PUBLIC NOTICE PAGE 3

 

HELPING TO BUILD A GREATER KU

February 24, 1965--Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe an-
nounced today that he had personally inspected Fraser
Hall and that the building was beyond repair. The
structure will be closed at the end of the spring seme-
ster, he said, and will be razed as soon as possible
after that.

No one protested the plans to destroy old Fraser, known

as the "Athens on the Kaw"', the buiding once deemed the

finest and most progressive in all America" when built
in 1872. .Fraser was a condemned building. Its found-
ation rested on wooden supports, clay and shale; all of
which had been badly shaken during the construction of
new Blake Hall and the additions to Watson library.

At least that was the argument given by state architect,
James C. Canole and KU administrators.

It was a sad day when Chancellor Wescoe announced the
impending destruction. Old Fraser was a greatly ad-
mired building with a rich history. The second chan-
cellor of the University of Kansas, Gen. John Fraser,
traveled the country for months studying the designs

of buildings at other universities so that Lawrence
could have the most beautiful structure in the land. The
original three-story, 54-rcom building was built for
$1€2,U00 and it housed all of the classes and offices of
the university.

Woodrow Wilson, Rutherford B. Hays, Ulysses S. Grant
Gen. Sherman, Henry Ward Beecher and Franklin Roos-
€velt are among the famous people to address students
in Fraser's fine auditorium. Movies were shown there
also and at a reasonable price even into the 1960's...

35 cents bought an admission ticket in 1963. Thousands
lulled in the seats of the auditorium to enjoy the melod-
ic sounds of Fraser's pipe organ. [he loft also

had quite a reputation for being the campus necking por-
lor and for some time it was closed during the evening
hours to prevent such activity.

March 29, 1965--Details and a picture of new Fraser
appeared in the University Daily Kansan today. Respon-
se from professors, students and citizens both in Law~-
rence and across the country, insued quickly.

March 30. 1965--"'Critics Castigate New Fraser Hall
Design, '' read the headline in the Kansan. It was just
the beginning of four months of controversy, protests,
petitions, funeral processions, moratoriums and dis-
cussion. People had accepted the destruction of old
Fraser, but the proposed replacement was abhorable,

In the end, Chancellor Wescoe, Vice Chancellor of Op-
erations Kieth Lawton and the state architect, Canole,
had the final say. New Fraser stands today in 1976 as

a symbol cf irrational, administrative action in comp-
lete disregard of the desires of the people. The story
of concerned citizens’ efforts to stop the construction

of a building that was aesthetically a disaster and a per-
version of the history linked to the man for which the
building was named, It's a classic example of progress
in the name of progress; mindless, irreversible, bur-
eaucratic, de cision making thoroughly removed from
genuinely human values, The comments that follow
appeared in the University Daily Kansan during the ef-
forts to stop construction of new Fraser. They are tes-
timonial to the destruction of beauty that has taken place
in American society. ..destruction that continues today
in Lawrence, Kansas.

Robert Fuenther, associate professor of architecture,
was just one of many in the School of Architecture to
protest plans for new Fraser in 1965.

"It would be naive to evaluate that thing,'he said. ‘it
becomes a monument to bureaucracy. Take the roof off
of it and it looks like one of those hotels in a Monopoly
game,"

 

  

 

“4

HALL

NEW FRASER: MONOPOLY ANYONE ? ?

Architecture students at Kansas State University ex-
pressed their sympathy by sending a handmade wreath
of red leaves with a painted black ribbon in recogni -
tion of new Fraser. About 70 architecture students
demonstrated in front of Fraser and placed a black

K-State wreath in front of the building. They asked

for a delay in the construction and endorsement of a
plan for architects to design a master campus build-
ing plan.

Chancellor Wescoe offered this comment at the demon
stration, 'For people that presume to be part of a
profession, I find this to be very unprofessional. "'

oe cane 2

 

Eh!

  
   

NEW FRASER: FROM THE LUNCH-
BOX SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

Other comments that appeared in the Kansan expressed
dismay and anger with the plans for new Fraser:

"My congratulations to R.T. Griest (one of the archi-
tects) of Topeka! He has managed to combine in one
building, all the worst features of modern architect-
ure and has capped it with a red roof, Granted that
KU students have been somewhat unruly lately, but I
hardly think it necessary to provide future buildings
with guard towers suitable for searchlights and machine
guns. As Chancellor Wescoe stated, the new Fraser
and Blake will provide for many visitors the physical
image of the university. With this as an image, how
can KU hope to be considered a great institution ?
Unless, of course, those guard towers indicate planned
transformation into a penal institution,"

The designs for new Fraser arrived in the East and
brought this comment from Gerald S, Berstein in
Philadelphia, the former curator of the Art Museum
and instructor in Art History at KU.

"In their mimicry, the towers only serve to insult
the imaginative men who conceived and built original
Fraser Hall. Those of you who do care and are yet
unwilling to pressure for a more meaningful design
will live with this structure. Worse, you will force
your children to live with it. To construct the new
Fraser as designed is to show not only our lack of
understanding of our times, but also our lack of the
initiative to care."

To all of this, Chancellor Wescoe responded on May
5 Saying in essence that new Fraser must and would
be built as planned.

"We've planned it for two years and we cannot abandon
the plans and hope to meet our space requirements.
We can't go back to the beginning. "’

And so, we the survivors of the turbulent '69s remain
and so does new Fraser, picturesquely Incated on the
highest point on beautiful Mount Oread.

 

 

aes

Lasting
Reminders

SENATOR ROBERT DOLE VISITS --'I thought Drake
University was the most beautiful campus, " Mary
Elizabeth Dole, the new wife of Sen. Dole, exclaimed
at a Kansas Day reception in the Kansas Union, "but
you all have a very beautiful campus. This is my
first visit'to your campus, but I hope to return in the
spring when it’s in full bloom,"

ate ethan haan ii iota See ect

WEST SIDE STORY --I ramble down the wooded slope

north of the Aerospace Building on the West Campus

of the University of Kansas, The soft, wet earth }
clings to my tennis shoes, I dodge low hanging bran- |
ches and thorny bushes. No tranquility to be found in 4
this wilderness. Iowa street traffic rumbles to the q
east. Vroom! Vrooom! Two motorcycles kick clods {
of mud as they are driven up and down the piles of : }
dirt which will soon be used to bury the ever -growing }
trash pile. !

I long for isolation. Ravens fly above my head. A |
squirrel scampers through the underbrush, The illu-

sion of nature evaporates, At the bottom of the slope {
I gaze up at the university grave yard, Three kids

are crawling up the side of the KU trash pile. Stag- {
nate pools of water full of soggy cardboard boxes, em- {
pty tape reels, broken bottles and paper prevent me
from climbing up the mountain of debris. Here lie

the discards from an institute of higher learning, I
finally find a place to cross the only creek on the cam-
pus. Somethings smells rotten,

"Hey, c'mere!"

A boy of about 10 kicks an empty box, once the home of
an IBM Selectric typewriter, down toward the woods.
In funny, awkward steps his two buddies trudge through
the rubbish to see what their friend has discovered,

I walk around the trash pile and up on the black earth-
en grave which hides the university's garbage archive,
But, I had come to see the buildings,

Sac eat a a ta

To the north, great piles of broken, yellowing lime-
stone lie in naked disarray. In search of old Fraser,
Blake and Robinson I walk around and around the stones,
I didn't know these old stones personally. Others vis-
it the buildings with personal recollections of the cam-
pus thatis no more. ButI bring only memories of
library photographs, yellowing newspaper clippings
and a film of the fine old structures.

Buildings and grounds workers come here to sort the
stones. Fine arts students pick at the remains. i
Grand buildings become rubble, become garbage, be- 4
come sculptures,

I climb to the top of one of the limestone mounds.
Old Fraser, maybe? To the east on Daisy Hill, Mc-
Collum, Ellsworth, Templin, Hashinger and Lewis
stand like computer cards on edge. Hundreds of
square, key-punch windows stare blankly toward the
west. Once a favorite spot to sit in Daisies and Dai-
sies and Daisies to view the campus below, is now $
bustling with shiny automobiles, asphalt and park- }
ing slots. '

oe tar

Blake Hall was wrecked in the spring of 1963. Two
years later Fraser Hall went. They did it with a huge
steel ball and many people came to watch. But they
say that the people loved old Fraser. They proteste¢
the plans for new Fraser and the historic event was
recorded in area newspapers and on film, I guess
tragedy attracts many.

os CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

baat

 

me