Kirkwood Hall on restoration waiting list

Three shades of white cover classroom walls. Layers of paint are chipping away. Years of traffic have caused each main staircase step to dip in the middle.\nA staple of IU's Old Crescent, Kirkwood Hall has seen better days.\nRenovations to the structure, which was built in 1894, are still at least two years away, because the building has to wait its turn.\nKirkwood is the last building in a $28 million state-funded renovation project that began in 1990. \nThe Student Building, Lindley Hall, Rawles Hall, Swain West, Wiley Hall and Owen Hall have already been renovated, said Terry Clapacs, vice president for administration. After Maxwell Hall, Kirkwood Hall will be renovated.\n"It may be run down now, but it's part of the academic plan for the campus," Clapacs said.\nFermin Recarte, who teaches Spanish in Kirkwood, said he knows the building all too well.\n"Sometimes you can't open the windows," Recarte said. "I try to open the window, and the glass comes off."\nRecarte said his students are sometimes distracted by Kirkwood's heating system.\n"When the heat comes on, it's very noisy," Recarte said. "So, it can get very noisy when you're trying to teach."\nRecarte also teaches in Ballantine Hall, a building that is much younger.\n"You see (Kirkwood Hall), and you see Ballantine, and you can tell the difference," he said. "This is just an old building, and that's it."\nKirkwood is one of the oldest buildings on campus, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places. Kirkwood, which was originally built to relieve overcrowded classrooms, began to deteriorate in the early 1900s.\nIn 1921, architect Robert Frost Daggett was asked to come to campus to inspect the building, according to the IU Archives. Daggett suggested the main stairway needed strengthening and that the building needed to be fire-proofed. The board of trustees approved his suggestions.\nKirkwood Hall has not undergone major renovations since.\nOnce again, the hall is in need of refurbishing, Clapacs said.\n"The roof will be replaced, the windows will be replaced or refurbished and some other work will be done inside," Clapacs said.\nThe current plan also calls for the entire infrastructure to be refurbished and to bring the building up to safety code.\nBut renovations on Maxwell Hall will come first, according to the order of projects set by the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1990, Clapacs said.\nRon English, a custodian who regularly cleans Kirkwood, said he has noticed the building's disrepair.\n"The walls are cracking, the ceiling and floor tiles are coming up, and it's not handicap accessible," English said. "The frames around the windows are real loose, and when the wind blows the windows rattle."\nUnlike most buildings on campus, Kirkwood does not have an elevator or central air conditioning. \nDuring the first semester, Recarte and his students suffered through the heat not only because the building lacks central air, but because many of its windows do not open. \nBut there are still those who enjoy teaching in Kirkwood.\nAndrew Lenard, a professor emeritus, taught in Kirkwood for many years and now returns to fill in for fellow professors.\n"I think that the building has some structural problems like the safety features," Lenard said. "My general impression of Kirkwood Hall is that it's a nice, old building"