Campus Buildings Directory
5 floors, basement
Pronounced: LERN-ed
Civil engineering was among the earliest courses taught at KU; electrical engineering was added in 1887, and in 1891 the School of Engineering was founded. Its first dean was Frank O. Marvin, son of third chancellor James Marvin. Departments of chemical, mechanical, mining and architectural engineering were added during his tenure, and in 1927 the school was renamed to Engineering and Architecture. In 1909, Marvin Hall was completed to house the School of Engineering. By the late 1940s, when the new Fowler Shops opened south of Lindley and Marvin halls, an expanded engineering school complex was already planned for what was then the west edge of campus.
The first building in the complex, of yellow-brick and crab-orchard limestone and designed by Brinkman & Hagan, opened in 1963 and was named for Stanley Learned (1902-95), a Lawrence native, 1924 civil engineering graduate and KU benefactor who was president and CEO of Phillips Petroleum Co. in Bartlesville, Okla. In 1974 the first of several additions was made, two more floors and a five-story attached building. Learned now houses the departments of aerospace engineering; chemical and petroleum engineering; civil, environmental and architectural engineering; and mechanical engineering; faculty and staff offices; research and testing labs; and student support services.
See also: Eaton Hall; Spahr Engineering Library; Marvin Hall; Stauffer-Flint Hall
7 floors, basement
280 men and women
This hall was partly funded by the estate of Lawrence merchant and philanthropist Luther N. Lewis (1865-1933) and his widow, Lucene Barker Lewis, who died in 1956; both attended KU in the 1880s. It opened in spring 1960 and housed 432 women; major renovations were done in 1998-99. It now houses about 280 men and women; each floor, or “house,” honors a person or tradition of excellence at KU. In 1983 Ekdahl Dining Commons adjoining Lewis was opened.
See also: Ekdahl Dining Commons
2 floors
The annex, designed by PGAV Architects of Westwood and opened in 2006, can house up to 1.6 million volumes from the KU Libraries’ collections. The climate-controlled storage area has nearly 7,900 square feet of shelving in units 35 feet tall. Materials stored here are cataloged and retrievable on request within 24 hours.
1600 Stewart Drive 66045
3 floors, 2 mezzanines, basement, sub-basement
Pronounced: LEED
The center, which opened in September 1993, was built largely with $10 million from the Lied Foundation Trust and is dedicated to Ernst M. and Ida K. Lied, parents of Ernst F. Lied (d. 1980). The younger Lied attended KU 1923-25; he owned a car dealership in Omaha and was a real-estate investor in Las Vegas.
Henningson, Durham & Richardson of Omaha were the architects for the $14.6 million center, which has a 2,020-seat auditorium for musical, dance and theatrical performances, lectures and symposia; rehearsal and dance studios; ticket office; and administrative and educational offices. A $300,000 project completed in March 2011 added the Kemper Foyer of 1,800 square feet, expanding the lobby and reception and meeting spaces. The William T. Kemper Foundation financed the addition.
The Bales Organ Recital Hall, dedicated in October 1996, adjoins the center on the northwest and shares a lobby. The $1.5 million hall was built with gifts from Dane Bales, 1941 business alumni, and Polly Roth Bales, 1942 music graduate, and from the Hansen Foundation of Logan, Kan. It was specially designed by Horst Terrell & Karst Architects of Topeka for its 35-foot organ, a Hellmuth Wolff, opus 40, three-manual instrument built by Wolff & Associés Ltée. of Laval, Quebec. It has a 72-foot ceiling and walls 2 feet thick; the stained-glass windows were designed by Peter G. Thompson, dean of fine arts. The hall seats 200.
4 floors, basement
Completed in 1943, the limestone hall was named for Ernest H. Lindley, chancellor 1920-39, who died shortly after retiring. It is sited on the crest of Mount Oread traversed by the Oregon Trail. Its Art Moderne design was by State Architect Roy Stookey, and limestone bas reliefs are by sculptor Bernard “Poco” Frazier. Its construction was delayed and complicated by World War II material shortages, which were alleviated only after Chancellor Deane W. Malott and other administrators committed the new building for military training; it was a barracks and mess hall for Army and Navy trainees until early 1946.
It was planned to house the mineral resources departments of geography, geology, chemical and petroleum engineering, mining and metallurgical engineering; the state and federal Geological Survey; and the astronomical observatory. From the mid-1970s on, engineering programs were moved to Learned and Eaton halls; the geological surveys and observatory also moved. Lindley now houses the departments of geology and geography, faculty and staff offices, classrooms, and the Paleontological Institute and Museum.
See also: Moore Hall/Kansas Geological Survey; Learned Hall; Eaton Hall; Lindley Hall Relief Sculptures; Oregon Trail Marker
2 floors, basement, sub-basement
This Greco-Roman columned stone building was designed by State Architect John F. Stanton and dedicated Nov. 3, 1905. By student request it was named for James Woods Green, for 41 years (1879-1919) dean of the School of Law. In 1978 a new, much enlarged, modernistic law building was erected west of Murphy Hall on 15th Street. The old hall was renamed for Joshua Lippincott, the fourth chancellor, on Oct. 23, 1979; it now houses the Office of Study Abroad, the Applied English Center and the Wilcox Museum of classical antiquities. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The statue of “Uncle Jimmy” Green and a student, sculpted by Daniel Chester French and unveiled in 1924, remains at Lippincott. It was one of three memorials funded by the Million Dollar Drive that began in late 1920 and that also built Memorial Stadium and Kansas Union.
See also: Green Hall; Uncle Jimmy
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