Hall Family Foundation gift to provide new home for Hall Center at historic campus site

KU's oldest surviving structure, the 1887 Powerhouse, soon will be reborn with the infusion of more than $3 million from the Hall Family Foundation.

The old stone structure will be renovated and become the home of the Hall Center for the Humanities in 2004. When completed, the remodeled building will celebrate the humanities and incorporate elements of the Powerhouse.

The gift fulfills part of a $42 million Hall Family Foundation pledge announced in June 2001. That pledge, the largest private gift for higher education in Kansas history, earmarked as much as $7 million for humanities-related programs, including construction of the new humanities center.

"When it comes to major gifts and grants, the humanities are sometimes the neglected orphan at a university," said KU Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway. "The Hall Family Foundation's commitment to the Hall Center, especially its funding of this new facility, is the strongest possible affirmation that the humanities are central to the life and mission of the University of Kansas."

The new building will be constructed about 300 feet west of the Hall Center's 6,800-square-foot site, the former Watkins Home at 1540 Sunflower Road, built in 1937. Preliminary plans call for a design that will use and preserve stone arches from the south facade of the old Powerhouse, which overlooks Sunnyside Avenue and has been used for many years as a Facilities Operations storage building.

According to Warren Corman, University architect, John Haskell's design for the Powerhouse was strongly influenced by a Romanesque building that still stands in Oviedo, Spain. The Royal Palace of Ramiro I was built in 848 and converted into a church, Santa Maria de Naranco, in the 13th century. Haskell designed five buildings at KU, of which Bailey Hall (1900) is the only complete, surviving example.

The Powerhouse was struck by lightning in 1898. The resulting fire severely damaged the building, which was constructed of Oread limestone quarried on site. A portion of the building was repaired but, over the years, subsequent modifications and deterioration have largely obliterated Haskell's original design.

Principal architect for the Hall Center project will be James R. Calcara of CDFM2 Architecture Inc. of Kansas City. A campus building committee, chaired by John Gaunt, dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Design, will provide oversight.

The new two-story building will have approximately 11,000 square feet of space and will include a 120-seat conference room, a seminar room, a serving kitchen, and offices for Hall Center staff and research fellows.

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