Building arts college to graduate first class of baccalaureates

For the first time, students are graduating from the American College of the Building Arts with a bachelor’s degree.

On May 2, the first class of baccalaureate students will graduate from the school, the first and only licensed, four-year liberal arts college in the country to offer a degree in the building arts.

Students in this year’s graduating class hail from Florida to Virginia and will receive degrees that specialize in timber framing, carpentry and architectural metalwork. All will have a bachelor of arts degree in applied sciences.

The graduation will take place at 10 a.m. May 2 in Washington Park.

The college’s main campus is in the Navy Yard at Noisette, and the school also owns the Old City Jail in downtown Charleston, which serves as a classroom and living laboratory.

The college was founded in 1998 to train crafters in building preservation and was licensed to recruit in 2004 by the S.C. Commission on Higher Education. The school is a partner with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation.