New SAE house opens

Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity alumni, charter members and construction partners celebrated the unveiling Wednesday of the new Indiana Gamma chapter house on North Jordan Avenue.

The house opened on schedule, after 18 months of construction and more than two years of fundraising $1.4 million, said Doug Cassman, an alumni and member of the chapter’s housing corporation.   

Mark Diedrich, the building’s architect, modeled the limestone house design from the fraternity’s original Jordan Crest Gables house, which opened in 1926 at 108 N. Jordan and burned down in 1969.

The theme of the construction campaign, as well as Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, was “rising from the ashes,” representing the rebuilding of both the house and the chapter.

In 2002, the chapter closed due to hazing and alcohol violations, and in 2005 the fraternity’s empty house caught fire and was demolished. The chapter received its new charter in 2009 and began the house construction campaign in 2011.

Casmman began the ceremony’s speeches, which included comments from national and local construction campaign leaders, as well as from Gamma Chapter President and IU senior Patrick Fagan and Assistant Dean of Students Steve Veldkamp.

The active chapter made a construction pledge of $75,000, including contributions from members who would be unable to live in the house, Cassman said. The chapter has more than 100 members and only 68 will be able to live in the house.

The living room offers chapter members a fireplace and an 80-inch television, which cost $3,200, said Michael Rodgers, director of the SAE Financial and Housing Corporation.  The house also includes a dining room with 85 seats, a basement fitness room, a back balcony dining area and a rear patio.

The house is designed in a suite configuration, with four to five beds and one bathroom in each suite.

A few projects remain unfinished, Rodgers said, including the addition of a gas fire pit on the back patio. Two marble-carved lions, modeled after a famous library in Vienna, will be installed shortly at the front entrance, along with landscape lighting.

Fagan, the chapter’s president, said he believes the house will help SAE continue to grow its involvement and presence on campus.

“We’ve been back for a while,” Fagan said. “We’ve known we’ve been back, but I think this is us announcing it to campus. We’re ready to be leaders in the Greek community and we’ve got a platform to do it now.”