The construction of an Educational Teaching Gymnasium at Florida Technological University proved symbolic of the notion that education and athletics were always interconnected. On the campus of FTU during the early 1970s, intercollegiate athletic programs were under the administrative management of the College of Education. Hence the reason that school administrators approved a $4.8 million project that would merge the two in a single building.
Ground was broken on the new Education Building in the fall of 1975 to the west of the Reflecting Pond with Dyson Construction Company winning the bid to take over the project. Just 18 months later, on January 15, 1977, Dr. Charles Millican dedicated the “Teaching Gymnasium” with significant emphasis on its use as an athletic facility for intercollegiate competition, despite the gymnasium covering just 17,235 of 112,00 total square feet. The building included a teaching auditorium, a learning resources center, space for visual arts education, science education, and music education, a business education lab, a typewriting lab, dozens of classrooms, and faculty offices. Athletes were treated to movable bleachers, locker rooms, a trophy room, and a training room equipped with whirlpool tanks and a sauna. Governor Bob Graham recognized the building in 1981 with a Governor's Design Award, acknowledging outstanding achievement in the development of public facilities.
Today, this Educational Complex, also known as Building 21, is primarily home to the College of Education and Human Performance. Other organizations that use the facility are the Department of Child, Family, and Community Sciences, the Community Counseling Clinic, the Department of Educational and Human Sciences, and the School of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership.
