Clark Hall rededicated

Clark Hall re-dedicated as home for the humanities

by Susan Griffith

Clark Hall, one of CWRU's grandest old buildings, gleams this fall after its $3.7 million facelift.

University officials, donors, and guests toured the refurbished hall September 14 during rededication ceremonies. The event highlighted the College of Arts and Sciences' third annual Humanities Week, during which the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities formally established its new home on the second floor in the building's original library.

"It's wonderful to be in a historic building, in a space so well-suited for seminar and colloquium discussions. It's a splendid home for the Humanities Center," said Thomas Bishop, director of the Baker-Nord Center.

Colin McLarty, chair of the Department of Philosophy, notes how attractive the new offices are for his faculty.

Clark Hall is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. It reopened this fall after a year-long project to restore the building's exterior to near original condition and to modernize interior facilities to take the 107-year-old building into the new millenium.

The building has nine seminar rooms and classrooms and 15 offices. The Max Kade Center for German Studies, Department of Philosophy, WWW Center for Ethics in Engineering and Science, Schubert Center for Child Development, Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies, CWRU Center for Policy Studies, and members of the Department of Theater Arts also have new offices and headquarters in the hall.

The theater department will utilize the restored assembly room on the fourth floor for theater rehearsals. The room, with its wooden beamed and paneled ceiling and newly installed wooden floor, also will serve as a large gathering space for special events and lectures.

The building had deteriorated over the past century. Lack of handicap access, adequate restrooms, and fire safety stairwells and sprinklers prompted the renovations.

The Gothic-style brick building, dedicated in 1892, was designed by Richard Morris Hunt, a New York architect who also designed the facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Hunt, one of the founders of the American Institute of Architects, designed three other buildings in Cleveland, but Clark Hall is the only one remaining. Clark Hall underwent major changes after closing at the end of spring semester in 1998.

Barbara Klante, assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, overseeing the college's Interdisciplinary Programs, positioned enlarged photographs from the University Archives throughout Clark Hall to illustrate the historic "before" pictures with the dramatic "after" changes.

The project had the support of a $1 million gift from alumni Eric and Jane Nord, who also funded the establishment of the Baker-Nord Center. Eric Nord received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Case Institute of Technology in 1939, and Jane Nord received the M.A. in art education in 1976. Other anonymous donors contributed an additional $800,000 toward the project.

Kenneth Kutina, vice president of institutional planning, led the project's committee, which undertook efforts to preserve the building's historic exterior and interior features, while outfitting the building with state-of-the art classrooms, comfort facilities, and fire safety features. Other committee members were Steve Rajki, assistant director of facility planning; John Bassett, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Samuel Savin, associate dean of arts and sciences; Joan Ainsworth, director of development for the college; and Jeff Gliebe, construction manager from the Krill Company.

William Gould, a Cleveland architect from Gould Associates Inc., directed the project's renovations.

According to Kutina, the exterior renovations included cleaning the brick work, reinstalling loose stonework on the cornices, removing fire escapes, installing handrails and new copper flashings and gutters, replacing the asphalt roofing with slate, and grading the landscaping leading to create a new first-floor entrance with handicap access. Major work to replace glass block in the monumental west window with leaded glass also took place.

For the building's interior, the hardwood maple floors in the hallways and Baker-Nord Center were repaired with flooring from classrooms which are now carpeted. A new elevator, a fire stairwell, and the refinished and oiled original ironwork staircase provide access to the upper floors. Classrooms are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment for computer-generated and audio-visual images. Central air conditioning was installed and will be connected to chilled water lines, which Kutina predicts will happen by the summer of 2001.

Clark Hall is the second-oldest building on campus and the first for the College of Women, the companion school for Adelbert College. The building was a gift from Elisabeth Clark.

When it originally opened, Clark Hall housed a 1,200-volume library, an assembly room that also served as a chapel, study rooms, a lunchroom, administrative offices of the president, classrooms, and a gymnasium. The current large classroom on the third floor, which seats 70 students, served as a lecture hall and chapel.