Spring 2001
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Spring 2001 |
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By the fall of 2002, Rose-Hulman’s popular drama and music student groups will be performing in a modern, acousti-cally efficient, 600-seat theater, instead of the 76-year-old Moench Hall Auditorium. Those same groups will move out of inadequate practice rooms into new, larger rehearsal spaces. This improvement to campus life will be available in October, 2002 when construction is completed on the new Hatfield Hall. This project is the latest in an eight-year period of unprecedented campus facility improvements totaling over $70 million. The installation of underground utilities and services is under way on the site for the new Hatfield Hall, a 49,340-square-foot facility that will house a new theater, rehearsal rooms, alumni center and offices for development and external affairs staffs. The new building is being constructed just south of Moench Hall. "The building is a composition that balances flat planes and curved surfaces, brick and glass, traditional and contempo-rary design," states William Bradford, principal, VOA architects, a Chicago-based firm designing Hatfield Hall and the White Chapel. "There is fluidity to the exterior that distinguishes it from the more rectilinear buildings of the campus core." The new facility is made possible by a $14 million gift from 1984 alumnus Mike Hatfield. He is founder, chief executive officer and president of Calix Networks in Petaluma, Calif. In addition to funding construction costs, the gift creates an endowment to provide funds for maintenance of the building. Hatfield graduated with honors, receiving a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and mathematical economics. The building is being named Larry and Pat Hatfield Hall in honor of the donor’s parents. At the center of Hatfield Hall will be a traditional proscenium style 600-seat auditorium, providing 425 seats on the main floor and 175 seats in the balcony. It is designed to serve a variety of events such as vocal and orchestral music concerts, lectures, and dramatic or musical productions. The theater can be used with or without amplified enhancement. "Wrapping around the auditorium box are the public lobby, theater support spaces, rehearsal rooms for student drama and music organizations, and offices for development and external affairs," explained Wayne Spary, vice president for facilities operations. "A dramatic glass enclosed two-story lobby defines the public face of the building." The alumni hall is a circular space on the main level of the building that will be used for alumni meetings and as a showcase to illustrate the success of Rose-Hulman graduates. It will feature a two-story vaulted ceiling capped with a skylight. Construction should be completed in about 18 months.
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