Elmina White Honors Hall

Last updated
Elmina White Honors Hall (originally the Home Economics Building) in 2004 Elmina White Hall, 2004.jpg
Elmina White Honors Hall (originally the Home Economics Building) in 2004

The Elmina White Honors Hall, also known as Honors Hall is a residence hall located on the main campus of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. It was designed by Stanley Smith, the head of the architecture department at Washington State University (1924-1947), and was completed in 1928. It was later remodeled into student housing and faculty offices in 2001, costing $15.3 million. [1]  It is located in the northwest corner of Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, Washington. Its original purpose was to house the Home Economics department as part of the College of Domestic Economy. Following the 2001 reconstruction, the four-story building, with a converted basement, was transformed into three floors of residential suites with classrooms, offices, and a library for the WSU Honors College on the ground floor, and several multi-purpose rooms in the basement. [2]  It was designed in a Georgian Revival style and was referred to as an “elegant architectural statement” in a report provided by the Washington State University Task Force for Historic Preservation in 1985.

Contents

Design

Elmina White Honors Hall is situated next to one of the university's most significant open spaces, near the original entrance arch to campus. Its Georgian Revival style features include its proportion and balance (mathematic ratios were utilized to determine the height and shape of the windows and other features), sturdy and uniform red brick walls, perfectly symmetrical stonework, and a dark shingled roof which contrasts with the bright red bricks of the walls. Its architecture resembles that of many historic buildings at American college campuses, such as Massachusetts Hall at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [3]  

Buildings with a similar style can be found throughout the university's campus in other buildings also designed by Stanley Smith, such as Wilmer-Davis Hall, Waller Hall, Duncan Dunn Hall, and Smith Gymnasium. [4]  This provides the campus aesthetic with a feeling of uniformity and order.

When Elmina White Honors Hall was remodeled in 2001 by Kovalenko Hale Architects (Seattle, WA), the original interior design of the building was mostly maintained with the refurbishment of the building materials. However, with the renovation, residential suites and several updated modern features such as a computer laboratory, mechanical and utility rooms, and classrooms with updated technology were added. The mission of the renovation was “to provide the Honors College with an identity that symbolizes the value the university places on academic achievement by providing a living and learning program in one complex, thereby stimulating artistic and scholarly expression.” [5]  These renovations provide a strong balance between being an updated and practical building and maintaining the history of the building along with its original aesthetic.

Elmina White Honors Hall also includes a few interesting features in its original design. A forced air ventilation system was included long prior to other campus buildings being constructed or refit with this equipment. In addition to this, it was built with a steel frame. [6]  

Landscape

The Elmina White Honors hall is situated across NE Spokane street from the several WSU engineering buildings. To the south of the building, the university's largest open space is located. In addition, it has no other building within its near vicinity.

When the building was first constructed, the landscape was simple with a few small trees and bushes. [7]  Today the landscape around the building is rather simple and open, with lawns, evergreens, shrubbery, and small regions covered in woodchips with small, well-spaced plants. [8] The openness of the surrounding landscape helps focus attention on the building, although it is situated at the bottom end of a hill. Its wide, curving staircases that narrow toward the entrances of the building are unique within campus architecture.  

Function

The original purpose of the Elmina White Honors Hall, then referred to as the Home Economics Building, was to provide classrooms and offices for the institution's Home Economics department and house the classrooms and offices for the College of Domestic Economy, which had previously been in Van Doren Hall.  In the 1980s, WSU's College of Domestic Economy was broken up and blended in with other programs. [9] At that time it was renamed to White Hall and converted into a multipurpose building with various offices and classrooms.

Not until 2001, following the renovation, was it converted to the multi-purpose function it has today. It is today best known to students as an on-campus, co-educational residence hall housing up to 117 students, with various amenities including a library, study rooms, student lounges, kitchens, and indoor bike storage. In also contains offices and classrooms for the Honors College.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pullman, Washington</span> City in Washington, United States

Pullman is the largest city in Whitman County, located in southeastern Washington within the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. The population was 29,799 at the 2010 census, and estimated to be 34,506 in 2019. Originally founded as Three Forks, the city was renamed after industrialist George Pullman in 1884.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington State University</span> Public university in Pullman, Washington, US

Washington State University is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant universities in the American West. With an undergraduate enrollment of 24,278 and a total enrollment of 28,581, it is the second largest institution for higher education in Washington state behind the University of Washington. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".

Worcester State University (WSU) is a public University located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The fourth largest of the Commonwealth’s nine Universities, WSU enrolls 4500 undergraduates and nearly 900 graduate students in more than 80 undergraduate majors and minors and 39 graduate programs. Its campus is located on Worcester's west side and includes 10 buildings on more than 58 acres of woods and wetlands. WSU was one of several Massachusetts State Universities that was founded as a normal school in the 19th century before evolving into a state college in the 1960s and achieving university status in 2012. WSU is administered by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education which oversees 29 campuses including community colleges, state universities, and research universities across the Commonwealth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pullman High School</span> Public school in Pullman, Washington, United States

Pullman High School is a public secondary school in the city of Pullman, Washington, the home of Washington State University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Washington Tacoma</span> Public university in Tacoma, Washington, United States

The University of Washington Tacoma is a public university in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It is a university in the University of Washington system. The UW Tacoma campus opened its first classrooms in repurposed warehouses in downtown Tacoma in 1990 and opened its permanent campus in 1997.

The campus of the University of California, Berkeley, and its surrounding community are home to a number of notable buildings by early 20th-century campus architect John Galen Howard, his peer Bernard Maybeck, and their colleague Julia Morgan. Subsequent tenures as supervising architect held by George W. Kelham and Arthur Brown, Jr. saw the addition of several buildings in neoclassical and other revival styles, while the building boom after World War II introduced modernist buildings by architects such as Vernon DeMars, Joseph Esherick, John Carl Warnecke, Gardner Dailey, Anshen & Allen, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Recent decades have seen additions including the postmodernist Haas School of Business by Charles Willard Moore, Soda Hall by Edward Larrabee Barnes, and the East Asian Library by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign</span>

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is an academic research institution that is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois System. Since its founding in 1867, it has resided and expanded between the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana in the State of Illinois. Some portions are in Urbana Township.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voorhees Mall</span> Grassy area at Rutgers University, New Jersey, U.S.

Voorhees Mall is a large grassy area with stately shade trees on a block of about 28 acres (0.11 km²) located on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University near downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey. An eclectic mix of architectural styles, Voorhees Mall is lined by many historic academic buildings. The block is bound by Hamilton Street, George Street (north), College Avenue (south) and Seminary Place (west). At the mall's western end, across Seminary Place, is the campus of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, whose history is intertwined with the early history of Rutgers University. Across Hamilton Street is the block called Old Queens, the seat of the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danforth Campus</span> Building in St. Louis, Missouri

The Danforth Campus is the main campus at Washington University in St. Louis. Formerly known as the Hilltop Campus, it was officially dedicated as the Danforth Campus on September 17, 2006, in honor of William H. Danforth, the 13th chancellor of the university, the Danforth family and the Danforth Foundation. Distinguished by its collegiate gothic architecture, the 169-acre (0.68 km2) campus lies at the western boundary of Forest Park, partially in the City of St. Louis. Most of the campus is in a small enclave of unincorporated St. Louis County, while all the campus area south of Forsyth Boulevard is in suburban Clayton. Immediately to the north across Forest Park Parkway is University City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kennesaw State University</span> Public university in Cobb County, Georgia

Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public research university in the state of Georgia with two campuses in the Atlanta metropolitan area, one in Kennesaw and the other in Marietta on a combined 581 acres (235 ha) of land. The school was founded in 1963 by the Georgia Board of Regents using local bonds and a federal space-grant during a time of major Georgia economic expansion after World War II. KSU also holds classes at the Cobb Galleria Centre, Dalton State College, and in Paulding County (Dallas). The total enrollment exceeds 45,000 students making KSU the third-largest university by enrollment in Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waldschmidt Hall</span> Historic building in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Waldschmidt Hall is an academic building at the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon, United States. Constructed in 1891 as West Hall, the building was originally part of the now defunct Portland University located in North Portland overlooking the Willamette River. The Romanesque style structure built of brick and stone stands five stories tall. The hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and renovated in 1992, the same year it took the current name. Waldschmidt, the oldest building on campus, now houses the school's administration offices and some classrooms.

The University of Arkansas Campus Historic District is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 23, 2009. The district covers the historic core of the University of Arkansas campus, including 25 buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Michigan University Historic District</span> Historic district in Michigan, United States

Eastern Michigan University Historic District is a historic district on the very south end of the Eastern Michigan University campus. Eastern Michigan University is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan in Washtenaw County. The university was founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School. Several buildings since its founding have achieved historical significance and eventually establishing it on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The district was established in 1984.

The Carson College of Business is the business school of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Established in 1963, it is one of the largest of the ten colleges in WSU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regents Hill</span>

The Regents Hill residential complex, also known as Regents Hall, is a residence hall located on the main campus of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Designed by Paul Thiry and completed in 1952, it was the first International Style building on the Washington State University campus. It is one of the many dormitories on the Washington State University campus available to undergraduates. Variously called "Regents Hall" and the "Regents Hill Halls," the complex, consists of two, four-story linked residential wings, McGregor Hall and Barnard Hall, and Stearns Hall—a free-standing dining hall and common space. Together with Scott Coman Hall just to its northwest, the complex ushered in a new era of campus design featuring large, technologically sophisticated, light-filled concrete buildings for research, teaching, and residential life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott/Coman Hall</span>

Scott/Coman Hall is a residence hall complex located on the main campus of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. It consists of two separate buildings, Coman Hall and Scott Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan Hall (Washington State University)</span> Building in Washington, United States

Bryan Hall is a prominent collegiate building in the northwest United States, on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Located in the historic campus core, it is named for Enoch A. Bryan (1855–1941), the president of the college from 1893 to 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English Building, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign</span> Academic building

The English Building, previously known as the Woman's Building and Bevier Hall, is a historic structure on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It is located on the west side of the Main Quad between Lincoln Hall and the Henry Administration Building. The original portion of the English Building, designed by McKim, Mead & White, was completed in 1905 and subsequently expanded in 1913 and 1924. The distinctive columned front, which faces the Main Quad, dates to the 1913 addition. Since 1956, the English Building has been home to the university's Department of English.

References

  1. ↑ "Elmina White Honors Hall Timeline." WSU Libraries & College of Arts and Sciences. Accessed March 07, 2019. http://cdsc.libraries.wsu.edu/scalar/wsu-buildings-landscapes/elmina-white-honors-hall-timeline .
  2. ↑ "Washington State University." Elmina White Honors Hall. Accessed March 07, 2019.  https://housing.wsu.edu/ .
  3. ↑ Wilson, R.G. "Georgian Style (Georgian Revival)." The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, 2011, The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art.
  4. ↑ "Historic Resource Survey and Analysis : The Report of the Task Force for Historic Preservation on the Historic Core of the Washington State University Campus, Pullman." Washington State University. Task Force for Historic Preservation. Washington State University, 1985.
  5. ↑ "White Hall Renovation at WSU." Seattle Daily Journal. January 2005. Accessed March 6, 2019.
  6. ↑ "An Exhibit of WSU Buildings." WSU Libraries. April 12, 2016. Accessed March 06, 2019. http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/masctour/wsu_buildings/exhibit1.htm .
  7. ↑ Home Economics Building, W.S.C, Pullman, Wash [Photograph]. (1928). Manuscripts, Archives, & Special Collections, WSU Libraries, Pullman. 
  8. ↑ Elmina White Honors Hall Exterior [Photograph]. (2018). WSU Housing Photographs, Pullman, WA.
  9. ↑ Sudderman, H. (2009, May 5). "Whatever Happened To Home Economics?" Washington State Magazine. Retrieved May 2, 2019.

46°43′54″N117°10′4.5″W / 46.73167°N 117.167917°W / 46.73167; -117.167917

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.