeKalb, Jefferson, Marshall and St. Clair counties.

The Rainbow City site will facilitate that by offering easy access to Interstates 59 and 459, U.S. Highway 411 and Alabama Highway 77.

Rainbow City is donating the land, valued at $450,000, and providing other incentives, such as site preparation (valued at $175,000) and groundskeeping ($10,000 annually for seven years), and a school resource officer for the facility. 

The bulk of the funding is $8.5 million in Alabama’s 2023 supplemental education budget, contingent on a 10% match that organizers seem to have met through commitments by Rainbow City and others.

Community Foundation of Northeast Alabama has pledged $30,000 annually for five years and $50,000 for the simulator reservation fee; Etowah County $100,000 over four years; Attalla and Hokes Bluff $25,000 each over five years; and the Community Development Committees for Etowah County’s three House districts $10,000 each.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Challenger Learning Center taps architecture and engineering firm