UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
Friday, August 25, 1995
5A
KU students redraw Union Station history
Phillip Brownlee
Kansan staff writer
Twelve KU architecture students spent their summer making history.
The students prepared measured, detailed site drawings of Union Station in Kansas City, Mo., for the Library of Congress as part of a 10-week course about recording and representing historic structures.
"We were all over that building," said Paul Hubbman, Florissant, Mo., graduate student.
Union Station, the second largest train station in the United States, was completed in 1914 but closed in 1983. Money is being raised to turn the building into a science museum, but since the station is on the National Register of Historic Places, complete survey plans are required before work can begin.
"The kind of drawings needed to establish the recorded history were lost," said Andy Scott, executive director of Union Station Assistant Corp., the organization that is refurbishing the building. "We needed new drawings to use as a historic benchmark."
That's where architecture students came in.
The students recorded each material, each detail, each misalignment and each area of damage in the building. They photographed and meticulously measured the building, dangling measuring tapes off the roof, climbing scaffolding to measure the 100-foot cellings and wading through water and mold in the sub-basement to plot the building's support columns.
"It was completely backwards," Hubbain said. "We were working
with something that was already built and trying to figure out how it was done and how to represent it."
In spite of the students' hard work this summer, the entire project is expected to take up to four years to complete. The final result will be drawings that show the building as it actually appears, imperfections and all. Once approved, the drawings will be sent to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
"It's very painstaking work," said Barry Newton, project leader and associate professor of architecture and urban design. "You have to get it right from the go, or you're in a real mess."
"It's not boring," he said. "As you're taking measurements, you're thinking about the building on a grander scale or wondering what it was like 60 years ago."
Zahir Poonawala, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student, said the meticulousness of the project appealed to him.
The documents the students produce are part of the Historic American Buildings Survey, a program that records historic buildings.
"They are all quite professional, and there is a real style to their drawings," said Lisa Wegman French, a historian with the National Park Service, which administers the survey.
The students were paid for their work, but for Poonawala, the educational experience was the biggest reward.
"When you have to analyze a building to the extent that we did, you really understand how a building is made," he said.
Contributed photo
Twelve KU architecture students spent their summer preparing, detailed site drawings of Union Station in Kansas City, Mo. The building later will be turned into a science museum, but survey plans first must be completed. The students' drawings will be sent to the Library of Congress.
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