Music Building, Kennesaw State University

Constructed in 1966, this 4,200-square-foot building housed the maintenance staff for the college. The building, which was completed on January 18, 1967, was one of the original eight buildings on the Kennesaw Junior College campus and included a warehouse and workshop. The building was known as the maintenance building until the late 1970s when the construction of a new plant operations/maintenace facility on the north edge of campus enabled the relocation of maintenance staff and equipment. Beginning in 1978-79 school year, the music program began using the building. A major renovation in 1980 provided a permanent home base for the music program. The building today includes faculty offices, student practice rooms, and a recital hall.

Designed by Bothwell and Associates Architects for Kennesaw Junior College, the Maintenance Building included a 2,700-square-foot warehouse as well as two offices, a lobby, a receiving counter, and a workshop. The building was one of the original eight buildings constructed in the late 1960s after the college was created by the Board of Regents. Maintenance staff who took care of all of the facilities and grounds of the college used this building as their home base for a decade until a new Plant Operations and Warehouse Building (currently the site of the North Parking Deck) was constructed on the northwest edge of the campus.

The workshop was accessible by doors from the warehouse, the office, and by a roll-up door with a concrete loading dock on the east side of the building. The door that today serves as the main entrance to the building was originally a roll-up entryway into the warehouse that featured a concrete loading dock. The main entrance to the building was a door located 19 feet to the right of the loading dock. Behind the building was a 4,000-square-foot concrete patio, half of which was covered by a concrete canopy. The concrete patio was accessed from the street by a concrete loading dock on the east side as well as by doors from the shop and warehouse. Like all of the original buildings on the campus, the building was faced with yellow brick.

In spring of 1980, the college undertook a half-million-dollar renovation to convert the building into an 8,500-square-foot facility for the Music Program. The building now houses offices for the music faculty, classrooms, practice rooms and studios, and a recital hall, which was built on the site of the former patio. The music program, which became a department in 1983, achieved accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Music in 1984. The Music Building is part of the Dr. Bobbie Bailey School of Music in the College of the Arts. The Bailey School of Music offers bachelor's degrees in music education as well as music with concentrations in music performance, music theory, and music composition. Faculty and students from the Bailey School of Music offer public performances throughout the year, including free, on-campus outdoor concerts at the Legacy Gazebo in what is billed as Fresh Air Fridays.

Dr. Bobbie Bailey, for whom the School of Music is named, was a long-time supporter of Kennesaw State University and a member of the Kennesaw State University Foundation Board for over 22 years. Bailey was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by KSU in 1998 in recognition of her achievements in business and philanthropy. She endowed the Bailey Performance Center in 2007 and donated 27 Steinway pianos to the university in 2008, which allowed the university to receive the All-Steinway School designation. Bailey died in 2015, but her foundation, the Bobbie Bailey Foundation. continued its support of KSU with a donation of $5 million to the KSU School of Music in 2021. In February 2021 the University System of Georgia Board of Regents announced that the music school would be renamed the Dr. Bobbie Bailey School of Music. Bailey was a self-taught engineer whose company, Our-Way, Inc., specialized in remanufacturing commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning compressors. She was also a music producer and member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Bothwell, E.L. Maintenance Building Floorplan As-Built Drawing, July 20, 1967. Kennesaw State University Archives.

Scott, Tom. The History of Kennesaw State University: The First Fifty Years, 1963-2013. Kennesaw, Georgia. Kennesaw State University Press, 2013.

Freeman, Scott. Bobbie Bailey Foundation Donates $5 million to Kennesaw State's School of Music, ARTSATL. February 9th, 2021. Accessed March 21st, 2023. https://www.artsatl.org/bobbie-bailey-foundation-gives-5-million-to-kennesaw-states-school-of-music/.