The Tate Advisory Board focused on the importance of student feedback and summer planning at its first meeting since the Board of Regents approved an architecture firm to design Tate II.

The advisory board, which met Thursday, consists of students, alumni and faculty. The board will work with Cooper Carry, the Atlanta-based company chosen to work on the expanded Tate Center’s design plans.

“Things are starting to move now,” said Bobby Woodard, a faculty board member of Tate II’s development.

Woodard said the board is sticking with the current Tate II construction timeline, which includes breaking ground on the center’s parking deck in January 2007.

A lot of summer planning is required of the board because of Tate II’s timeline, said Andrew Gladden, chairman of the advisory board.

Gladden said he wants to get as much student feedback for Tate II in the next couple of months as possible.

“We want to make sure that we hit everybody,” Gladden said.

The real challenge, Gladden said, is reaching the many small groups on campus who are not well represented.

Ideas sent by the board to Cooper Carry should be broad topics the company could shape.

“We want to make sure that we recommend very solid things that we want for the building,” Gladden said.

“The first step is programming,” said Tim Fish, an architect for Cooper Carry.

“It’s important to understand what we need to accomplish before we start drawing.”

Meeting with students and faculty on campus is important for the planning process, Fish said.

A kickoff meeting with faculty has already been planned for a week or so in the future.

“We see this as being a collaborative process,” Fish said.

Gladden said Fish is “one of the easiest guys to work with.”

Cooper Carry. should have some drawings ready in several weeks.

Though he said he cannot elaborate on plans, Fish did say there is a potential to make the existing student center much more open and inviting.

Cooper Carry designed the Student Learning Center. That project, Fish said, had a part to play in the BOR choosing the firm.

“I think we did a pretty good job on that,” Fish said, “We’re familiar with the precinct.”

Danny Sniff, the University Architect, said Tate II will look more like the Student Learning Center.

“(Cooper Carry) feels like they’re finishing what they started with the SLC,” Fish said.

Fish also said his firm’s enthusiasm for the project led to the BOR’s decision.

Gladden said he wants Tate II to be a student hangout, replacing the SLC as the current hangout spot.

Right now, students go to the SLC to hang out when people are studying, he said. Instead of going to the SLC, students can get together at the new Tate building.

“This has got to be a building that gets people to want to come back to their campus,” Gladden said of making the Center appealing as a nighttime hangout spot.

-Contributing: Kelly Proctor