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| The Science Building, circa late 80's/early 90's Photo courtesy of the CNU Archives. |
The Science Building was originally designed as a 20,000 square-foot building with interior hallways under President Windsor. When President Anderson took over, he threw out those existing plans in favor of a design with outdoor wraparound walkways. The walkway idea, based off of a building at Anderson’s previous college (Columbus State University in Georgia), was a way to build a larger facility. You see in Virginia, the Commonwealth determines the square footage of buildings at public colleges based on the college's needs. For some reason, it doesn't (or at least didn't) count outdoor hallways as part of the square footage. So by putting the hallways outside, the square footage that would have been taken up by interior hallways could be reallocated to the classrooms themselves.
Sources:
Dozier, Linda “New building added,” The Captain’s Log, 29 October 1981
Construction began on the $2.3 million building in December 1981, and was scheduled to be finished in time for Spring 1983 classes. Almost all classrooms had open ceilings (no drop ceilings) to save money. Interior walls were painted bright colors in “an attempt to make a cheerful and fun place for students,” said Dr. Harold Cones, chairman of the department of chemistry, biology, and environmental sciences.
In October 1982, work was put on hold when the exterior panels hanging from the second-floor walkway were noticed to be tilting outwards, with 0.5-2” of difference between panels. Over fears these five-foot wide, three-ton panels could fall, the college hired an independent consultant to look into them. It was determined the panels needed reinforced support before the building could be deemed safe for occupancy. In October 1983, after months of negotiation, the engineering firm that designed the panel’s original support system agreed to pay the extra fees to remove the panels and add additional supports. Construction also hit some additional contract squabbles, pushing the completion date further back. The building finally opened during the summer of 1984, a year and a half late, yet surprisingly under budget.
After its first winter of operation, it became apparent a design choice from Georgia was not going to transfer well to Virginia. The walkways did not drain well, creating standing pools of water or ice (depending on the temperature). Salt was used to melt ice to prevent students from slipping, but this caused hairline cracks to appear in the concrete.
This wasn't the only issue. The treads used on the exterior stairs were designed for interior use only. They became known as safety hazards after students and staff alike kept falling on them. The inside was not without its own faults. The roof severely leaked. The open ceilings led to classrooms being “poorly lit and acoustically ineffective.” Of the building's 28 heating pumps, 24 had to be replaced, while the four remaining required serious repairs.
Christopher Newport first sought to enclose the walkways in 1985, less than a year after the building first opened, but the state ultimately did not award funds for the project until 1994. When it did, the walkways were one of the reason for renovation, but not the main one. That honor went to... the ventilation system.
For a classroom building, the Science Building's ventilation system was sufficient. For a classroom building that frequently held labs working with chemicals and noxious fumes, it was nowhere near sufficient. "The fresh air intake in all of the rooms were dependent on how many times you opened and closed the exterior doors," recalled Bill Brauer, Executive Vice President at CNU. Students and teachers developed headaches and/or nausea if they spent a prolonged amount of time in the building. Mold became a problem. The Captain’s Log reported that “when officials from Richmond came to CNU to evaluate the validity of the school’s complaints about the science building, they had to end their examination early because of adverse physical reactions caused by the building’s poor ventilation.” Dr. Cones described the building as “a real diseased animal.”
The $1.1 million renovation to fix all of the problems began at the beginning of the fall 1995 semester. Students were not happy with the timing, but that was the earliest CNU could work with when they received the money and the schedule thereafter. While the building was closed, science labs were held in trailers and other spaces scattered around campus. The building was scheduled to reopen by January 22, 1996; however, as this was the Science Building, construction blew past that deadline. Contractor communication breakdowns and a little mix of bad weather had taken its toll on the project. Since the January 22 deadline had been written into the contract, the contractor had to pay CNU $1,500 each day construction ran over. The building was finally complete by late spring.
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| CNU's Science Building, post-1996 renovation Photo courtesy of the CNU Archives. |
When students finally got to experience the refreshed building, its air system was finally ready to handle science labs. "The new ventilation system has 1,800 computer controls and utilizes six telephone lines. It now moves four and a half times more air than the administration building," reported Cones. The interior footprint had also been expanded, enclosing the hallways, adding extra faculty offices, and making space for a new entry atrium that could be used as a student lounge. "It definitely changes the lifestyle," said Biology major Stephanie McMorris at the time, "In the old building people would hang out on the patios and smoke. Now it feels like you are in an academic building."
The rest of the Science Building's tenure was fairly uneventful. It worked as it should.
In the late 2000's, CNU started construction on a new generation of academic buildings. Adjacent to the Science Building came Mary Brock Forbes Hall, the new home of integrated sciences. The Science Building had initially been slated to be reused as a wing of this new hall, sporting a new façade that would have fit in with the newer building's Neo-Georgian look. However, a new problem would have arisen: due to Forbes' higher ceilings, its second floor was eight feet higher than the Science Building's. To connect the buildings together, it would have required a ramp connection or another awkward solution. With building materials cheap at the time, CNU realized that they had enough project money to demolish the whole thing and build a new one. So they decided to do just that. The Science Building was demolished over the summer of 2011.
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| Remains of the Science Building, August 2011 |
Forbes Hall's second phase opened for the Spring 2013 semester. Like the Science Building before it, it is a two-story rectangular building teaching science. Unlike the Science Building, it hasn't had major problems requiring a major renovation 10 years after it was built.
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| Forbes Hall's Phase 2 Wing The rest of Forbes Hall and the DSU are to the left |
THE END!
Sources:
Dozier, Linda “New building added,” The Captain’s Log, 29 October 1981
“Science Building to be completed by Christmas,” The Captain’s Log, 10 September 1982
Helm, Scott “New Building To Be Finished,” The Captain’s Log, 8 September 1983
Murray, Phil “1½ years later, science hall ready,” Daily Press, 26 August 1984
Begalka, Kurt “$208,000 sought to enclose walkways,” Daily Press, 15 March 1985
Jordan, Jennifer “Science building to be renovated,” The Captain’s Log, 11 April 1994
Deloatch, Deanna “Beautiful Building Blues,” The Captain’s Log, 11 September 1995
Stokes, Melanie "Construction or Destruction?" The Captain's Log, 18 September 1995
Harris, Robin “Just a little more time, please,” The Captain’s Log, 19 February 1996
“4.2 H The Mariner, June 1996,” SAIL - Smart Archiving for Institutional Learning, accessed July 2, 2023, https://sail.cnu.edu/omeka/items/show/10371Bailey, John “The Newer Science Building,” The Captain’s Log, 9 September 1996
Correspondence with Bill Brauer, 30 June 2023.
