Rylan Howe

The recently finished Hall Center for the Humanities lights up along Sunnyside Drive. Faculty and staff moved in to the newly renovated building on Jan. 10. The arches were saved from the University of Kansas’ old Powerhouse.

The Hall Center for the Humanities has preserved the oldest building on campus from the inside out. Contractors built the new center within three of the Powerhouse’s four walls, which maintained its original arcade of six arches that faces Sunnyside Avenue. Steel beams were placed between the new building and the top of the arcade and the east wall to keep them from falling down.

“I think this is an eloquent testament to the value of conserving and treasuring KU architecture,” said Marilyn Gridley, past president of the Historic Mount Oread Fund. “We’re very fortunate the Hall family and the administration found this way to incorporate them.”

Preparations for the new $6.2 million building began in 2001 when the humanities department announced a $4.07 million donation from the Hall Family Foundation. State funds provided $1.89 million and the additional $260,000 came from private donations, Bailey said. The Center was moved into the new structure by Jan. 10.

Victor Bailey, director of the Hall Center, said lack of space was the main reason to construct the new building, located southwest of Watson Library. “It’s quite frustrating creating a seminar and finding a location,” Bailey said. “If you can just hold more and tell people it’s in the Hall Center would be nice.”

To solve this problem, contractors built a 25-person seminar room, where speakers can give lectures, in addition to a 120-seat conference hall along the Powerhouse’s original west wall.

The new building, at 14,700 square feet, is double the size of the old Hall Center.

Built in the 1880s, the Powerhouse was the primary source for heating and electricity for the University, according to kuhistory.com.

On March 22, 1898, lightning struck the building and burned it to the ground. Only the stone arcade and its smokestack survived the fire. Before the new Hall Center took over the site, the building was used by Facilities Operations.

The Hall Center supports interdisciplinary research in the humanities, arts and social sciences among faculty members and graduate students at the University of Kansas, according to the center’s mission statement. The center will not be used for classroom teaching.

The center includes additional space in the the basement, and there is a vacant room on the second floor. Bailey said that room could turn into another conference room or three more offices.

The room would have to remain vacant, however, because the department ran out of funding, Bailey said.

Amy Potter, a Hall Center graduate student assistant, said the larger building would be a great place to hold lectures.

“I think it allows for more opportunity for the center,” said Potter, Overland Park graduate student in geography. “It’s a larger space, it can allow for more people.”