Meredith Hall, home to Drake’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC), Bright College, and many College of Arts and Sciences programs, is wrapping up renovation work and will be ready to serve students for the fall semester. Faculty and staff with offices in the building started moving back into their spaces last week.

The renovation work began in December 2022 with the intent to preserve the building’s historically significant architecture, while making the facility more environmentally friendly and better suited to the teaching and learning styles of today.

Throughout the planning and renovation process, Drake Facilities Planning and Management worked in close coordination with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) to ensure the building remains eligible to be on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The completed project includes improvements to the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, new LED light fixtures, a solar array installed on the roof, new ceiling systems, new bottle-filler drinking fountains, and technology upgrades throughout the building. Areas within the building were also reimagined to include a new student collaboration space and zip spaces. A new film viewing room was created in the lower level that includes salvaged seating from Varsity Theater.

Another notable aspect of the renovation included returning the signature metal exterior to its original shade of black, as it was when it was first constructed in 1965 and received international attention for its Mid-Century Modern architectural appeal.

Meredith Hall was designed by world-renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and part of the renovation project includes restoring the building’s courtyard, which is distinct among Mies’ designs.

The Drake Facilities Planning and Management team also worked closely with SHPO to add padded cushioning to the original wooden seats in both of Meredith Hall’s auditoriums. To maintain the original design and aesthetics of the seats, Drake worked with the original manufacturer, Carroll Seating Company, on the renovations in which the original seat backs and bases will be used. In fact, the same person who designed the seats in 1965 worked to help renovate those same seats now.

Read about all the infrastructure updates, new sustainable features, and enriched teaching and learning opportunities on the Meredith Hall Revitalization web page.

“Our ultimate goal of updating this historic facility was to create learning spaces that meet the needs of today’s students while retaining the building’s key historic features,” said Michelle Huggins, planning and design manager, Facilities Planning and Management. “We want to ensure that people another 50 or 100 years from now will walk into this space and be just as impressed as they were in 1965 when the building first opened.”

— Heather Winslow, Facilities Planning and Management