6C
Monday, August 19, 1996
CAMPUS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Memories of Hoch survive in Budig Hall
Lightning strike ends building's historic epoch
By Tom Moore
Kansan staff writer
From heat-twisted steel, rubble and charred stone, Hoch Auditorium, the home of thousands of KU memories, has risen again.
The structure was renamed Budig Hall after former Chancellor Gene Budig. It will be completed in November. Classes are scheduled to begin in Spring 1997. The main auditorium will be called Hoch Auditorium.
But for KU students and alumni, Budig Hall has been a place of history.
As the site of a 1957 speech by John F. Kennedy, Jayhawk basketball games coached by Phog Allen, and season after season of concerts and cultural events, Budig Hall was, until its fiery demise in 1991, an architectural treasure on the KU campus.
The new building will feature computers with Internet access, multimedia education, and a reconstructed interior. But a heavy sense of history will continue to surround Hoch.
Construction began in April 1926, and the building was dedicated on October 14, 1927. Named for Edward Wallace Hoch, Kansas governor from 1905 to 1909, orator and publisher of the Marion Record, the building served as a concert hall and sports center until Allen Field House's completion in 1955. Hoch seated 4,000 people, which was then about the total enrollment at the University. It cost $317,800 to build in 1926. The rebuilding costs $22 million.
From the start, the building's vulnerability to fire was a concern. The arches of the auditorium were made
of wood, but the height of the ceiling prevented any worries: If a fire started on the floor, said the building inspector, it couldn't possibly spread to the ceiling.
In 1974, Del Shankel, then executive vice-chancellor, warned of fire: "The ceiling is highly flammable and the curtains are flammable. A fire could go right through that whole roof in a hurry if one ever got started."
We now know that the fire started when lightning from a June 1991 storm struck the building, ending 65 years of history.
"My most poignant memory is getting the call the afternoon it burned down," recalled Shankel, now chancellor emeritus and professor.
"I remember being told by the fire chief that, even if they had been given the call 30 minutes before the lightning struck, they couldn't have stopped the fire," he said. "I remember watching it burn. That sort of brings a lump to the throat.
Shankel said that although he arrived at the University too late to see any basketball games played at Hoch, he did recall seeing composer Andre Previn perform with the London Symphony.
"It was a hot day in September; the entire group was in nothing but shirt sleeves," he said. "I remember Previn making nasty remarks about the Kansas heat."
Shankel had no fond memories of Hochas a teaching facility, however.
"I taught a few classes in there," he said. "It was not a great place in which to teach. Students were just too spread out and there was no way to do an overhead or anything. The new facility will be much better."
Budig Hall will boast two 500-seat auditoriums and one 1,000-seat auditorium, each equipped with the latest in multimedia educational technology, said David Schaecher, capital improvements manager for the University. There will be a computer lab, three classrooms, a technical-instrumental room and 40,000 square feet of space for libraries. The auditoriums will feature rear-
"While this is an essentially new building, the new design tried to reflect the original design of Hoch and the gothic style of Hoch."
David Schaechor KU capital improvement manager
projection glass screens that will allow professors to zoom in on experiments and documents.
"A lot of faculty like to intermingle with students as they lecture." Schaecher said. "Many students that sit in balconies had no interaction with the professor. In the 1,000-seat setup, we have the balcony connected to the ground area so that the professor will have access to those students. The professor can really just walk up into the balcony while lecturing."
Budig Hall meets all fire codes, Schaecher said, and new building's facade will remain the same.
"While this is an essentially new building, the new design tried to reflect the original design of Hoch and the gothic style of Hoch," Schaechersaid.
The additional library space, although it will remain unfinished, is a blessing for William Crowe, dean of libraries.
"We need about two miles of shelfspace every year to accommodate our growing collection," Crowe said. "This space, while unfinished, will definitely help us."
Brian Hott/KANSAN
Reconstruction of Hoch Auditorium, now renamed Budig Hal, began in 1991 after the building was destroyed in a fire caused by lightning.
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