On campus today

[Houston Techsan]

Old Robinson Hall is one of the red brick buildings. I think they use for a hearing center or something like that. The four men's dorms (I hope they tore down Hutchison) across Tech Drive are late forties, I believe and are traditional and could be renovated. They're not in the center of campus though. Mitchell is pre FJT, too, but not as traditional looking. I lived in Richardson my freshman year with two (count 'em) roommates. Putting an extra bed, desk and chest of drawers just made it cramped, but three people sharing two closets was hard. Made up for it my senior year, I guess. I had a room to myself in Nielson (Never knew how to spell that and spell check says it's wrong either way).

[Champ967]

If they tear down CT and all those dorms, there will be almost nothing left with any history. Why don't they just rip it all down and start over for you young ones who love bright and shiny new stuff?! Sorry, I do like nice, new things, but is there no room for sentiment/tradition at all these days? Surprised since they need a new engineering building that they just didn't get rid of Bogard. I could, however, be on board with removng Nethkin which never fit in. I guess i just love the old architecture and don't know why they have to mess with it or can't design new ones with the same traditional look. And, yeah, I'm old and graduated in '72 so who cares what i think?

Welcome, sister.

[Dawg06]

About 99% of our alumni base completely agrees with you. The new IESB seems to be a blend of modern and historic with its brick and columns. But sandwiched between it and Bogard is Tech Pointe, which looks like a jumbled mess that's out of place.

The new business building has some characteristics that would allow it to blend with the WPA buildings that sit a few hundred feet from it. But then most of one side of the building is painted yellow. What were they thinking? I was told from the very start the yellow paint began to accumulate dirt. Only months after the building opened it looked like it needed to be powerwashed. And it wasn't a way to save money or value engineer the building. That's the way the architect designed it. Several Business professors began to call it the yellow dog. The day after the Tulane football game in 2013 I walked the exterior with a business professor. He pointed out the fact that the building already looked like it was aging.

THANK YOU! A few years ago I posted that the new business building looked like it had yellow bathroom tile all over its exterior. I thought it looked horrible, and some on here lambasted me for that opinion. Then a year later, they realized the building was too small and had to annex a wing to it. It's like they don't think sometimes before building multi-million dollar buildings. Poor, poor planning.

[Dawg06]

Old Robinson Hall is one of the red brick buildings. I think they use for a hearing center or something like that. The four men's dorms (I hope they tore down Hutchison) across Tech Drive are late forties, I believe and are traditional and could be renovated. They're not in the center of campus though. Mitchell is pre FJT, too, but not as traditional looking. I lived in Richardson my freshman year with two (count 'em) roommates. Putting an extra bed, desk and chest of drawers just made it cramped, but three people sharing two closets was hard. Made up for it my senior year, I guess. I had a room to myself in Nielson (Never knew how to spell that and spell check says it's wrong either way).

I think all the dorms west of Tech Drive have been approved for demolition except for Cottingham, which was renovated after a fire in the early 2000s I think.

[Dawg06]

True, CT is not in the same boat with bogard, keeny, howard, etc.--just was there before FJ's new buildings and seems more traditional in that sense. And, yeah, i understand they need sprucing up, but think of all the much older buildings at older universities that are still going strong. Poor maintenance on our part? It's just sad.

Likely poorly built and poor maintenance. From the FJT era to today, our buildings haven't been built well. I'm certainly no expert, but it seems those buildings simply weren't built to last any more than 50 years. All these apartments they've been building over the last 13 years, there's no way they last any more than 30 years. Walls are thin as paper, and they have to patch the drywall all the time. The first time I tried to unplug something, the whole socket came out of the wall. Check out the master plan, and it will show you the grade and recommendation for each building whether they need to be renovated or demolished. All the Jindal-Edwards era budget cuts eliminated our maintenance funding, and we are losing buildings because of it.

[Amos Moses]

Is that gawd awful ramp still in Carson Taylor?

[ETxBullDawg]

I think all the dorms west of Tech Drive have been approved for demolition except for Cottingham, which was renovated after a fire in the early 2000s I think.

As of Fall 2016 Cottingham was still in use but the other buildings in the horseshoe are out of service and in serious need of demolition.
Supposedly, they are being used for storage but look absolutely terrible and are a serious eye sore on the campus.

[The Historian]

Old Robinson Hall is one of the red brick buildings. I think they use for a hearing center or something like that.

I should have included Robinson in my original list. It was completely renovated in the 80s. It opened in 1940, the same year Bogard, Tolliver and Howard Auditorium opened.

[tenacious_dog]

The lack of maintenance funds goes back way before Jindal's Admin. The problem we have is not just at Tech, its at every school in the state, our highway system, hospitals, etc. Decades of "deferred maintenance" leads to where we are.

From what I hear, the school in Baton Rouge has a bigger problem with building maintenance than we do.

[The Historian]

The lack of maintenance funds goes back way before Jindal's Admin. The problem we have is not just at Tech, its at every school in the state, our highway system, hospitals, etc. Decades of "deferred maintenance" leads to where we are.

From what I hear, the school in Baton Rouge has a bigger problem with building maintenance than we do.

It really goes back to the oil bust. Over about a 4 year period in the mid 80s the physical plant staffs of every school in the state were cut more than 75%. They were never restaffed. At many campuses there were no new buildings or any major renovations until the mid 90s. The only exception was for emergency projects.

At the same time Tech perhaps fared the best of any school in the state. Dr. Taylor and others on campus had the foresight in the 70s to plans on renovations on campus in the early to mid 80s. While Tech had its problems in that era, like Hale Hall, it also had a campus that in many ways felt very new. The 60s era dorms were only 20 years old, had air conditioning, and were livable. The student center reopened in 1988 after being closed for a year for a complete renovation. Robinson, Adams, Aswell, Dudley, Pierce, Keeny and Howard Auditorium were also completely renovated.

[ETxBullDawg]

Hale Hall has been renovated and is now used by admissions as a main "point of entry" for campus tours for prospective students. I would like to see the focus be on renovation on the buildings with "timeless" architecture, ie Keeney, Bogard, University, Adams, Dudley. etc. I am in favor of complete demo and replacement of the 60-70 era "block buildings" like GTM, Woodard, Carson Taylor, Neithken, Mitchell, Harper, etc. I was on campus a couple of weeks ago and the new student apartments along California are really going to look nice and blend in well with the "timeless" buildings mentioned above. According to admission's recruiters, the new engineering building, still awaiting funding, will give Tech the largest engineering facility in state of Louisiana.

[Houston Techsan]

As I recall Hale was not renovated but demolished and replaced with a new building that looks like old Hale Hall. Hopefully it shouldn't need renovation yet.

[qng001]

Hale Hall has been renovated and is now used by admissions as a main "point of entry" for campus tours for prospective students. I would like to see the focus be on renovation on the buildings with "timeless" architecture, ie Keeney, Bogard, University, Adams, Dudley. etc. I am in favor of complete demo and replacement of the 60-70 era "block buildings" like GTM, Woodard, Carson Taylor, Neithken, Mitchell, Harper, etc. I was on campus a couple of weeks ago and the new student apartments along California are really going to look nice and blend in well with the "timeless" buildings mentioned above. According to admission's recruiters, the new engineering building, still awaiting funding, will give Tech the largest engineering facility in state of Louisiana.

Hale Hall has been rebuilt from the ground up, not renovated.

[Houston Techsan]

On the same thought ETxBullDawg must realize that none of the "timeless" architectural building were air conditioned except for a few window units. The only men's dormitories that were air conditioned were Mitchell, Hutchison, Carruthers and Nielson. Maybe Jenkins-McFarland later. Retrofitting those old 1930s buildings with air conditioning was difficult and expensive and may have taken up a lot of our maintenance funds. Even CT (the newest classroom building when I started) was not wholly air conditioned. This was made important because the quarter system started earlier and summer enrollment probably increased substantially.

[Champ967]

I am in favor of complete demo and replacement of the 60-70 era "block buildings" like GTM, Woodard, Carson Taylor, Neithken, Mitchell, Harper, etc.

See, I think those are an important part of the campus. They speak to their time. Not just at Tech, but in America ... of the Baby Boom, suburbanization, the GI Bill, the interstate system, Civil Rights, the Cold War, widespread ownership of televisions & automobiles, Mid-Century design, etc.

I'd submit that wholesale replacement of the buildings from an entire era represents a disservice to future generations.

Rehab, adapt, & retrofit them, yes.