By Will Norton Jr.
Dean
We have devoted this issue of the J Alumni News to a celebration of our move into Harold and Marian Andersen Hall.
The work of the architects and builders is of such quality that our students and faculty are enjoying these wonderfully renovated quarters. More importantly, this building will be enjoyed years from now when young Nebraskans enroll in this college.
Associate Dean Linda Shipley and I participated in meetings to select the architects and the builders for Andersen Hall. It was no contest. Alley Poyner clearly made the best design presentation, and Builders Inc. made the best presentation among the contractors.
The presentations were indications of what was to come. It was a real pleasure working with both. In fact, we invited more than 100 of the workers to the college to have a big chicken dinner during the Colorado game. They ate lunch and then watched the Huskers play the Colorado Buffaloes on the big screen in the J. C. Seacrest Lecture Hall.
Andersen Hall once housed the offices of the Security Mutual Insurance Co. The building was constructed during the early 1950s on the east side of Centennial Mall.
Perry Poyner, one of the partners of the Omaha firm of Alley Poyner Architecture PC, met with Associate Dean Shipley and me near the end of October. He told us his firm always tried to treat the public spaces of post World War II buildings as restorations.
“Then, when you get away from the public spaces, you reflect the users,” he said. “So we designed those areas to reflect the students and the faculty and their activities.
“We exposed the structure, emphasized high tech, focused on transparency and highlighted the fast-to-change nature of media professions.
“Our idea was to design non-public spaces that would be attractive to young people,” Poyner said. “We used a neutral color scheme because we thought the artifacts that your faculty would bring into the building would accent the grays and the light wood.
“Once you have things up on the walls, those items will downplay the architecture,” he said. “The users of the building will provide the character and the color of the building.”
Poyner predicted the track on the wall, the little niches in the walls and the display cases will reflect the users.
“Most importantly, he said, “this is a well constructed building. It was built with strong values: marble, limestone, etcetera.
“This is a building with good wood, steel and glass. It will wear well. This design and construction is not disposable.
“Decades from now students will find this building user-friendly and a comfortable place.
“This building will wear well.”