Color photographs

Dr. Holcombe and Dr. Catanese, along with local and state dignitaries, pitch the ceremonial shovels of dirt in groundbreaking ceremonies for the BCC/FAU Higher Education Center in November 1999.

The 12-story, $18-million Higher Education Center was designed by Singer Architects of Fort Lauderdale and constructed on the former site of the historic Governor's Club Hotel. The building covers 147,000 square Feet.

Members of BCC's board of trustees and administrators are all smiles at the October 2001 dedication ceremonies of the Higher Education Center in downtown Fort Lauderdale. From left to right are Norman Tripp, Dr. Ken Wiant, Ginny Miller, Levi Williams, Dr. Holcombe, Dr. Catanese, Georgette Sosa Douglass, Lourdes Garrido, Cheryl Krause, and Dr. Linda Liberman.

Dignitaries join trustees Paul Anderson and Cheryl Krause, Dr. Holcombe, Central Campus Provost Dr. Patricia Caldwell, and Dean of the Student Affairs Dr. Carol Ross-Black in turning the earth for reconstruction of the Robert E. Ferris Center in 2000.

The $14.5 million FAU/BCC University/College Library expanded the old library's holdings by more than 100,000 volumes, expanded its physical size from 37,000 square feet to 112,000, and added sophisticated technological capabilities to benefit students.

Not all of the constructions on BCC's campuses have been BCC buildings. Here, Dr. Holcombe helps with groundbreaking for Florida Atlantic University's Davie Classroom Building II on Central Campus. Joining him, from left to right, are state senator Ken Jenne, Dr. Catanese, and state senator Howard Forman. The FAU Liberal Arts Building is another example of university's presence on central campus.

This is a photo of the 26,000 square-foot interior of the Pines Center under construction. The building was designed to provide state-of-the-art technological instructional opportunities to students. It contains two completely computerized multimedia classrooms and teleconference facilities. The Academic Village is constructed on a 77-acre campus built in the Jeffersonian quadrangle mode of the University of Virginia.

On North Campus, the two-story, L-shaped Health Science Center II occupies the space where the original campus building stood. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Rodriguez and Quiroga.

BCC Foundation Chairman Gene Whiddon presents New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner with a memento from the college.

Dr. Elzie Lauderdale, a Mississippian, was BCC's first dean of instruction and helped establish the emphasis on academic excellence. When he called Mildred Bailey Mullikin in May 1960 to recruit her to head the drama department at the college, Mullikin's mother took the call. "Who is Dr. Lauderdale in Fort Lauderdale?" she asked her daughter. Dr. Lauderdale encouraged Mullikin and her mother to visit Fort Lauderdale. "Needless to say," Mullikin wrote years later, "I fell head over heels in love with Fort Lauderdale."