A Purdue Icon

James L. Mullins

Description

The former Purdue Power Plant (HPN) with its iconic smoke stack and the attached Engineering Administration Building (ENAD) at the very heart of campus played important roles for most of the twentieth century. To many Purdue students and alumni, the smoke stack not only symbolized the emphasis at Purdue on technology but also provided a visible marker for the Purdue campus. The smoke stack was lovingly referred to by many as "Purdue's finger to the world." Amid controversy, the smoke stack was demolished in the early 1990s when the Purdue Clock Tower was constructed to locate the campus on the landscape. A Purdue Icon: Creation, Life, and Legacy is an edited volume that speaks to the history of the Power Plant, from the initial need for increased power and heat to meet a growing campus demand and its Romanesque architecture that allowed it to fit contextually on the campus, to the people who worked to bring heat and power to the campus by keeping the boilers up and the students who experienced the principles and applications of mechanical engineering through active learning. This book tells the story of the transition to alternative power and heat sources at the University, the decommissioning of the Power Plant, the controversy about what was to be done with this important site at the heart of the campus, and the challenges associated with the Power Plant's potential reuse or demolition. The unique problems faced with demolishing a contaminated building in the middle of a major research university campus are insightfully explored before introducing the Thomas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center: a potential new Purdue icon.
Foreword, by Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.

Preface

Introduction, by James L. Mullins and Elizabeth Bower

Essay 1: Following a National Example: Purdue’s Transition to the Mechanical and Industrial Age, by

James L. Mullins

Essay 2: Setting the Stage: A Pivotal Time for Planning and Design at Purdue, by Eugene R. Hatke and Jeffrey A. Rhodes

Essay 3: The “Splendidly Designed” Power Plant: From Symbol of Modernity to Beloved Icon, by Susan Curtis and Kristina Bross

Essay 4: Heating and Power Plant–North: Home of the “Boilermakers”, by Lynn Parrish

Essay 5: A Phoenix from the Coal Ashes: An Active Learning Center Emerges on the Old Power Plant Site, by James L. Mullins

Essay 6: End of an Era: The Razing of the Old Power Plant and ENAD, by Mark Shaurette

Introduction

Essay 7: The Architectural Vision: Thomas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center Design Overview

Epilogue, by James L. Mullins

In Appreciation

Index

Sujets

• Power Resources
• Sciences et techniques
• Technology
• Engineering

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781557539168
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 39 Mo

Extrait

A PURDUE ICON CREATION, LIFE, AND LEGACY

The Founders Series

A PURDUE ICON CREATION, LIFE, AND LEGACY

Edited by James L. Mullins Purdue University Press • West Lafayette

Copyright 2017 by Purdue University. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

Cataloging-in-Publication data is on le with the Library of Congress.

Cloth ISBN: 978-1-55753-782-9

Dustjacket image: (Front) Architectural Rendering of Purdue Power Plant, 1924, by Nicol, Scholar, and Homan Architects. Courtesy of the Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center. (Back) Trevor Mahlmann. (Back Flap) Purdue University/Andy Hancock.

Cover design by Lindsey Organ. Interior design by Lindsey Organ and Katherine Purple.

Foreword  Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.

Preface

Introduction  James L. Mullins and Elizabeth Bower

Essay 1 Following a National Example: Purdue’s Transition to the Mechanical and Industrial Age  James L. Mullins

Essay 2 Setting the Stage: A Pivotal Time for Planning and Design at Purdue  Eugene R. Hatke and Jeffrey A. Rhodes

TABLE OF CONTENTS

vii

ix

xi

1

23

Essay 3 The “Splendidly Designed” Power Plant: From Symbol of Modernity to Beloved Icon  Susan Curtis and Kristina Bross

Essay 4 Heating and Power Plant–North: Home of the “Boilermakers”  Lynn Parrish

37

59

Essay 5 71 A Phoenix from the Coal Ashes: An Active Learning Center Emerges on the Old Power Plant Site  James L. Mullins

Essay 6 End of an Era: The Razing of the Old Power Plant and ENAD  Mark Shaurette

93

Essay 7 111 The Architectural Vision: Thomas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center Design Overview  BSA LifeStructures and RATIO

Epilogue  James L. Mullins

In Appreciation

Index

127

129

131

FOREWORD

For roughly nine decades, the Power Plant (Heating and Power Plant– North or HPN), with its iconic smokestack, and the Engineering Administration building (ENAD) were xtures of Purdue’s campus. In a small but underappreciated way, the structures shaped what it means to be a Boilermaker today. For those who studied in ENAD, worked in HPN, or simply walked by both on their way to other destinations, these buildings became a part of the Purdue experience.

In fall 2017, these structures ocially will be replaced by the new Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC). As students come and go and new faculty and sta arrive, fewer will remember the two structures that preceded the WALC on the grounds east of the Bell Tower. But thanks to Purdue’s committed archivists and historians, the memories and stories recorded in this book and at Purdue University Libraries will not be lost to history.

No one could be better suited to lead a project like this than Purdue’s award-winning Dean of Libraries James L. Mullins. In addition to over- seeing Purdue’s library and archives, Dean Mullins was an early advocate for Purdue’s active learning program, and he has been inuential in the creation of the WALC. He is uniquely qualied to look both backward and forward, from Purdue’s break- through as a leading scientic university in the days of HPN to our future as the sponsor of the nation’s largest and fastest growing active learning program.

As you will read in the essays that follow, the active learning approach puts student success at the center of every course, often minimizing in-class lectures and emphasizing in-class projects in addition to online lectures reviewed by students at their own pace. Already, 96 percent of our students are exposed to an active learning course before they graduate. e primary purpose of the WALC will be to provide additional space to serve more and to further integrate the principles of student-centered teaching into Purdue’s culture.

Our data show this approach greatly increases the likelihood that students, even those with the odds stacked against them, are able to master the cur- riculum. As such, the Wilmeth Active Learning Center will advance Purdue’s land-grant mission, better equipping our University to serve all our students through research-proven teaching tactics.

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When viewed this way, the book you hold is about much more than buildings or even Purdue history. As Sir Winston Churchill noted, “We shape our dwellings and afterwards our dwellings shape us.” is work is about the lives these structures have shaped and will shape for decades to come, and it is the story of how a state-of-the-art power facility was replaced by a rst-of-its-kind learning facility.

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. President Purdue University

PREFACE

e idea for this book came to me when it was apparent that the old Power Plant/ENAD would be demolished to make way for the proposed Active Learning Center (ALC). Rarely has a building as prosaic as a power plant generated as much identity with a university as this one did at Purdue University. For nearly seventy years, its 250-foot smokestack anchored the campus on the landscape. Although the smokestack was never used symbolically by the University on publications or stationary, it served as an informal symbol— or icon—for decades. President Steven Beering quickly discovered the importance of the smoke- stack when he proposed that it be demolished when the Power Plant was decommissioned in the early 1990s. Students and alumni alike expressed their opposition. In response, in 1995 the Class of 1948 provided funding for the construction of the Bell Tower to serve as an iconic replacement for the smokestack. e Bell Tower now represents the identity of the University on everything from publications to T-shirts.

Why the old Power Plant was demolished instead of repurposed has been questioned time and again. ere were three primary reasons why repurpos- ing the building was not a viable option. First, the building was designed utilizing the massive boilers as integral components of the support structure. Without the boilers, the building would lack structural integrity. Second, given the use of the

building, the structure and likely the surrounding area were contaminated with toxic materials such as asbestos and coal tar, which would have made repurposing the building complicated and expen- sive. ird, the campus location of the Power Plant/ ENAD restricted the potential for construction of the additional square footage required to meet the program needs for the omas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center.

It is dicult for those of us who arrived at Purdue long after the smokestack was removed to com- prehend the connection students and alumni had to something that many might consider to be an unattractive feature in the center of a university campus. To better understand the unique reverence for a structure as utilitarian as a smokestack and the power plant it served, it helps to understand the reason for its construction and location.

When the Power Plant, with its smokestack, was constructed in the early 1920s, it was both a necessity for heat and power and was a statement by Purdue to an era of modernity. is state-of-the-art facility illustrated an eort to show that the campus was aware of how dramatically things were changing in the early twentieth century. In addition to its utilitar- ian role, it was also an active learning center given its use as a laboratory for mechanical and civil engineer- ing students. Furthermore, the plant was the daily focus for many unsung workers at Purdue who kept the boilers and generators running 365 days a year to provide heat and power for the growing campus.

When the Power Plant was built, the campus did not extend much beyond the facility. Over the

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next thirty years, as the campus expanded north, the Power Plant’s location became the center of campus rather than on the edge. With construction of the larger south power plant in the 1960s, the decommissioned building sat mostly unused for more than twenty-ve years as the University con- sidered options for the structure and the site. In the early 2010s, with the need to construct a building that would provide much-needed classrooms and library spaces, the decision was made to demolish the structure.

My objective with this book was to bring together individuals at Purdue and external collaborators to tell the story of the old Power Plant and its smoke- stack. e positive response to my request to faculty and colleagues to write an essay on a portion of the story was gratifying, especially since many of the writers had little memory of the old Power Plant being more than an empty building at the center of campus.

I extend a strong thank you to the following authors for their essays: Eugene Hatke and Je Rhodes; Susan Curtis and Kristina Bross; Lynn Parrish; Mark Shaurette; and the architects and sta at BSA LifeStructures and RATIO. anks also for the oral histories provided by Marty Nelson, Joe Arnett, and Harold Lambirth, Sr., who contributed their experiences working in the old Power Plant, and the oral history by Harry Hirschl, who provided his memories of classes he attended in the building as a mechanical engineering student in the 1940s. Without their commitment to con- tribute their knowledge and scholarship, this book would not be possible.