When prospective students step into the Adams Administration Building on the Troy Campus, they are not walking into a building – they are walking into an immersive experience among the best on any college campus in Alabama.

Re-opened in June, the newly renovated Admissions Office space in Adams Administration not only creates a new front entry along University Avenue, but provides an interactive space that welcomes prospective students and gives them access to information about the campus, the city and the University as a whole.

“High schoolers of today have so many expectations,” said Buddy Starling, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management. “A lot of that is in technology and responsiveness. They base so much of the outcome on an experience.”

The TROY experience is precisely what Starling hopes his team has accomplished with the capstone project.

“We had already invested a lot of effort and resources into making a visit to our campus an experience, but the addition has really made that so much easier. With the strong integration of technology into the experience, and with the integration of the social media aspect, we have created an experience we think families will not find on another campus,” he said.

The addition allowed space for an “experience room” that has interactive video displays and entry screens that puts the admissions process at a student’s fingertips. The room can seat about 60 people. Also created was a new reception area that includes private meeting rooms and a foyer where a digital ribbon greets each visiting prospect with his or her name. An additional parking lot was construction to allow for visitor parking, and existing office space was updated and reconfigured to maximize space available for staff.

“The big focus of the project was on an ‘experience room’ where you could go in and do presentations, and have the interactive technology,” he said. “That’s what we accomplished there … there’s nothing comparable and other institutions can’t match it.”

The $2.3 million renovation project also included the addition of an executive conference room on the second floor.