West Dodge Campus Choice
Gave Unique Building Design
From the May 9, 1960, The
Gateway
The
quiet dignity imparted by the American Georgian architecture of the
Administration Building bespeaks little of the unrest which preceded its
construction.
Pressure for a new classroom building began to mount as
the revamped mansion at 24th and Pratt, hen serving as a school,
began to prove inadequate.
The mansion was sold to the University for $30,000 by O.C.
Redick and was opened for classes on Sept. 14, 1908.
To carry the overflow of students, a three-story building
known as Joslyn Hall was completed in 1917 and 1927, Saratoga Grade School was
used as a science hall. The building was located at 24th and Ames.
While it was generally agreed that a new university
building was needed, selection of the site wasn't quite that simple.
The American Georgian design was selected over the more
modern or Gothic style, due largely to public sentiment at the time against
"wildcat modernism."
Constructed in the shape of an "H" to permit the building
to be seen from all directions, the middle of the structure was made one story
higher than the reset in accordance wt the rules of good Georgian architecture.
John Latenser and Sons designed the building.
Cost of the 270x200 foot brick structure came to $980,000,
with the government matching 45 cents to each of OU's 55 cents.
The Administration Building was constructed on the
"thermos bottle" principle. This means that there is a two-inch thick space
between brick wall and the plaster. This helps to keep the building warmer in
the winter and cooler in the summer. Four inches of insulation on the roof and
ceilings and two thicknesses of glass in the building's 460 windows add to this
effect.
One of the most ingenious aspects of the structure is its
heating and cooling system. Two low-pressure coal-fired boilers provide the
heat. They use an average of 350 tons of bituminous coal a year.
For air conditioning, cool water is pumped from three
wells to a 100,000 gallon storage reservoir. From there it is taken to
mechanical refrigerators, then to cooling coils, to condensers and finally back
to another reservoir for lawn sprinkling.
This gigantic system uses about 135,000 gallons of water
on an average summer day. An ample water supply is provided by the three
artesian wells.
The air intake is located in the cupola.
Science laboratories and kitchens have separate exhaust
systems.
Despite all this elaborate equipment, costs are
comparatively low—about $6 an hour for heating and $10 an hour for cooling.
This does not include labor.
The Applied Arts and Student Center Buildings have taken
some of the burden off the Administration Building. But with an ever-increasing
enrollment, the first structure built on the present campus will be in use for
many years.
