Campus Buildings Directory

Main building
1503 Sunflower Road 66045-7617

Power plant
1505 Sunflower Road

Chiller building
1515 Facilities Operations Drive

The limestone main building was designed by Superintendent E.F. Crocker and constructed by the Buildings and Grounds Department in 1906. A second story and entry were added in 1926. The complex south of Stauffer-Flint Hall includes the 1922 power plant, designed by State Architect Ray Gamble and John Shea of B&G, and class whistle; offices and shops for the plumbing, electrical, engineering, major systems and maintenance departments; and the main storeroom.

Varsity House
1045 Indiana 66044-2195

Environmental Stewardship, a division of FO Housekeeping that oversees KU Recycling, and other housekeeping staff are housed in a c. 1920 former private home west of the GSP/Corbin Complex.

Class whistle
Since 1912 a steam whistle at the power plant, originally used for student curfew, has signaled the end of classes. The first one was replaced in the early 1940s; that one “blew its stack” in January 2003. The new whistle was the gift of Neil Lintecum, a 1990 medical school graduate, in memory of his father, Dean, a 1955 architecture alumnus.

Westbrook Street and Bob Billings Parkway, West Campus

Vehicle Maintenance Shop (Motor Pool)
1505 Westbrook

Construction and Landscape Building
1603 Westbrook

FO Shops
1735 Westbrook

FO Warehouse and Shops
1851 Westbrook

Carpenters, painters, plumbers, steamfitters, lock shop, moving crew, storage, recycling facilities, etc.

2021 Constant Ave. 66047-3729

This redbrick building was originally the Frank C. Foley Geohydrology Center, an annex of the Kansas Geological Survey and named for its director 1954-70. It opened in spring 1980, and in 1989 the Survey moved its office into Parker Hall. The Kansas Biological Survey was housed there from 1989 to 2003; Foley now houses Monarch Watch, which monitors the migrations and habitats of monarch butterflies. Monarch Watch is directed by Orley “Chip” Taylor, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

See also: Higuchi Hall

1415 Jayhawk Blvd. 66045-7556

This building of cottonwood and silverdale limestone opened March 6, 1967. It sits on the highest point of Mount Oread — 1,031 feet — and is visible for miles. Construction began in March 1965 on the $2.2 million structure, designed by State Architect James Canole and T.R. Griest of Topeka. It is 206 by 67 feet and has seven stories; its size of 96,000 square feet is more than twice that of the beloved 1872 building whose name it retained, which was located about 50 feet west. It houses the anthropology, sociology and psychology departments; the clinical, experimental and social psychology and somatopsychology rehabilitation divisions; the Psychological Clinic; the Survey Research Center; classrooms; a reading room; and faculty, staff and administrative offices.

It replaced the KU landmark built in 1872 and named in 1877 the University Building, then in 1897 Fraser Hall in honor of John Fraser, second chancellor (1867-74). That limestone building with its signature towers and red roof was designed by John G. Haskell and housed virtually all university departments, administrative offices, a chapel/theater, lecture halls, classrooms and, at various times in its basement and attic, gymnasiums. However, within 10 years of its opening its foundations and structural soundness were causing concerns, and by the early 1960s these had become irreparably weakened and unstable. The walls had settled and cracked badly, leaks were rampant, and the ventilation and electrical systems were hopelessly outdated. In 1962 the regents, urged by Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe, authorized Fraser’s replacement. The design of the new hall, to be built about 50 feet east and slightly north of the original site and retaining versions of the old towers, attempted “to avoid current clichés and experimental construction” and to “express a quiet dignity and cleanness of line,” the architects stated in March 1965. It caused howls of anguish instead from faculty, students, alumni, other architects and state officials that continued after Old Fraser’s razing in August 1965. Some architectural details were salvaged—doors, railings, balusters and other pieces—and have been used in the Kansas Union, the Adams Alumni Center and other campus structures.

View Photo Library images of Fraser Hall

See also: Kansas Union