Cloning history
Hale Hall torn down, replicated at Louisiana Tech

By Sam Barnes

Students and faculty will be looking at a clone when they pass by Louisiana Tech University's Hale Hall this spring.

Asbestos abatement and required code improvements edged the proposed renovation of the 105-year-old Ruston building over budget, so both the designer and university began weighing other alternatives.

Ruston architect Mike Walpole said erecting a new building with a different, more modern design was never discussed.

"I think the vision of the university president, Dan Reneau, and the donor was to preserve the original appearance of the building whether through renovation or a total reconstruction," Walpole added. The anonymous donor gave $1 million for the effort.

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Ultimately, everyone agreed to replicate Hale Hall in its original location, but cost savings still had to be found to bring the project within budget.

"There were some structural things that we ended up simplifying and some areas where we used more standardized details," Walpole said. "For instance, the original building had a rotated axis stairwell and we ended up eliminating the rotated axis and just made it parallel to the existing cavity."

The $6.1 million reconstruction of the building by Triad Builders of Ruston was ultimately bid nearly $3 million cheaper than the original renovation plan. The job will be completed in March.

While the exterior of the building will be identical in appearance, except for certain fire code and handicapped accessibility improvements, the interior of the building will look nothing like the original.

"Hale Hall was constructed as a women's residence hall," Walpole said. "It was expanded and became a men's residence hall, then a classroom and art studio facility. In fact, my first architectural studio was located there in the 1970s."

The new Hale Hall will be used by the university's School of Architecture and will have classrooms, studios and offices.

The exterior appearance of the building - a "French, Second Empire" design - has mansard roofs, turrets and classical details such as quoins, tall arched windows and molded "surrounds."

Although identical in appearance, modern materials are being used in lieu of existing materials in some locations, including molded plastic instead of wood around window frames, aluminum framing instead of wood and rubber shingles instead of asbestos shingles.

Little was done to try to match the brick color of the original building.

"The bricks weren't consistent because at some point they had been painted, so we weren't too concerned about blending the brick," Walpole said. "The new brick color matches many existing buildings at the university."

Ideal Masonry of Crossett, Ark, installed about 100,000 bricks for the building.

When work began at the site in November 2002, Triad Builders and subcontractor Lou Chandler of Bossier City demolished the existing building and foundation.

Elliott Atkins, Triad Builders' general superintendent, said asbestos abatement had been completed as part of an earlier contractor.

"Using backhoes, the Chandler crew basically grabbed the walls and tore them down," Atkins said. "They picked a starting point on the third floor and tore down the outside wall, and that one section of roof. The roof fell onto the third floor, and they came on down with it floor by floor."

Underground foundations, consisting primarily of brick footings, were also removed.

"Fortunately, we didn't run into anything unexpected and the demolition went smoothly," Atkins said. "We removed the footings, brick, wood and glass. Other than the steps and sidewalks, there was almost no concrete associated with the building."

Triad Builders waited until demolition was completed before moving on site. The first order of business was to haul fill dirt to create a building pad.

"Although the finished floor elevation of the building was close to the original, the ground floor had been made of wood so we had to fill that area with dirt before pouring concrete," Atkins said.

A 40- by 100-ft. basement on the south end of the building required additional fill.

"New spread footings were 7 ft. deep in the basement area and the rest of the footings were 3 ft.," he said.

Footing construction was followed by a 5-in.-thick reinforced slab made with 3,000 psi concrete supplied by Century Ready Mix of Monroe. Hercules Inc. of Monroe pumped most of the concrete for the project.

The structure of the new building is made of steel erected by F&R Steel Erectors of Mississippi. Limited laydown areas made steel erection difficult.

"We had to stage that to get it done," Atkins said. "They couldn't deliver the steel too early or too late. It had to be just in time."

As soon as the steel was far enough along, the contractor began pumping second- and third-floor concrete along the north end of the building. The elevated slabs are 3 in. thick and are reinforced with wire mesh.

Lightweight concrete was then pumped for the building roof.

"Mechanical and electrical subcontractors had to install their rough-ins before pouring the floors," Atkins said. "To stay in succession, once the lightweight concrete was poured, we had our drywall contractor start framing metal studs and exterior walls on all the floors."

A single elevator shaft was framed and poured, and three sets of stairs were installed to provide access to the upper floors. Mechanical work required construction of a separate building with a new chiller but an existing steam line will provide heat.

Atkins said several other architectural features are being installed on the exterior to match the existing building.

"We're installing a special high-density foam material in place of wood for the window trim and corner trim," he added.

In addition, 1,500 ft. of copper gutter borders the perimeter roofline, but serves no practical purpose.

"The gutter has a top on it, so water can't drain from it," Atkins said. "Essentially, they wanted the new look to match the old building. The only way to do that was to put a gutter up there."

The water will instead drain through roof drains scattered across the top of the building.

Also, exterior shingles made out of rubberized neoprene are being used instead of asbestos and aluminum instead of wood for window frames.

Inside the new Hale Hall, two large studios measuring about 6,000 sq. ft. each will be located on the second and third floors.

"They're basically big open spaces," Atkins said. "Tech will install their equipment in there once we're done." The ceilings in the studios leave the building structure exposed, while the remaining classrooms and offices have suspended ceilings.

An admissions area on the first floor will have the most decorative features in the building, including hardwood floors, carpeting and millwork.