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LAWRENCE -- The Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas will get a new home in 2004, thanks to a $3.26 million gift to the KU Endowment Association from the Hall Family Foundation. When completed, the new building will celebrate the humanities and incorporate elements of KU's oldest surviving structure, the 1887 Powerhouse.
The new two-story building will have approximately 11,000 square feet of space and will include a 120-seat conference room, a seminar room, a serving kitchen, and offices for Hall Center staff and research fellows.
The $3.26 million gift will fund the design and construction of the building in its entirety. An additional $500,000 in private funds also will support the project, and KU will provide furnishings and landscaping. A date for the groundbreaking has not yet been set.
The gift fulfills part of a $42 million Hall Family Foundation pledge announced in June 2001. That pledge, the largest private gift for higher education in the history of Kansas, earmarked up to $7 million for humanities-related programs, including construction of the new humanities center.
"When it comes to major gifts and grants, the humanities are sometimes the neglected orphan at a university," said KU Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway. "The Hall Family Foundation's commitment to the Hall Center, especially its funding of this new facility, is the strongest possible affirmation that the humanities are central to the life and mission of the University of Kansas."
The new building will be constructed about 300 feet west of the Hall Center's 6,800-square-foot site, the former Watkins Home at 1540 Sunflower Road, built in 1937. Preliminary plans call for a design that will use and preserve stone arches from the south facade of the old Powerhouse, which overlooks Sunnyside Avenue and has been used for many years as a Facilities Operations storage building.
"We are delighted to be able to combine the old and the new in one building," said Victor Bailey, director of the Hall Center. "In a sense, that's a metaphor for the work of the center, making the heritage of civilization relevant to contemporary issues and concerns. "
According to Bailey, the new building will make the Hall Center more visible on campus, helping attract community and faculty involvement as well as additional grant support. "It will be wonderful to host more of our own events," he said. "There are few humanities centers in the U.S. that have their own purpose-built building. This will greatly heighten the national profile of the Hall Center."
There's another benefit, said Bailey. "At the Powerhouse site, we're preserving a fragment of university history that is itself a link to a much older medieval structure. The new building will enhance the southeastern entrance to the campus and will be a daily reminder of the way in which the modern world is a web of many cultures and influences."
According to Warren Corman, university architect, John Haskell's design for the Powerhouse was strongly influenced by a Romanesque building that still stands in Oviedo, Spain. The Royal Palace of Ramiro I was built in 848 and converted into a church, Santa Maria de Naranco, in the 13th century. Haskell designed five buildings at KU, of which Bailey Hall (1900) is the only complete, surviving example.
The Powerhouse was struck by lightning in 1898. The resulting fire severely damaged the building, which was constructed of Oread limestone quarried on site. A portion of the building was repaired but, over the years, subsequent modifications and deterioration have largely obliterated Haskell's original design.
"The arches are the only original design element worth preserving," said Corman. "They are similar to the arches of Stauffer-Flint Hall, just up the hill to the north, and are reflected in the arches of the Dole Human Development Center to the west. So they're an important part of the historical context for this part of the campus."
Principal architect for the Hall Center project will be James R. Calcara of CDFM2 Architecture Inc. of Kansas City. A campus building committee, chaired by John Gaunt, dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Design, will provide oversight.
The Hall Family Foundation's $42 million pledge, including its $3.26 million pledge to KU Endowment for the new Hall Center building, is part of KU First: Invest in Excellence, KU's $500 million fund-raising campaign.
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