Faculty & Staff Story

I like trying to find ways to save money on infrastructure costs and finding better ways to decarbonize a building. It has its challenges, but that’s what makes it fun.”

On April 7th, 2025, Garrett Solomon started his new role as the Associate Vice President for Facilities & Capital Planning at Catawba College. After spending the past ten years in California, Garrett was ready to get back to the East Coast. He is originally from Stone Mountain, Georgia, so coming back to this side of the country felt like the right next step in his life.

With a three-year-old son and a baby girl on the way, it was important to Garrett to be able to see family. Moving back East helped that become more manageable. Catawba felt like the perfect landing spot for Garrett because of its commitment to sustainability. He says that he likes “trying to find ways to save money on infrastructure costs and finding better ways to decarbonize a building. It has its challenges, but that’s what makes it fun.” He enjoys using Catawba’s designated resources to implement initiatives around campus. He also says that with all of the current construction projects on campus, it’s like being a kid in a candy store.

Garrett pursued a degree in architecture because of his love of design and forming spaces into what they can become. He navigated towards facilities because he wanted to talk and interact with the people who enjoy the spaces he is able to create. He thinks it is important to figure out how he can make the spaces better for the people that use them, and he believes that talking to them one-on-one is a good way to do that. He says that a typical workday for him is very busy because of all the projects going on around campus. The majority of his time is spent sitting in on construction meetings, making design choices, figuring out the best timing for building projects based on campus events and activities, and overseeing all the facilities on campus outside of construction. “My day is pretty packed, but it makes the day go by quickly, and I enjoy doing what I do.”

Recently, Garrett has been able to interact with Catawba students through building tours. He gave students background information on details surrounding the changes to campus buildings, the added features being made on campus, and heard their feedback. He also relies on input from Catawba’s Residence Life team in Student Affairs on how to improve and support the student population.

His favorite project he has worked on since joining Catawba has been the new residence hall, which is under construction with a planned opening for Fall 2026. He also enjoys passive house building, which is a construction standard focused on sustainability. Garrett says it is the first of its kind. He prefers building renovations over constructing from the ground up because renovations of an already existing building run into a lot of issues and create opportunities for creative problem solving. He enjoys being able to challenge his brain to figure out how to improve an older building and ways to keep the originality of the building while improving it and bringing it up to code.

Garrett is proud of the growth in his professional life, such as learning to delegate work and trusting his team to get things done. He is looking forward to exploring more of North Carolina and is excited to get out more and enjoy the state. He especially wants to investigate Lazy 5 Ranch in Rowan County because he thinks it would be an enjoyable experience for his family. One of his personal hobbies includes tinkering with saltwater reef tanks. He says it “gives you peace to stare at the tank and watch things grow.” He enjoys being able to come home after a day of work and observe what he has in the tanks.

Garrett has already proven to be a wonderful addition to Catawba and he looks forward to continuing his work here. With this new chapter, Garrett hopes to not only help Catawba’s campus building renovations, but to build a good life for his family in North Carolina as well.