Friday, July 9, 1965 Summer Session Kansan
Page 7
Reflected by Construction Boom
PLANS FOR NEW FRASER caused a stir, but building will provide needed room.
least by Aug. 1. He stated that this might not occur, however.
According to plan, new Fraser will be completed 540 days after the contract is awarded, Lawton said. This would make Jan. 1, 1967, the target date for completion.
Bids for the razing of old Fraser will be received at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Topeka. It may take about 30 days to award the contract. The construction of new Fraser and the removal of old Fraser may occur simultaneously.
PLANS HAVE BEEN made for the preservation of items of sentimental and historic value. To be saved are (1) all interior doors; (2) exterior doors on east entrance; (3) all ornamental hardware; (4) railings from the main stairways; (5) all wood window shutters; (6) ornamental windows; (7) all ornamental ironwork; (8) all wooden corner plaster stops; (9) some door frames and moldings; (10) arch and key stones from certain windows and doorways; (11) all exterior stone from the upper two stories; (12) wood mouldings from the Wilcox Museum; (13) all slate chalkboards; (14) those modern fixtures that can be re-used in other KU buildings.
The salvaged materials will be distributed later as seen fit. Said Lawton, "The urgency of the moment, of course, is not to dispose of items within old Fraser Hall. The urgent need is to determine which items will be saved. Later there will be time to make decisions regarding proper disposition of these items."
New Fraser Scheduled Next
Landscaping Changes
THE EAST HALF of Lilac Lane will become a two-way street, with a new diagonal connection to Jayhawk Boulevard from just south of
Aside from construction of new Fraser and the demolition of old Fraser, another separate job remains to be done. This is the relocation of streets and sidewalks, and the landscaping of the Fraser area. To be reoriented is the main pedestrian walk from Alumni Place and Tennessee Street. The entire west half of Lilac Lane will be closed and removed, and the area landscaped.
Danforth Chapel. A new turnaround will be constructed in front of Watkins Hospital.
The original lilacs on Lilac Lane will be preserved as much as is possible. After completion of Fraser, the hedge will be supplemented as is necessary.
The Pioneer Statue will be moved from the center of the Lilac Lane oval to a new location directly south, between Blake and new Fraser.
These additional jobs will cost approximately $75,000, according to Keith Lawton. He pointed out that this is a very minor part of the projected work. Since the removal of old Fraser was not included in the original plans for the new building, the landscaping, which was to have been done after the 1968 razing of old Fraser, will be a separate contract.
AS OLD FRASER had to be evacuated before work could begin on the new building, a number of faculty members were without offices. To remedy this situation, Carruth-O'Leary Hall was converted from a dormitory to temporary office space, displacing about 200 students into other housing.
However, the major disadvantage of the premature loss of old Fraser was that construction of the Humanities Building could not be delayed until after the construction of both the new gymnasium and the Biological Sciences building. Because of the "Fraser emergency," the State Legislature appropriated one-half of the money to build the Humanities building.
Humanities Building Next
Thus, as soon as the gymnasium is finished and Robinson can be razed, one section of the Humanities building will be constructed. After the Biological Sciences building is completed and Haworth is removed, the Humanities building can be finished.
IN THIS MANNER the early loss of Fraser has speeded up the KU building program, said Lawton.
for activities and bookstore.
When completed, the Humanities building, to be situated directly across from Strong Hall, will be KU's primary classroom center. It is possible that the classrooms will be on the lower floors and the offices on the upper floor like in new Fraser, but it may be some time before any definite plans will be made.
The planning of the Humanities Building is now in what is known as the "program of work." This is the first stage in the construction of a building, when the planners decide what the building is generally to consist of. When this is finished, the rough specifications will be turned over to the architects for design.
Before the first segment of the Humanities Building can be begun, Robinson Gymnasium must be removed. This can be done only after the completion of the new gymnasium, currently being constructed east of Allen Field House on the old intramural fields.
BEGUN LAST OCTOBER, this building is also to be built in sections, like the Humanities Building. The general contractor is the B. A. Green Construction Co., with Norris Bros. handling the electrical and mechanical contracts. The total projected cost of the first part of the gymnasium is $930,557.
The new gymnasium, scheduled for completion in February, 1966, will contain two large gymnasiums, each containing two basketball courts, offices for the physical education department chairman, offices for five male instructors and four female instructors, a staff locker room, staff shower rooms, men's and women's locker rooms and shower rooms, six classrooms, a study room, a weight-lifting room, two exercise gyms, intramural offices, and three handball courts.
Natatorium Has T-Pool
Also under construction is a natatorium containing a T-shaped swimming pool, 75 feet 1 inch wide, with a glass underwater viewing window to aid swimming coaches. Also in this section will be additional men's and women's locker rooms, seating for 694 spectators at the pool, and a terrace measuring 95 feet by 60 feet. The pool is to be connected with the terrace by large sliding glass doors.
A SECOND PHASE of the gymnasium, to include additional recreational and intramural facilities, is planned for the future.
Old Robinson Gymnasium probably will be razed later in the spring of 1966. Keith Lawton stated.
The final section of the Humanities Building is to be built after the elimination of Haworth Hall, to be replaced by a Biological Sciences Building. This structure, the planning of which has only recently been turned over to the architects for designing, is to be located east of Summerfield Hall on Sunnyside Ave. It will contain laboratories and classrooms for the biological and life science department.
CURRENTLY UNDER construction on the southwest corner of the Kansas Union is a small three-story addition. With a tentative completion date of Aug. 15, the addition will house the student activity office on the top floor and will enlarge the bookstore in the bottom two.
The B. A. Green Construction Co.
of Lawrence is the prime contractor
for the job, which will cost $66,000.
It is financed by a four-year loan
from the KU Endowment Association,
to be paid back with interest
from the Union income.
Union operations are self-supporting.
Now nearing completion is McColum Hall, to be the largest dormitory on the KU campus, housing a total of 976 students. The big, T-shaped building is estimated by the office of the director of dormitories to be 99 per cent complete, and is sure to be fully operational by the beginning of the fall term.
THE GENERAL contractor for McCollum Hall is Coonrad, Waltz, & Bollmer Construction Co. of Wichita.
Other contractors are Kendall
Plumbing Co. and Wichita Electric Co. The cost of the building will be approximately $3,800,000.
Future dormitory expansion will occur in the vicinity of 19th Street and Naismith Road. Already slated for construction, one in 1966 and one in 1967, are two 650-man dormitories. A third dormitory, not yet approved, is considered a possibility.
No dormitory expansion to the west of Iowa Street is planned in the foreseeable future.
Dorms Built by Fees
While academic buildings at the University are financed by the educational building fund of the Kansas legislature, with some federal aid, dormitories are paid for by the residents. A small, separate fund of state money is kept for initial payments on dormitories, but the bulk of the financing is done through long-term loans, repaid with the fees charged the occupants.
HOWEVER. IN the near future large-scale student housing may be conducted independently of KU. Now just getting underway across the street from the prospective university dormitories at 19th and Naismith is the first major privately-financed student dormitory at KU.
Financed and to be constructed by Allen Bros. & O'Hara, Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., the dormitory is estimated by Lawrence lawyer Milton Allen, representative of the company, to cost between $2 million and $3 million. The building will house 504 students, and is scheduled to be completed by the fall term of 1966.
Zoning and legal difficulties have slowed the progress of the dormitory, but the area between Naimshi Road and Arkansas Street, 18th Street and 19th Street, where the dormitory is to be built, is now zoned C-1 (high-rise apartment), and a recent court victory by the company will seemingly allow the necessary area to be cleared.
ALSO UNDER construction at KU is an addition to the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house. Estimated to be 75 per cent complete, the addition will enlarge the capacity of the house from 72 to 95. The addition is scheduled to be completed by fall.
The addition is designed along the same lines as the main section of the house, built in 1942. The interior style is different from many fraternities and sorority houses in that two-man bedrooms plank each fourman study room, rather than having them in two separate sections.
The addition also will contain a 125-man dining room.
The B. A. Green Construction Co. is prime contractor for the structure, which will cost a total of about $200,000. The addition is financed by donations from alumni, sale of bonds, and first mortgage financing.
Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe is an alumnus of the ATO fraternity.
While work progresses on present projects, long-range plans are in the making. For example:
A NEW UNIVERSITY Extension building between Mississippi Street and the entrance drive to Zone X. (University Extension is currently housed in the former Pi Beta Phi house.)
Remodeling of Green $ \mathrm{H a}^{11} $
An addition to Watkins Hospital.
An addition to Watkins Hospital. A second biological science building.
A fourth story to be added to the west wing of Malott Hall (a project for which funds have already been appropriated).
Replacement of Strong Annexes by a permanent addition.
Remodeling of Marvin Hall.
An addition to Lindley Hall to replace Lindley Annex.
An art and architecture addition to the new Engineering Building.
An engineering administration building directly east of the Nuclear Reactor Building.