Groover Hall,  Mercer University, Macon, GA.
Mr. Elkins worked on this project prior to forming Expert Consultations.

Groover Hall was originally built in 1901 as the campus gymnasium.  This building had a long and rich history on campus,  alternately becoming in 1925 the School of Theology and then a general classroom building.  Air conditioning was added to the building in 1982,  and by 2000 the building was a combination of computer labs on the first floor and small classrooms on the second floor.  At this point in the building's history the Campus Architect was tasked with performing a cosmetic renovation to repair elements of the existing architecture and convert the classrooms into faculty offices and seminar rooms.

The beauty of the original construction had been  concealed with every major renovation and eventually forgotten. The Campus Architect hired Mr. Elkins to lead the engineering team in a thorough analysis of the building systems.  Structural,  electrical,  mechanical, and plumbing systems were reviewed and evaluated  by the engineering team.  As a result of the review and analysis,  Mercer University expanded the scope of the project to open the building back up to the original heavy timber construction spanning the roof assembly and the original stained glass windows - restoring the building to its original glory. Special accent lighting was designed to illuminate the structural timbers and the mechanical and plumbing systems were hidden from view.

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