What it takes to renovate century-old higher education buildings

They were foundational, both to the physical planning of the campus and to the image an institution built of itself. Walk any older campus and the pre-war buildings are usually the ones anchoring the quad and framing the main approach.

They also share a set of characteristics that set them apart from what came later. A sense of craft runs through them as they were built with materials like slate, stone, terrazzo and wood that were meant to last generations. Floor-to-floor heights run tall, a byproduct of relying on natural ventilation rather than mechanical systems. Highly articulated exterior walls of multi-wythe masonry carry the building loads, while operable windows let in air the way the original architects intended.

That sense of craft and permanence is what made these buildings central to the identity of their campuses. It’s also what makes pre-war buildings so beloved by alumni, iconic to the campus community and a real draw for prospective students walking a campus for the first time. They anchor how people picture the place and how they remember it.

But behind all that good is the reality that they frequently fail to meet the needs of the people who need to use them every day. Walk into one of these buildings and the mismatch shows itself fast. You’ll notice the retrofitted ductwork running along a ceiling it was never built for, spaces that have been subdivided with awkward detailing where new meets old, the ADA ramp bolted onto a grand entrance that was never designed to accommodate one, the fire stair added wherever there happened to be room for one, replacement windows that don't maintain the original character of the building. The list goes on. These buildings are often layered with a century of decisions, some still reflecting the original vision, but many made in service of whatever the moment demanded.

Sorting out what's worth keeping, what can be enhanced and what should be stripped away is usually the hardest part. Get that wrong and you either strip a building of what made it worth saving or spend the budget preserving mediocrity. From there, the direction usually takes one of two paths. A building can be renovated to retain its existing use while improving function, energy performance and operational costs, or it can be repurposed to align a beloved asset with the institution's future needs and strategic goals.

Neither renovation path is simpler than building new, but new construction can't replicate what a building of this era already gives an institution, like a physical link to its history and a presence prospective students, alumni and donors immediately feel connected to. It also can't recreate value ascribed to the building by the campus community that would take decades to rebuild elsewhere, or a level of craftsmanship that would be prohibitively expensive to recreate today even if an institution wanted to. 

That's what makes the extra difficulty worth navigating, and it's also why this work depends so heavily on who's doing it. An experienced team that's renovated many buildings of this era before knows what tends to be hiding behind the walls and how to keep a project on track once those hidden issues are uncovered. It's work we've come to know well, and work we genuinely love.

Here's a look at three pre-war renovation projects CannonDesign is honored to have been part of.

• Main Hall at Agnes Scott College
• Romney Hall at Montana State University
• Science Hall at University of Wisconsin–Madison

Main Hall at Agnes Scott College

Main Hall was the first permanent building on the Agnes Scott campus, built in 1891, and the first building in Decatur, Georgia, to be lighted with electricity, a mark of progress the whole community once gathered to watch. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it stands as a landmark beyond the campus itself that anchors the memory of generations of students and alumni and shapes the first impression the college makes on prospective students.

By the time the college brought our team on, decades of incremental change had left the building behind. The first floor housed the Office of the President and communications offices, and the upper floors held housing for 96 students, but none of it had the modern conveniences you'd expect in a building serving that many roles. The envelope, systems and accessibility had also all fallen out of step with what a building this important needed to deliver. Even the bell tower, where students have long climbed to ring the bell after graduation, had deteriorated to the point that the tradition was becoming unsafe to maintain.

The renovation goal was to prepare Main Hall for its next century of campus life while preserving what made it special. This involved repairing its brick, granite and terra cotta masonry, restoring historic woodwork, reinforcing the bell tower and introducing a new roof, elevator, windows and modern mechanical and electrical systems, including air conditioning on the residential floors for the first time. The upper floors remain student housing, now for 98 students with modern amenities and study and community spaces added, while the first floor expanded the Office of the President and now also houses a new Career Exploration Center.

Why renovating Main Hall made sense

• $33.8 million restored a historic landmark while modernizing 42,383 square feet of housing, student space and building systems. 
• History helped fund the work, with more than 650 donors and foundations contributing. 
• Supporting its journey to LEED Platinum certification, the renovation reduced emissions by 41 percent versus replacement. 
• The building's history and meaning to the community stayed intact.

Romney Hall at Montana State University

Built in 1922 as Montana State's original physical education building, Romney Hall was deliberately Montana-made, using brick from Lewistown, copper from Butte and granite sourced elsewhere in the state. It originally housed a gymnasium, pool, running track and handball courts, and its craftsmanship and materials made it a landmark at the heart of campus.

As athletics moved elsewhere over the decades, much of the building fell out of use, largely because of the century-old problems that were present in the building. Floors changed elevation unexpectedly, the structure needed reinforcement and seismic upgrades and accessible circulation had to be threaded carefully through fabric never designed for it.

Working with Montana State and design partner Cushing Terrell, our team reimagined Romney into a high-performing academic building now with more than 1,000 classroom seats. Original brick was cleaned and restored, and wooden windows were refinished and reinstalled, with historically appropriate steel windows used where energy performance mattered more. A portion of the original gymnasium floor now anchors the 300-seat Cruzado Auditorium, alongside preserved terrazzo, steel beams and copper gutters. New mechanical systems and geothermal energy helped the project earn LEED Gold certification.

Today, Romney holds 17 classrooms and centers supporting mathematics, writing, veterans and students with disabilities, making it one of the busiest academic buildings on campus.

Why renovating Romney Hall made sense

• Classroom seating in the building grew from 141 to more than 1,000, at a cost of $32 million.
• Nearly 55 percent of the building's existing materials were retained and reused, cutting down on the waste and embodied carbon new construction would have required.
• Its new geothermal system now anchors a shared energy network that heats and cools other buildings on campus as well.
• A beloved structure that once faced obsolescence is now positioned for another century of use, right at the heart of campus.

Science Hall at University of Wisconsin–Madison

Built in 1887 after its predecessor was destroyed by fire, Science Hall was remarkably innovative for its time, among the earliest buildings in the country constructed almost entirely from masonry and metal. Massive iron and steel beams still form portions of its structure, while Wisconsin rhyolite, brick and tile give it a distinctive Romanesque character. Now a National Historic Landmark on the quad, it has been part of UW–Madison for nearly 140 years and once housed nearly every branch of science at the university.

Decades of use have left the building with aging systems, accessibility challenges and significant deferred maintenance, even as it continues serving the university community. Today Science Hall is home to geography, environmental studies and geospatial science, along with the oldest lecture hall on campus still in active use.

Working with UW–Madison and preservation architect InSite Consulting Architects, our team is leading the design of a $163.2 million transformation that restores the historic exterior while replacing aging infrastructure. The work includes repairing masonry and terra cotta, restoring original wood doors and stone staircases, replacing the roof, improving the energy performance of historic windows and removing non-historic partitions to recover open and collaborative space. New HVAC, accessibility and safety systems will bring the building to modern standards, a new GIS Learning Lab will support geospatial science and remote sensing, and a new rear atrium will turn a secondary side of the building into a welcoming entrance.

Why renovating Science Hall made sense

• The renovation addresses deferred maintenance, accessibility, systems, historic restoration and academic modernization in one project. 
• History helped unlock funding, with John and Tashia Morgridge committing $85.2 million toward the renovation, more than half of the project's total cost. 
• Science Hall's landmark status, its positioning on the quad and ties to the university's scientific legacy remain intact.

Every campus has buildings like these that have earned their place through decades of use and can be reimagined for the next 100 years. Main Hall, Romney Hall and Science Hall, and many other pre-war buildings our team has helped evolve for the future, show what that can look like in practice. 

Next up in our series is an article exploring renovations of mid-century buildings and the unique challenges and opportunities they bring.