Tuesday, May 2, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
The life of the old boiler house
Preservationists fighting to stop building's demolition
Sandra Wiechert, KU alumna and a founding member of the Historic Mount Oread Fund, is one of many historic preservationists who does not want to see the destruction of the 113-year-old boiler house. The boiler house, which has been struck by lightning and has survived two fires, still stands as the oldest building on campus. Photo by Nick Krug/KANSAN
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University gardeners pose for a Christmas photo in the late 1960s. Tom Lee, a retired gardener, said he helped hang the gardeners sign in 1968. Contributed photo
In 1922, University maintenance crews began storing gravel and sand in the building, along with landscaping and gardening equipment. A sign on the building's east wall reads "gardeners."
Tom Lee, who worked on the University's grounds crew from 1963 until 1999, said he remembered when the sign went up in 1968.
"I helped hang that sign," he said. "We just drilled a couple holes in the stone and put some anchors in there. All the gardeners were proud of that."
He said the gardeners used to hang a wreath above the sign at Christmas and take group pictures.
Over the years, water has crept into the limestone walls, eroded the stones and weakened the mortar. Seasonal temperature changes have caused the walls to expand and contract, dislodging a few pieces of stone. A fire in 1990 damaged part of the roof and rendered one of the building's mezzanines unstable.
In 1991, an architectural consultant determined that parts of the building's roof and walls were defective and that it would cost far more to repair the building than to destroy it and construct a new one. The Board of Regents gave the University permission at its September 1991 meeting to tear down the building.
"That would be our yearly picture," he said. "Then we'd back and say 'Are these people still here?'"
Nine years later, the old boiler house still stands. But Mike Richardson, director of Facilities Operations, says it's only a matter of time before it goes.
"There are plans for that to be torn down," he said. "It's been funded twice, and those funds have been redirected to other projects."
A Cinderella story
"I think it's important to keep the oldest building there," she said.
He said funding likely would not be available until at least 2002. That could mean a reprieve for historic preservationists, like Wiechert, who want to change the University's mind about what the building's fate should be.
If the oldest building on campus were Spooner Hall, tearing it down wouldn't even be considered, she added.
In fact, Spooner Hall is the oldest academic building on campus. Wiechert said Spooner always captured attention because people thought it was more beautiful than the Cinderella boiler house.
I just feel kind of sorry for the boiler house because it's not the glamorous building," she said. "But it is the oldest building. Lots of times, University people just don't want to admit it. They say it's just a junk building or it's just for storage. But that's the building
that made everything else happen."
Aside from its importance as a power plant, preservationists believe the boiler house should be saved for what they see as its beauty and because it was designed by such a prominent architect.
Haskell designed Bailey Hall, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary. He also designed the original Fraser and Snow halls and the east wing of the Statehouse in Topeka. Of 35 Haskell buildings built in Lawrence, 10 survive, including the Douglas County Courthouse at 11th and Massachusetts streets.
An architectural gem
When the University tears down Haskell's oldest remaining work on campus, it plans to replace it temporarily with a parking lot. Wiechert said that parking lots were common replacements for old buildings and that the location of the boiler house made it even more imperative that it be preserved, rather than converted to parking.
"It's an ideal location," she said. "It's right at the foot of Mount Oread and the entrance to campus. That's another reason it should be saved and maintained because it's one of the first views that people will have."
Dennis Domer, former associate dean of architecture who was active in preservation projects around Douglas County, said it would be a big mistake to tear down the boiler house.
"To tear down even a fragment of that building - which it is just a fragment - would be a shame," said Domer, now the Distinguished Professor of Historic Preservation at the University of Kentucky. "That fragment is better than any new building on campus, including Dole and the law school. Tearing it down reflects a lack of imagination."
Domer, Wiechert and others want the University to adapt the boiler house and use it as a jumping-off point for another building.
Domer said a good architect could incorporate the building's arched facade into the design of a new building.
"It's a wonderful opportunity to integrate the old and the new," he said. "I think KU should not pass up this opportunity."
The art and design department wanted to convert the current building into studios for art students, but the University rejected that proposal. Future holds
What the future holds
University officials say there just isn't enough money to save the old boiler house.
The University has tried to compromise with those interested in saving the boiler house. Modig said the demolition consultant had worked with the Historic Mount Oread Fund to identify the historic components of the building and preserve them for use elsewhere.
"The demolition plan includes photographing, marking carefully, removing, palletizing and shrinkwrapping components like the arches so that those historical features of the facility are retained
"We're not seeing a lot of funding coming out of the state system right now," said Jim Modig, director of Design and Construction Management. "If funding is very difficult to get, we have to be very cost-effective in how we build our facilities to get the most we can for the funding available."
intact and can be reinstalled somewhere at a later date in the exact same configuration they were removed," he said. "So when we say raze the building, that's not just bulldoizing it down and taking it to the dump."
Domer said this compromise signaled a shift away from what he called the University's bad track record in historic preservation.
"The number of buildings that went down on campus in the '60s
and "70s was just unbelievable," he said. "They just bulldozed them and dumped them on West Campus in ravines. They were dumped over there as if they weren't anything and later buried under dirt. The depth of that rubble over there, which includes a lot of beautiful cut stone, was an incredible waste."
Lee said the gardeners had used some of the stone from the rubble pile to build a stone wall around Spencer Research Library and part of the bridge at the northwest end of Potter Lake.
Domer said that he and Karl Gridley, a member of the Historic Mount Oread Fund, took several beautiful pieces of cut stone off the surface of the rubble pile in the early '05, before the ravines filled with dirt and vegetation. Among the pieces Domer and Gridley saved were two carved lion heads that now reside in Marvin Hall.
But Keith Lawton, who served 34 years as vice chancellor for planning and development, said the buildings the University tore down in the '60s and '70s were stuarting its growth.
"The University had to grow," he said. "There was a main campus planning process in terms of the long-term use of land at the University. It also changed the location of functions on campus in many ways, which brought about the need for those buildings to not occupy those sites."
Modig said that he was sensitive
to the historical importance of the old boiler house but that the University was running out of areas on campus to build. The cost of incorporating the existing structure into a new building would be extremely high, he said.
Wiechert and Gridley would rather see the University practice the same kind of adaptive reuse it did when rebuilding Hoch Auditorium as Budig Hall. The auditorium - used by choirs, lecturers and the Kansas basketball team - burned in 1991 after lightning struck its roof. Most of the walls remained, however, and then-Chancellor Gene Budig led a crusade to preserve and restore the building's facade, which still flanks Jayhawk Boulevard.
But there's no high-profile leader to pick up the banner for the old boiler house.
Despite their efforts, preservationists are pessimistic about the building's future. Wiechert said the Historic Mount Oread Fund would protest its demolition but ultimately would be unable to raise enough money to save the building.
"It's burned twice, the roof has fallen in and the arches have been filled in, but I still think it's beautiful," she said. "It would be a shame to see it go."
— Edited by Jason Walker
— Designed by Jason Elliott
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