The Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center at Spelman College is the result of a major gift from Bill and Camille Cosby with additional funding from the College. The multi-purpose, academic building is located near both entrances to the campus. The five level, 100,000 SF facility houses 12 new classrooms and seminar rooms, a 120 and a 80 seat lecture room, a 400 seat auditorium, a computer-assisted Writing Center, and the administrative offices for the humanities departments. The Cosby Center also houses a fine arts museum, the Women’s Resource & Research Center, the College Archives and Special Collections, a Modern Foreign Language Laboratory, a Reading Room, and the Educational Media Center which contains a television studio and campus-wide media retrieval system.

Faculty programming and preliminary design by the College were undertaken prior to the engagement of the Design Architect who was selected by the Cosbys. Both the Facility Program and the final Design had to meet the approval of the donors and the College.

The process for selecting other design consultants and for the general contractor were lead by Clement & Wynn on behalf of the College. On-site construction administration was provided by both the Architect and the Program Manager.

The Cosbys and Spelman College dedicated the new academic center in February of 1996.