The announcement of a new music building Tuesday added another project to a campus already teeming with construction.
“There’s pretty much always something going on, at least for the last 10 years,” said Bonnie Humphrey, NU’s director of design and construction.
Current projects, such as the construction of the Richard and Barbara Silverman Hall for Molecular Therapeutics & Diagnostics, located at 2150 Campus Drive Dr., and the renovations to Annie May Swift and Crowe halls are slowly reshaping the overall look of NU’s campus. These projects, however, are just a continuation of years of expansion.
More projects are still on the way. Renovation of Searle Hall is set to begin in the spring, and reconfiguration of the soccer and lacrosse field will begin in the is scheduled for the summer.
“We try to do most of the smaller projects over the summer so we’re not as disruptive to the students,” Humphrey said.
But with larger projects, the work continues year-round. More complex projects, such as the expansion of the Central Utility Plant and the new Silverman Hall, will finish respectively in the summer and fall of 2009.
These buildings will continue to stretch an NU map that began with ever-changing structures, such as the Music Administration Building.
Music freshman Kathryn Crabb said the current Music Administration Building drew her to NU.
“I chose this music school because I fell in love with the building,” Crabb said. But the building was not always a music center, university archivist Patrick Quinn said.
In 1871, the building was used for the Evanston College for Ladies and then converted into a women’s dorm in 1873. It became “Old Willard Hall” in 1901 and was used as a center of social and religious life for women. The building was reopened as a student union in 1938 and then finally became part of the School of Music in 1940.
In addition to the changing uses of buildings, NU has undergone a number of physical changes through the years, as well.
“There have been three main spurts of buildings,” Quinn said. “The first was in the 1920s, the second was after World War II, and the third is the modern period that is still going on.”
In the 1920s and 1930s, architect James Gamble Rogers designed projects including the Gothic-style Deering Library in 1933, and Dyche Stadium, now called Ryan Field, in 1926. In 1942, construction of the Technological Institute was completed.
University Hall, built in 1869, remains the oldest building on campus, Quinn said.
During the second wave of construction, NU’s newest buildings included Norris University Center in 1972, Pick-Staiger Hall in 1975, and the main university library, which was finished in 1970.
More recent buildings have included Kemper and Cook halls, and the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center.
“More construction of late has been for science buildings,” Quinn said.
In a January meeting with The Daily, President Bienen acknowledged that science and engineering facilities are more likely to garner federal money, but music majors acknowledge that this new building has been a long time coming.
“I thought it was great that the school was taking an interest in music and we will finally have some updated facilities,” Music sophomore John Lee said.
