Page 10 University Daily Kansan Tuesday, May 3, 1960
Empty Ballroom Filled With Noise
The present self-service elevator whisks you to the third floor of the bustling Kansas Union.
Parking Lot Near
The empty ballroom is not silent. There is a purring, shouting sound echoing throughout the room. The sounds eminate from the $900 000 six-story Union addition rising to the immediate north of the present structure. A step through the glass patio doors leading off the balcony starts a guided tour of the new addition.
"The architects (they've been working on the plans for three years) have designed the new addition with the student parking problem in mind," says Frank Burge, Union director and our guide. "The building will have full access to the 600-car capacity zone X parking lot across Mississippi Street by way of a concrete slab ramp system."
Wooden beams run across the top of the present patio with metal supports leading to the railing. This entire area will be glassed-in. The view encompasses a two-mile-wide westerly view.
Immediately to the left of the present patio doors we can see part of a shaft structure that runs the entire six-story height. Two new self-service elevators will be housed here with access to each existing stair landing.
From the new glass room is a new, larger patio. A shake-shingle overhang with copper trim introduces the new Kansas room extension.
A nimble siding down between wooden stairway forms leads to the new Junior Ballroom. Canvas and plywood partitions divide it from the present Jawahk Room. Workmen are now preparing the walls for covering.
When completed, the new Junior Ballroom will have a folding wood-paneled wall which will enable the room to be used as a banquet hall. When the wall is folded, the junior ballroom can be opened onto the Jayhawk room and main ballroom with a 1,000-person capacity.
A hallway connects the new second ballroom to a smaller room. It is decorated with wood paneling and a fireplace similar to the present English room.
Another walk downward reveals an octagon-shaped room a little nearer completion. This is the new Forum-room.
We are told that this room will feature permanent seating with color television. It will be finished in mahogany wood paneling with wall-to-wall carpeting. An extension to the music room, nearly doubling its present size, adjoins the forum. The new music room will accommodate 200 people.
The new addition to the cafeteria is on the basement level. It will include three separate wood-paneled rooms for meetings or private dinners. The folding-door-dividers can be opened to expand the present cafeteria in case of large crowds.
The addition to the Hawk's Nest on the sub-basement level is nearly completed. Steps lead up from the present Nest just as they do to the present Trail Room. The walls are of natural red brick with a slate floor. The southeast corner of the room is being readied to hold a copper-hooded grill. Floor-to-ceiling windows comprise the west wall of the room and sliding glass and aluminum doors lead to a new patio to the north.
The view from the patio commands the new Baumgartner drive, arching around the back of the structure and over the new sub-sub basement level recreation area.
A concrete portico marks the entrance to the Hawk's Nest level from the drive. Garden plots dot the area.
A step behind the temporary canvas doorway leads to a wide, open stairway. Below is the recreation area.
Twelve new bowling alleys are being constructed here. The front, or west side, of the room is in the shape of an arrow point and is entirely constructed of glass. Within this point will be billiard and ping-pong tables. Space for trophy cases lines the recreation area's own Mississippi Street entrance.
Bedford Makes World Trip
(Continued from page 1)
of scraping this and that together," he grinned.
He admitted that he had been broke many times.
The former KU instructor had other things to worry about than gasoline for his scooter and money. He had trouble with his visa in various countries.
He spent nine days in jail in the Republic of Guinea in Africa. But he did not sit around and bemoan his fate. He spent the entire time writing articles which he later sold to African newspapers, "I even wrote an article on what it's like to be in a jail in Guinea," he recalls.
Besides taking jobs when he was low on cash, Mr. Bedford sold articles to newspapers throughout his travels.
Mr. Bedford ran into visa trouble again when he tried to cross into
Ethiopia from Kenya. Ethiopian border officials insisted that his visa was not right for entry into that country, and he had used up the length of time he was allotted in Kenya. "For five days I was wedged between Kenya and Ethiopia," he recalls.
He pawned his camera to get into Ethiopia. It took him nine months to regain possession.
He was also marooned in a grass hut on the southern edge of the Sahara for three days. This time it was scooter trouble.
While he is at his home in Columbia, Mo., the former KU instructor will be planning his future for the next few years.
When he started his trip from Lawrence, Mr. Bedford thought he would return in a year. "But I decided to resign my teaching job because I was afraid I might not make it back in a year," he said.
821 Mass.
VI 3-2057
Read and Use Kansan Classifieds