 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Re-creating the oldest building on campus with a new self-image
Sometimes it hurts to be beautiful. For the oldest building on LSU 's campus, achieving beauty has meant enduring more than 40 months of having architects, contractors, and other building surgeons gouge, patch, and refine the interior and exterior walls to achieve one of the most comprehensive preservation projects the campus has ever witnessed. The 94-year-old Journalism Building, home to the Manship School of Mass Communication, is experiencing over $3 million extreme makeover. If all goes as planned, this fall (2004) mass communication students, faculty, and staff will enter this newly restored historic building that embodies the past, but also reflects the vibrant future of the school's mission. While providing the necessary infrastructure for making the school, students, and faculty leaders in the information age, Architect Jerry Campbell said the 2004 renovation will reintroduce elements reminiscent of the time when the Journalism Building was known as Alumni Hall. "In this renovation we are bringing back the beautiful wood floors, plaster cornices, and crown molding," Campbell said. "To maintain the historical integrity of the structure, these elements, along with the reintroduction of a central rotunda, will be included in the makeover of the building." Rolls Royce Engine inside a Volkswagen Chassis
Unlike other makeovers that go for exterior improvements first, the Manship School began the transformation process internally almost 12 years ago. In 1992, the School's leadership set the goal of becoming one of the top mass communication programs in the country. Since then, a modern curriculum has been instituted, admission standards have been raised, the school's endowment has increased to more than $14 million, and major advances have been made in technology. A one-of-a-kind Ph.D. program in mass communication and public affairs has been implemented and the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs has been created. These two programs have garnered national attention for the school. "What we had was a Rolls Royce engine trapped in a Volkswagen chassis. So basically what we're doing is getting the body and the program to match up," said Jack Hamilton, dean of the Manship School. "We will finally have a building worthy of our first-class program." In 1998, the Mass Communication Alumni Board made renovating the Journalism Building its top priority. Jackie Ducote, a 1963 graduate of the then School of Journalism, along with others helped spearhead the renovation effort. Ducote said the alumni board raised the funds to conduct a 1999 feasability study to preserve the building and sought state funding to modernize the historical site.
"It is appropriate that the Manship alumni have helped to lead the charge in restoring this building since almost 100 years ago LSU alumni originally provided funding to build it," Ducote said. Once complete, the restoration project will add an additional 1609 square feet to the existing structure. The expansion provides room for four computer labs, 13 offices, two multipurpose classrooms, a library, and a large public forum to be used for lectures, symposia, small study and research groups, community meetings, and public debate. The forum is located in the building's heart and becomes the focal point when one enters the Journalism Building. The architects have reintroduced a large rotunda to the building that will be located directly above the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs' Holliday Forum. Part of the building's original structure in 1910, the rotunda was not incorporated into the building when it was moved to its present location in 1934. Named after the late D. Jensen Holliday, vice chair of the Manship School's Board of Visitors, the forum is modeled after Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and is the most prominent change to the building. Equipped with 42-inch plasma screen televisions, the forum will serve as a daytime gathering place for students to get daily live news updates and to discuss current issues with fellow students. In the evenings, it can be converted for activities essential to the Reilly Center's mission to elevate the level of discourse about mass communication and its many faceted relationships with social, economic, and political issues.
The Holliday Forum will contain seating for more than 150 people, as well as state of the art audio/visual technology that will be an available resource for the school and community organizations. Equipped with three cameras connected to the television studio located next door in Hodges Hall, the forum has the capability to produce live broadcasts or taped programs that can be viewed around the world. As a final touch, artistic interpretations of the journalistic ideals of "freedom of the press" and "freedom of expression" will adorn the forum walls. Consisting of 12 individual acrylic on canvas wall hung murals created by Giorgi Bugadze from the Republic of Georgia and a metal sculpture by New Orleans based African American artist John Scott, the art will serve as a permanent international exhibit on LSU's campus. In addition to these improvements, a walkway will be constructed to connect the Journalism Building to the new television studio and faculty offices located in neighboring Hodges Hall. Older than the Campus Itself
The Journalism Building was originally designed and built by the architectural firm Favort & Livaudias, Ltd., in 1904 on LSU's former campus located in what is now downtown Baton Rouge near the state capitol. It officially opened on January 2, 1910, in time for LSU's 50th Anniversary celebration. On the downtown campus, the building was known as Alumni Hall and was erected as a memorial to the University's first president David French Boyd. Construction of the building was financed by alumni. While on the downtown campus, the building housed most of the University's administrative offices, including the offices of the registrar, treasurer, and President Thomas D. Boyd on the ground floor. The second floor, which contained a chapel, was an assembly place for alumni. Left behind when the university moved to its new location, the building housed a rapid succession of tenants. These included the dean of women, the Extension Department, the tax collector, and a cultural school for children. In 1934, the building was dismantled and moved by the Civil Workers Administration to its new site on the present campus. The New Orleans architectural firm Weiss, Dreyfouss and Seiferth oversaw the rebuilding using the stones and lumber original to the building. Building on History
LSU's School of Journalism is almost as old as Alumni Hall, the building it has occupied since 1948. The first journalism courses LSU offered were in the Department of English. A Reveille article dated February 15, 1913, reports that Hugh Mercer Blain, professor of English, taught what was evidently one of the "first newspaper writing classes" at LSU. In 1915, journalism became an official department, and by 1918, four faculty members offered 12 journalism courses. Interest in journalism began to grow at LSU, and by 1927 LSU had created an entire school dedicated to teaching the craft of journalism, making it one of the first journalism schools in the country. In 1948, the school moved from Thomas Boyd Hall to its current location in Alumni Hall. Since that time, the building has remained much the same except for some interior updating in 1960, when the name of the building was changed to the Journalism Building. The Journalism School was renamed the Manship School of Journalism in 1984 following a $2.6 million endowment by the Manship family. In 1994, the Manship School of Journalism ceased its affiliation with the College of Arts & Sciences and became an independent school, renamed the Manship School of Mass Communication. Today students in the Manship School can obtain undergraduate degrees in mass communication with concentrations in advertising, electronic media, journalism, political communication, and public relations. The school also offers the Master of Mass Communication and Ph. D. degrees. Contact Michelle Spielman | LSU
University Relations Related Links Manship School of Mass Communication |
