August 22,1984
STRONG HALL
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Strong Hall doesn't have to be a mixed-up maze. Just follow this floor-by-floor graphic, which pinpoints several key offices KU students will need to find at one time or another during the year. Look closely. The map shows where the second-floor east wing is blocked off, and also indicates the locations of Strong's numerous staircases.
21B
Third floor
324  Office of Minority Affairs
304  Office of Affirmative Action
301  Ray Q. Brewster Auditorium
Second floor
Second floor
206 — College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
209 — Math library
216 — Office of Student Life
217 — Department of Mathematics
218 — Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center
223 — Chancellor's office
226 — Office of Research, Graduate Studies and Public Service
First floor
112 - Office of Foreign Student Services
114/116 - Department of Computer Science
121 - Student Assistance Center
122 - Office of Student Records
123 - Office of Residential Programs
126 - Office of Admissions
First floor
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Anita Cleland/KANSAN
Building has been mixed up from the beginning
By JULIE COMINE Staff Reporter
He's looking for the math department, room 217, Strong Hall.
No sweat, he thinks. He climbs a flight of stairs, heads down the hallway. He sees room 214 . room 216 . room 218. But no room 217.
ne scratches his head, makes a couple more confused trips up and down the hallway, then spots a piece of paper taped to the wall outside room 216:
Math office:
Go down one floor
Go to east end of building,
Do not remove this sign!
Do not remove this sign!
Welcome to Strong Hall, the endless maze of administrative office, student services and classrooms. Home of more than 130 mixed-up numbered rooms — from the office of admissions and the computer science department, to the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center and the campus postal service
And the math department, which with a little persistence eventually can be found.
"The problem is that the east wing of the building has odd numbers and the west wing has even numbers," said June McElroy, a secretary in the office of student life, room 203.
Office workers put up the sign two years ago, McEllroy said, to help the dozens of lost students found wandering each week in the west wing's hallways. The majority are trying to track down the math department, she said.
"They think it's going to be right next door," McEldray said. "It's very confusein'
Confusing numbers
Plans for renumbering Strong have been discussed several times over the years. In fact, a new numbering system was sketched out last summer, said Don Whipple, assistant director of facilities planning and architectural services.
tural services.
"I'll have it down to continuity," Whipple said. "The numbering would be consecutive, starting at one end and zig-zagging across
the hall. Numbers would be stacked; room 211 would be directly under 311."
The current system is a mess. Whipple admitted, but said little could be done at present to improve it.
"There's just no funding," he said.
So for now, the sign outside room 216 is the only guidepost for students looking for the math department. If they don't see the sign, go to Math Center, which has the next corridor to the second floor rotunda area.
Big problem. On the first and third floors, the hallway runs straight through this rotunda area, but on second floor, the glassed-in offices of the chancellor block access to the east wing.
So the students go downstairs and try again. Maybe they'll find their way to the staircase at the east end of the hall, maybe they'll stumble upon those elusive odd-numbered rooms on second floor.
Price, who retired in 1975, said the chancellor's offices had been in the second floor rotunda area since the mid-1980s, but access to the east wing wasn't cut off until the 2000s.
G. naey Price, retired professor of mathematics, remembers a time when getting to the math department didn't require a map.
A partition on second floor was built in 1971, sealing off access to the east wing. In addition to the main math office, several offices are located on the building. The science library were cut off by the partition.
"About 1970 I saw dim Surface (a former University administrator) in the hall and he told me, 'Sorry, the chancellor's got to have someone come in and block off some of your rooms.' Price said.
"That building has always been confused." Price said. "There's a directory in the first floor rotunda telling you that odd numbers are on the east wing and events on it, it's in little tiny print at the hard Nobody knows it. They have to learn it the hard way."
And it's not just math students who have problems finding their way around the world.
Adding to the confusion
"Everyone gets lost in Strong Hall," said Vernell Spearman, acting director of the office of minority affairs. Her office is in
room 324, surrounded by classrooms packed with computer terminals, the gerontology center and the office of affirmative action.
And beware when looking for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The dean's office is in 206, the undergraduate records office in 102, the undergraduate graduation office in 108, the undergraduate advising office in 106, and the offices of research, graduate studies and public service in 224 and 226.
carsher has also advised Spearman advises students to avoid the Strong Hall stairs and use the elevator to minimize confusion — and exhaustion.
they regard Margaret Baker, a secretary in the computer science department, pointed out that the problem wasn't simply figuring out how to get to a room, but finding the correct room.
"They generally don't realize there is an elevator," she said. "They're huffing and puffing by the time they find the place they're going to."
Baker works in the computer science main office in room 114, but said the department had offices and classrooms on the second floor, a few on the third floor, and some in the basement.
in 1994, the Board of Regents commissioned Kansas City landscape artist George Kessler to prepare a master plan for the University. KU was expanding rapidly - enrollment would double from 2,000 to 4,000 by 1920 - but there were only 10 buildings on campus designated for study and instruction.
Strong Hall has been mixed up since the beginning, when it was known as the Administration Building.
Facing the wrong way?
Kessler envisioned a Mount Oread capped with buildings, with a huge administrative and classroom structure facing north as the centerpiece. A spacious, tree-lined walkway would lead up the hill to the Ad Building, forming the main entryway to the University.
Of course, Kessler's plan was never implemented.
"All that's left of those grandiose plans on the north side of campus is the Campanile." Price said. "Even though he (Kessler) didn't design it, it has that certain memorial spirit to it."
right finances and problems acquiring the land, north of the University are possible
explanations for not following Kessler's master design and of Lucas, dean of the architecture department.
nothing else to make sense of the story. There's a bit of KU folkore suggesting that the architect who designed Strong Hall killed himself when he discovered it was built "backward." Lucas said he didn't know whether the story was true.
"What happened between the time of design and construction I can't really tell you. Somewhere along the line a decision was made to drop the main spine of the University," he said.
"I don't know it a traumatic about a suicide. I don't think it was a traumatic thing." he said.
McArdie's design featured elegant pillars on the building's facade, a huge center dome through which sunlight would fall on a rotunda 60 feet in diameter, an art gallery and a classical museum. Cost was estimated at $500,000, but in 1909 the Kansas Legislature appropriated only $125,000 for the project, forcing McArdie to scale down his plans.
As it turned out, Kessler didn't even design the Ad Building; the Regents hired prominent St. Louis architect M P. McArdle in 1908 to draw up the plans.
Building the wings first
That $125,000 paid for the east wing, and the $4,500 that the 1911 legislature appropriated paid for the pouring of the central section's foundation.
The foundation sat untouched for six years, as World War I delayed the project. Finally, the legislature came through with the money to build the west wing, and in 1921 appropriated $250,000 to finish the main section.
In December 1923 the building was completed, and shortly after Christmas the students, faculty and administrators began moving in.
During World War II, Strong's classrooms
the philosophy. The building was renamed in 1938 after KU's sixth chancellor, Frank Strong. During the 45 years since, Strong Hall has been the scene of some of the University's most significant — and strange — events.
"Half the University was there." Price said. "In its early years the Ad Building housed the School of Fine Arts, the Business School, the Chancellor's office, the registrar, the psychology and math departments and the philosophy department."
were converted into barracks for 500 sailors enrolled in a government-sponsored program to train machinists' mates.
During the 1960s, Strong became the target of student protests, since it served as headquarters for KU's administrators. Sit-down demonstrations in public occasions around the chancellor's offices.
A few years later, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, stalactites (calcium carbonate deposits resembling icicles) sprouted on the basement ceiling.
Also, many of the flags representing members of the United Nations, which were displayed in the second-floor rotunda, were stolen and burned by vandals. The University removed and destroyed all the remaining flags in 1968 because so many of them had been damaged.
A solution in the future
In recent years, Strong has been known more for its sweltering classrooms, impossible-to-open front doors, and as always, its mixed-up numbered rooms.
Even if funds are never appropriated to renumber the building, some of Strong Hall confusion may clear up in four or five years, when the math and computer science departments are scheduled to move next door to Snow Hall.
snow Hall's current occupant, the department of biological sciences, will move into the soon-to-be completed Haworth Hall addition sometime around the end of this year, said Whipple, the architectural services director.
After that, Snow is scheduled to undergo extensive renovation, he said, and Strong will become solely an administrative and classroom center.
But despite all the confusion, rdith department chairman Charles Himmelmilch said he would miss working in Strong. "It's the best classroom building on campus; spacious, nice windows, good blackboards, centrally located." Himmelmilch is a shame that one by one they will be appointed off into administrative offices."
Himmelberg paused, and took a look around his office in room 217 — the room so many students have gone in circles trying to find.
"I really LIKE Strong Hall," he said