The Academic Building and the YMCA

Architectural observations about two of the most historic buildings on the Texas A&M campus, from Professor Emeritus of Architecture David G. Woodcock. 

He calls them “amazing buildings” and has the credentials to back up that assessment, having headed the “Campus Remembered” project that marked some of the culturally significant buildings on campus to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the university in 2001. Woodcock also is director emeritus of the Center for Heritage Conservation in the College of Architecture, where
he taught and conducted scholarly endeavors for 47 years before his retirement in 2009.

Woodcock is particularly impressed with the way the “Y” has been conserved. “The YMCA establishes a new standard for the way we should treat our built heritage, in so far as it is possible to reuse existing buildings to serve future needs,” he observes. 

The preservation-oriented architect applauds the 1980s restoration efforts at the Academic Building but laments the removal of the facility’s wood windows in the 1990s while conceding the action was taken “in the name of energy efficiency and lower maintenance costs.” Woodcock still isn’t fully convinced about the merits of those steps, but, tipping his hat to Frederick E. Giesecke, Class of 1886, and “his over-design of the [building’s] reinforced concrete,” he predicts “it will last forever!”

The Academic Building

College Architect Frederick E. Giesecke initiated the use of the classical architectural language on the campus with Nagle Hall in 1909. When the High Victorian Old Main, one of the original 1876 structures, burned to the ground in 1912 the design for the Academic Building followed the Classical Revival Style.

The design was by Samuel Gideon, an instructor in architecture who was inspired by the work of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and he took full advantage of the opportunity to create a larger and more prominent building on the highest point of the campus and placed on its major axis at the head of Old Main Drive.

The four stories of the Academic Building are built of steel and reinforced concrete, generally referred to at the time as ‘fire proof.’ The building is faced in brick, heavily rusticated on the first floor and at all major corners, and with cast stone used for the generous belt courses and cornices of the classical details. The west entrance is marked by four two-story Ionic columns at second and third floor level supporting a classical pediment. The whole building is surmounted by a copper dome, whose scale has been the subject of some criticism. However, the whole west facade serves as one of the most iconic images of the campus as the much-photographed backdrop to the statue of Sul Ross.

The plan of the building was equally classical, with the main axes of the building centered on a rotunda framed by twenty-six Doric columns. The mosaic of the university seal was added in 1978, and the rotunda houses the replica of the Liberty Bell presented to the State of Texas in 1950.

The Academic Building received a major exterior renovation in the 1980’s, repairing the cast stonework and adding ramps to the north and south of the main entrance, preserving the classical symmetry and detailing. Much of the delicacy and ‘sparkle’ of the exterior was lost when the small-paned, white-painted wood windows were replaced by large dark glass panes in bronze aluminum frames in the 1990’s, and the interior of the building is now much in need of rehabilitation, particularly in the rotunda and major circulation corridors.

Nevertheless, the Academic Building remains a crown jewel of the campus, presiding majestically over the Academic Plaza with its flagpole and Sul Ross statue, and serving as a terminus of Old Main Drive across the restored Military Walk.


The YMCA Building

The YMCA building was the first structure constructed to be a social focus for the campus. Its initial phase was completed in 1914, and consisted of a semi-basement with two upper stories. Its location on Houston Street just north of Old Main Drive made it the first major building reached by visitors and new students arriving from the rail depot on the Wellborn Road.

The building was financed by students and former students, and supported with a major grant from the John D. Rockefeller Foundation. Funding was always a struggle, however, and construction was phased over several years.

The original plan of the building was T-shaped with the entrance façade at the top of the T, and the downward stroke pointed toward the newly constructed Academic Building. Architect S. J. Fountain used a Classical Revival style, with a main portico supported by four two-story Doric columns at the head of a wide staircase rising from street level. The door from the portico opened into a long room with fireplaces at both ends. The lower level of the building housed an exchange store, barber shop and the campus’ first swimming pool. Above the pool a two-story space housed an auditorium, used as the non-denominational chapel, bringing both a spiritual and cultural dimension to the campus buildings. The third floor, envisaged in Fountain’s design, was added in 1920 and contained rooms for campus visitors, and semi-circular lounges were added to each end of the main floor.

The construction of the Downs Natatorium in 1932 meant that the YMCA pool was no longer needed, and the pool was emptied and covered with a wood floor to create a bowling Alley. This too became obsolete with the 1953 opening of the Memorial Student Center. The All Faiths Chapel in 1957 meant that the YMCA Chapel was no longer needed, and by 1980 the two-story space was filled with an intermediate floor to house offices for various administrative uses. The University Police and the Housing Office used the building, until they too were assigned new buildings, and the YMCA stayed empty and shuttered for several years.

In 2009 the university assigned the building to house the Philosophy Department, and offices for Faculty Senate and other university-wide services. Quimby-McCoy Preservation Architects were contracted to design the rehabilitation and after lengthy discussion it was agreed to demolish the end of Fountain’s T-shaped plan, restore the historic features of the west part of the building and create new space in an H-shaped plan, that would also provide a formal entry from Military Walk on the east side of the building.

For the first time in forty years the main room on the first floor is recognizable as a single space, dropped ceilings removed, and the tiled fireplaces restored. Memories of first dates arriving from TWU, hesitant ‘fish’ arriving to enroll, and the steps that were the site of the first Yell Practice, now have a physical locus.

The new construction follows the style and massing of the original, with subtle modifications that establish the difference between the 1914/1920 building and the early 21st century addition. The semi-basement was lowered to ensure a more comfortable room proportion, and the interior details and finishes are based on the original, even re-using elements from the earlier building.

Most significantly, the entrance from Academic Plaza, a two-story structure based on the semi-circular lounges on the main floor, provide accessible entry as well as marking a clear entry way from Military Walk.

The restoration and addition of the YMCA demonstrates that old buildings can be modified to serve new uses, meet new standards for energy use and accessibility, and retain and enhance architectural qualities that can serve new generations of Aggies.