SPECIAL AREAS

• AMES LABORATORY
• IOWA STATE CENTER
• POULTRY FARM and BUILDINGS
• VETERINARY MEDICINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
• THE YMCA and LYNN FUHRER LODGE
• LYNN FUHRER LODGE

AMES LABORATORY

Atomic Energy Commission
and
Energy and Mineral Resources Research Institute

The Iowa State College Institute for Atomic Research (IAR) was or­ganized on November 1, 1945, but not formally dedicated until May 17, 1947, the date considered as that of the establishment of the IAR and the Ames Laboratory.¹ The IAR was the administrative body while the Ames Laboratory was the operational organization. Both were under control of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.

Iowa State was selected as one of seven laboratories in the country to cooperate in atomic research because of the important part it had played in developing inexpensive processing of uranium during World War II and its capabilities and experience in research on atomic energy elements.

The various buildings erected for the Ames Laboratory are discussed under their individual names in the buildings section of this volume.

In February 1974 the IAR became EMRRI, the Energy and Mineral Re­sources Research Institute.

On January 19, 1975 the Atomic Energy Commission was superseded by the Energy Research Development Administration which, in turn, be­came part of the newly formed Department of Energy on October 1, 1977.

The Ames Laboratory buildings have all been constructed on land owned by the college or university (State of Iowa), but not until a long term lease had been entered into with the federal agency which funded the construction.

IOWA STATE CENTER

The need for an auditorium on the campus was first expressed by President Beardshear in the 8iennial Report for 1900-01:

We have a chapel with a seating capacity of 625 and an enroll­ment of about 1,000 students a term. We are off in a community by ourselves, away from halls and opera houses, so that it is impossible to rent a room adequate for the needs of our public assemblies. A room with a sufficient capacity for the public work and gatherings of the college is an unavoidable demand, but in view of our other needs this matter must go over.

During the next fifteen years the request was repeated in various Biennial Reports. In the 1914-16 report President Pearson proposed an asking of $10,000 for the construction of a “temporary auditorium.” State Gymnasium had been completed in 1913 and had provided some re­lief but conflicts with athletic events created numerous problems.

The first student input occurred in 1917 when the Iowa State Student on January 23, carried an editorial calling for an auditorium, and in the February 17 edition questioned the wisdom of a temporary building for the purpose.

In 1923 President Pearson entered a request for an appropriation of $350,000 for an auditorium. No further references to such a struc­ture appear for another thirteen years, during which time State Gym­nasium, the Armory and the Curtiss auditorium were used for most large gatherings.

On March 28, 1936, the following editorial appeared in the Iowa State Student:

Again Thursday night we saw the need for a large activity center at Iowa State. We need a center that can accomodate at least 6000 people.

There are many students who have paid for their activity books and who want to see the games, but there isn’t room for all who want to come. Many have to miss these events. The same was true at the Minneapolis Symphony concerts, the Don Cossack re­view, many of the lectures and most of the games. Students alone aren’t disappointed. Many Ames and Des Moines people, too, were disappointed at not hearing Ormandy on his last tour with the Minneapolis Symphony–but there wasn’t room. These people would have come to this concert, and they would come to future concerts and lectures.

True, the activities the students alone are concerned with would not make a large activity center pay. But other factors would. Why do Iowa farm people hold their meetings in Chicago, the in­dustrial center of the country? Because there is no other place to hold these meetings.

The Iowa State campus, the most centrally located spot in Iowa is the center of agricultural study and farm life of the state. But because Iowa itself is the national center of agriculture our campus could readily become the center for most national agri­cultural activity – shows, exhibits, concerts, plays, lectures, meetings and conventions.

Such a center, kept open all year around, would soon pay for it­self. The activities of the student body are already dove-tailed with those of various groups, but neither is able to completely enjoy its own show. Iowa State is the natural center for the farm life of the nation. Why not make the most of our opportun­ity and thereby benefit both our student body and the people in agriculture?

In September that same year the paper headlined an editorial “We Need an Auditorium Now!” A year later, on September 25, the paper included this report on a talk by President Friley:

…Particularly strong was appeal for a new auditorium. At the present time, Iowa State’s total seating capacity in Auditoriums is as follows: Physics lecture room, 300; Chemistry lecture room 300; Engineering assembly 400; MacKay auditorium, 500; Ag­ricultural assembly, 800; Great Hall, 1000, and Gymnasium, 2500.

Quoting Friley, “With a student body of S,000 not to mention the staff of the College, and with an increasing number of concerts, lectures, convocations and other attractions, none of these meet­ing places is adequate for the increasingly large audiences. Sev­eral times during the session 1936-37 from 3,000 to 4,000 people were crowded into the Gymnasium, which has a normal seating capac­ity of only 2,500. For one concert more than 5,000 people had applied for tickets.”

The Board minutes for May 3, 1938, include an Auditorium in the list of important building needs.

New interest was generated in 1939 and 1940. On December 14, 1939, this account appeared in the Iowa State Daily Student:

Dreams for a new combined auditorium and fieldhouse took on a note of reality yesterday, when Pres. Charles E. Friley appointed a special committee to consider the “feasibility and desirability of erecting such a structure,” and to draw up suitable plans.

A month later, on January 24, the paper could report:

Tentative plans, in blueprint form, for a proposed auditorium­-fieldhouse are to be submitted to the general committee this week for approval, Dean M.D. Helser, chairman, revealed yesterday.

Plans have been drawn by Prof. A.H. Kimball, head of the Archi­tectural Engineering Department.

Maximum seating capacity probably will be between 7,500 and 8,000 Helser stated. Plans indicate the building will consist of two stories, incorporating a large stage, a basketball court, a track and basement locker rooms.

Two possible sites are being studied by the committee, one immedi­ately north of State Gymnasium and the other north of the Armory and Agricultural Engineering Building.

Several plans for financing the project have been proposed, Helser said, but none has been accepted.

In May, 1940, the committee decided to postpone further action for a year “for proper consideration of all the proposals for the structure, further study of the two possible sites, and solution of financing.”²

World War II interrupted all thoughts of building and it was October 1945 before further references to the proposed building appear. On the 26th of that month the student paper reported:

Committees to push plans for a field house have been formed by the Iowa State Alumni Association…

The fieldhouse will be known as the Cyclone Memorial Fieldhouse in memory of members of the original cyclone team and the Iowa State men and women who gave their lives during World War II.

During the years from 1946 through 1949 the push continued for a fieldhouse-auditorium and recommended that an increase of $3.00 in student fees be implemented to help finance the project. Cardinal Guild and the Alumni Association joined the Athletic Council in urg­ing the adoption of that procedure. The proposals were discussed on various occasions by the Board during 1949 and at the December 14 meeting voted to drop the plans entirely

A completely new concept was introduced in 1954 when President James H. Hilton addressed the Staff Convocation on September 15, with the following presentation:

There are many needs of the institution beyond these which the legislature can normally be expected to provide. The most im­portant of such items at this institution is what I am going to call, for lack of a better term, an Iowa State College Center. In this Center I would envision an auditorium, a little theatre, a coliseum, and space to house our music organizations, play shop, radio, television and other phases of our regular educational and extracurricular programs.

Such a center could be used for lectures, concerts, plays, com­mencements, intercollegiate basketball and as a Center for large groups of people who would hold meetings on our campus.

Where would we build such a layout as this if we had the money? The best location would be on the levee east of the girls’ dormi­tories, north of Lincoln Highway. Naturally this area would have to be filled in so that it could not overflow when we have our periodic floods.

Well, that is one of my dreams for the future. It probably will take years to complete it. You may think I am unrealistic, a dreamer, a visionary or just plain crazy. But may I say to you that I have already been called all those things and some other things, too, about this project, and if any of you feel that I should be discouraged in this venture you should think up some other terms – because I am quite determined about this Center.

Now seriously we cannot at this time plan on state appropriations for this type of building. It will take all the money we can hope to get in the immediate years ahead for classroom and labor­atory buildings to provide the necessary facilities for increased enrollments and expanded research programs.

Funds for such a Center will have to come from some other source. I am hoping that somewhere, sometime, we might find an individual or individuals who will give us a large grant to start the project. Such buildings have been given to other state supported institu­tions and I cannot see why this institution – one of the truly great education centers of the country – should not try to se­cure things which will add culture and enjoyment and dignity to our total educational processes. In my books this is a Must.

A month later Dr. Hilton spoke to a group of students and the talk was reported in the October 13 Iowa State Daily:

…Then Dr. Hilton explained his “dream” for Iowa State, the building he calls “the Iowa State College Center.” “I have no money for the Center,” he said, then firmly added, “I’m deter­mined I’ll find money for this.”

An architect’s front-view drawing of the Center was shown on a movie screen… The new Center would have an auditorium with about 4,000 seats, a coliseum with a 12,000 to 15,000 seating capacity and space for radio, TV and cultural activities.

The drawing referred to in that article showed three separate but connected buildings facing south and located on the north side of Lin­coln Way in what is now the intramural field. That was before any plans had been considered for the construction of residence halls east of Wallace Road. Those first schematic drawings had been prepared by Leonard Wolf, Supervising Architect and head of the department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering.

Just when the proposed site was shifted from the north to the south side of Lincoln Way has not been determined, but “Progress Report No. 1” of the Long-Range Campus Planning Committee, dated June 20, 1955, includes this item under the heading of “Basic Planning Principles for Expanding Campus”:

A new stadium gym and baseball field should be located east of Beech Avenue and south of Lincoln Way. The intramural field can also be expanded in this area. The plan for this development should be integrated with President Hilton’s proposed Iowa State College Center.

The first contribution to the Center was reported to have been a two­-dollar bill sent to President Hilton by a faculty member immediately after his first announcement of the original “dream”. In the spring of 1956 the Iowa State Daily reported gifts of $200 from Greek Week Hilltoppers, $500 from the senior class and $1500 from the Homecoming Interim Committee. But it was not until after the incorporation of the Iowa State College Foundation in July 1958 that real progress was made in obtaining funds for the project. (After the College became a University the Foundation name was modified to reflect that change.)

At its first annual meeting on May 28, 1959, a motion was carried unanimously:

that this Foundation undertake the establishment of a general cultural center for Iowa State College, said project entailing the erection of various buildings and structures, and that this Foundation, for the present devote its efforts to the financing of that portion of said project involving the combined auditor­ium-coliseum as described by the President in his presentation of the future needs of said College.³

The following year John Brooks, of Brooks-Borg, Architects presented a plan for a round structure providing the multipurpose facilities of a coliseum and auditorium. That plan was further developed in 1960-61 and at the 1961 meeting of the Board of Governors of the Foundation when the general scheme was approved but with the request to study alternative exterior treatments. That scheme showed a cir­cular building located about where the Scheman Continuing Education Building now stands, with access from Lincoln Way and parking in a U-shape around the perimeter and with a reflecting pool between the auditorium and the highway.

By 1963 the concept of the planning changed as recorded in the minutes of a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Foundation:

It was suggested, and agreed by the directors present, that the Foundation consider now that it is a three-building complex, but that an architect be given the latitude to develop the Center in another manner if he feels it can be done.⁴

At the same meeting a Building Committee was appointed to select an architect, the cost of the project for construction, operating and maintenance and to estimate “probable income through rent, concessions, etc.” The three units then contemplated were a “Little Theater” and auditorium in one building, a coliseum and a “continuation center.”

In March 1964 the Building Committee announced the selection of archi­tects for the Center and the Board of Regents concurred in the appoint­ment the following month. The architects were named as a joint ven­ture of Crites and McConnell of Cedar Rapids, and Brooks-Borg of Des Moines.

On February 26, 1965, the architects presented drawings and a model of the Center project to the Board of Directors. This envisioned the four separate structures, interconnected by walk ways, very similar to the plans finally executed. A cost estimate at that time came to $12,730,000. That scheme was given basic approval.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Center were held on October 30, 1965.

The individual buildings are included in the section on campus build­ings.

The Iowa State Center was essentially completed with the opening of the Scheman Continuing Education Building in September 1975.

POULTRY FARM and BUILDINGS

The area long known as the Poultry Farm included a 20 acre block pur­chased in 1906 and a 3 acre plot at the north end of that property acquired in 1921. The combined tract is the block where today’s Towers Residences are located, between Storm Street on the north, Mor­tensen Road on the south and Hayward Avenue on the west.

Information on the farm buildings erected there is meager and incomplete.

On May 20, 1913, the ISC Student noted that “the legislature has also approved …a poultry husbandry laboratory.”

Minutes of the Board for August 9, 1916, record authorization to proceed with construction of Poultry House – $776.87. The next month the paper mentioned a “new poultry shed at the poultry farm” among the minor improvements to be seen by new or returning students.

The following account of a proposed building appeared in the Iowa State Student on October 14, 1916:

Simplicity of construction, economy of outlay and a unique venti­lating system characterize the new farm poultry house to be built at the poultry farm this fall. It is a popular type of poultry house, designated by the agricultural experiment station to meet the requirements of typical farm conditions.

Hollow tile walls, concrete tile floor and a shed roof outline the construction. Eight feet high in front, six feet in rear, 14 feet wide and 80 feet long, the house is composed of 4 identical sec­tions, each 20 x 14 feet. Each section accommodates 100 birds. Any number of sections can be added to increase the house to any capacity.

To secure ample ventilation and yet protect the interior from rain, the windows are built of four cellar sash, each sash over­lapping the one below it and hung on sash centers to swing out and allow air entrance. Any or all sashes can be opened at once and yet the overlapping feature excludes possible rain. There are groups of 4 sash in each section. Besides these, there is a ventilation hinge box on the cornice for summer ventilation. Nests and roosts are removable.

The house costs but $150 a section to build and is of most simple construction throughout. Because of the heretofore heavy call for poultry house plans it is thought that the present plans which are now available will prove very popular.

In December the paper included “an $800 poultry house at the poultry farm in a list of buildings” which Superintendent Sloss is now erecting or will soon start. The next developments came in 1920. The April 13 Minutes that year show a recommendation by President Pearson for the construction of a brooder house, but a meeting on the 30th of that same month record that a decision regarding the brooder house “will be postponed.” But on May 3 the following article appeared in the Iowa State Student:

Construction of the new $8,000 Poultry building at Iowa State College will be completed this week, according to H.A. Bitten­bender, head of the poultry husbandry department. In equipment, no poultry plant in the United States surpasses the one now under construction at Ames.

The building was built largely to care for the incubation work carried on by the poultry students. Four rows of small and mammoth incubators will be placed on the ground floor. One candling aparatus will be furnished for every two incubators. On the upper floor, culling and selection will be taught with sufficient room for practical judging work.

During the fall, when the incubators are not in use, candling and grading eggs will be taught. Poultry will be kept at the laboratory and carried thru a two week feeding period under student supervision, after which the proper method of killing farm fowls will be demonstrated.

“Iowa State College has long felt the need of such equipment,” said President R.A. Pearsort. “We feel that this building will greatly increase the efficiency of our poultry department.”

A year later (May 18, 1921) the paper reported additional work at the poultry farm:

A new poultry building costing $18,000, 10 semi-monitor poultry houses and 25 colony brooder houses will be built immediately at Iowa State to accommodate ex-service men who are being sent to Iowa State to study poultry raising. This plant, which will be part of the college poultry farm, will comprise the most complete poultry equipment at any college in·America, according to H.A. Bittenbender, head of the poultry department.

The main building will be brick; three stories in height, covering a space of 40 by 60 feet and will care for incubators, storage and laboratories. The semi-monitor poultry houses will be 22 by 24 feet and each will accommodate 150 laying hens. The 25 brooding houses will be 10 by 12 feet and will accommodate 5000 young chicks. The college is furnishing the buildings and the poultry for the foundation stock and the United States government is in­stalling the necessary equipment such as incubators, brooders and stoves.

Students who take two years of poultry work will follow a course which will require them to carry the chickens thru a year. It will give them an opportunity to handle all phases of the work on their own responsibility.

“Iowa is fortunate in securing this equipment,” says Mr. Bitten­bender, “since it affords an excellent opportunity to gather data and do experimental work with individual flocks, such as the every day farmer has to handle. With the large number of pens of different breeds, many problems will present themselves, the solution of which will help the industry.”

Funds for this work are provided by a bill fathered by Senator W.S. Kenyon of Iowa.

This building was constructed in connection with the Federal Board for Vocational Education. A contract with that agency provided rent would be paid on the use of the building for their program.⁵

Quonset type buildings were added in 1946.⁶

In 1964 all of the buildings were razed to make way for the new resi­dence halls.

VETERINARY MEDICINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

(VMRI)

The land for the “Research Farm,” in what is now the southwest corner of the South Campus, was purchased for that purpose in 1921. A frame residence and a garage (also frame) were there at that time.

The Research Laboratory was built in 1927 by Superintendent of Build­ings Thomas Sloss, from plans by Proudfoot, Rawson & Souers. An addition to it was constructed in 1968.

Numerous small buildings, barns and sheds were subsequently added to the site, but are not significant enough to be individually described.

An Isolation Laboratory was erected in 1962–plans by Russell and Lynch and contracted by James Thompson & Sons. A second unit addition to that structure was built in 1976, along with a separate Equipment Storage Building. Architects for both were Lynch-Payne-Champion-­Bernabe, and construction contracts for both went to Allen Construction Co.

A new Poultry Isolation Building, from plans by Engineer Norval H. Curry, was erected by R. Friedrich & Sons, Inc., in 1971. This re­placed an earlier structure destroyed by fire in 1967.

The research section of the Division of Veterinary Medicine became the Veterinary Medicine Research Institute in 1943.

THE YMCA and LYNN FUHRER LODGE

The Young Men’s Christian Association has been an active organization on the campus since 1890, in which year the earlier Christian Asso­ciation was divided into Y.M.C.A. and the Y.W.C.A. Both groups were leaders in the effort to obtain a building for their use and that of other societies on the campus, as well as a headquarters for alumni. Their actions resulted in the erection of Alumni Hall, completed in 1907.

Since that date both groups have maintained their headquarters in that building (except for a brief period during World War II when it was used by the Navy).

LYNN FUHRER LODGE

This building was erected as a memorial to Lynn Fuhrer who had been killed in an automobile accident two weeks before his anticipated gradu­ation in 1930. His parents made a gift to the YMCA of a fund to build the lodge in memory of their son who had been student secretary of the “Y” when he was on the campus.

The lodge was built on land owned by the “Y” lying between what is now Veenker Golf Course and the Ames Laboratory Research Farm.

A.H. Kimball, head of the architectural engineering department and super­vising architect for the college, designed and drew plans for the build­ing. It was built by Ben Cole and Sons.

The lodge was dedicated on September 27, 1931. It has been the scene of many campus meetings, conferences and other gatherings ever since.