Groundbreaking set for Friday for Justin Hall addition

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Architect's drawing of 15,000 square foot addition

On the edge of the western frontier, Hattie Cheseldine taught 12 students sewing, dressmaking, millinery and how to dismantle and reassemble their one classroom sewing machine.

Their 1873 classroom was the chapel stage in the old Bluemont College building. The young women were part of the new domestic science program at Kansas State Agricultural College, the nation’s first land-grant institution.

Nearly 14 decades later, the College of Human Ecology plans for new class rooms involve comfortable stadium-style seats and technology the first students would have thought only possible in a Jules Verne novel.

Groundbreaking to be Friday

The ultra-modern classrooms will be part of a new privately-financed addition to Justin Hall, home of the College of Human Ecology, on the K-State campus. Groundbreaking ceremonies will be at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, near the southwest corner of Justin. The event is open to the public.

The addition will cost about $4.4 million, according to Dean Virginia Moxley, and will be built to LEED Silver Certification Standards using sustainable design principles with materials, daylight, energy and water.

K-State’s domestic science program – today called Human Ecology – outgrew the stage and several buildings on campus.

Happy 50th birthday, Justin Hall

Students visit the construction site of Justin Hall in 1959

Fifty years ago Justin Hall was dedicated. The original 100,000 square foot building, dedicated in 1960, carried a $2.12 million price tag. Everything was top of the line – 28 teaching labs, 23 research labs, a lecture hall that seated 229. Even air conditioning!

Kansas State College became Kansas State University the previous year.

The building was named for Dr. Margaret M. Justin who became the nation’s youngest dean in 1923 and led the college for 31 years.

“Justin Hall has aged well,” Moxley said. “But today our student enrollment has doubled. We teach more students, conduct more research and offer more degree programs than ever. Our mission has grown more complex and more vital.

“To meet these challenges, we need more classrooms, more research facilities and more technology.”

Addition to include classrooms, workspace

The 15,000 square foot addition will house space for student conferences and mentoring, the unique Personal Financial Planning Institute, student collaborative workspace and three classrooms that will accommodate more than 100 students each. The classrooms will be available for students campus wide.

The Justin Hall addition follows the lively K-State tradition. “We built the first building for human ecology in the world,” Moxley said. “Kedzie was built in 1898 specifically for the Department of Household Economy and Domestic Science.”

“We continue to evolve and grow,” she said.

More than 100 years ago, the students had to learn to fix sewing machines because many lived far from repair services and self sufficiency was both the norm and a necessity.

“Today our students study such subjects that weren’t even in the 19th century lexicon, subjects such as conflict resolution, gerontology and nutritional epidemiology.

“But our design students still work with sewing machines – industrials, overlocks and computers. But no treadles.”

This entry was posted on Monday, October 4th, 2010 and is filed under Events.