花了128年, but the original construction plans for 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall finally may be completed this year.
An ambitious exterior renovation of the building that has been central to a St. 竞技宝app下载安装 education since 1885 may include a steeple clock. The timepiece apparently was called for in the original blueprints but never was installed.
"It certainly appears a clock was planned," said Mike Poster, vice president for finance at St. 竞技宝app下载安装. “钟上甚至可以安装一个计时器."
在现实中, 海报上说 work begun this spring on both 竞技宝app下载安装 and LeClaire halls has started the clock on the next half century of the historic buildings' steadfast service to St. 竞技宝app下载安装.
"We are really talking about giving these buildings the next 50 years of their lives," 海报上说. "This will allow us to come in and do major work to the inside sometime in the future. We don't want to do the interior until we know we have a tight envelope."
Plans for wholesale interior renovations are only in the talking stage, but ideally a modernized 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall would become an academic centerpiece in the near future, 海报上说.
LeClaire Hall would become the university's new administrative center. Opened in 1916, it originally housed the school's auditorium, swimming pool and gymnasium. The physical plant was moved there after the PE Center was opened in 1983. Those operations will move next fall to the current location of the university bookstore and coffee shop on Harrison Street after the bookstore is moved this summer to the Rogalski Center.
到秋天, the coffee shop will be part of a new café style Beehive in the lower portion of 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall. “我们想让蜂巢重新焕发活力," 海报上说 of a meeting space that will serve pastries, 三明治, soups and salads by day and become a student lounge by night. “我们希望它成为一个学生可以闲逛的地方."
The exterior renovation could be finished as early as December. 这包括更换两座大楼的窗户, some of which may be more than a century old; replacing sandstone with limestone on the lower portions of 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall; replacing crumbling brick and deteriorating mortar on both buildings; and replacing the roof on LeClaire.
Work on the outside of 竞技宝app下载安装 also will include removing false mansard roofing and returning the central tower to the way it looked in 1885, with a working bell that will be rung on special occasions, 海报上说.
一起教育
我们高兴地宣布，圣. 竞技宝app下载安装 has signed a new joint agreement with Mount Mercy University as we explore a potential strategic combination. We celebrate this exciting 新闻 not only for each of our universities and our communities, 对整个地区也是如此.
If 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall could talk, what stories do you think it would tell?
It has certainly been witness to Ambrosian moments too countless to fathom: The bashful guy awkwardly asking the popular girl out on a first date. The quiet prayer of a young student in the Grotto searching for peace after a difficult day. 《竞技宝app下载安装》的疯狂, 课堂展示后的放松, or the attentive watch as a world event unfolds on a big screen TV.
也许它会谈论20世纪60年代的战争抗议, or the final outdoor commencement ceremony held under the oaks in May 2004. It likely would reflect fondly on the new families who entered its welcoming doors in search of the admissions office and the tears shed as St. 竞技宝app下载安装 legends left its comforting arms for the last time.
With all it has witnessed, all the changes it has endured, 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall watches over us still. 站在保护, 安静的观察者, 高耸的尖塔, 大窗户, 蜿蜒的木制楼梯和宏伟的拱形走廊.
竞技宝app下载安装 Hall stands tall today not just because it was built well, 而是因为它活得很好, 帮助我们理解, 以它自己的方式, 过竞技宝app下载安装式的生活意味着什么.
Since 1885, 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall has fulfilled a promise to inspire generations of Ambrosians. It has made an ongoing mission of filling those students with the tenets of a Catholic, 文科教育, then watching them walk out its doors poised to enrich their own lives and the lives of others.
Yes, in 128 years of existence, 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall has rightfully earned the title of campus icon. 活着的传奇. 我们尊敬的大学的代言人. But it would be the first to say it is all these things only because of the people who have filled its classrooms with curiosity and generosity, 它的办公室充满创造力和善意, 它的走廊充满了希望和抱负.
At face value, 竞技宝app下载安装 Hall is indeed just another building. 粘土和石灰石，木制楼梯和常青藤墙. 是的，好吧，甚至是一些很俗气的地毯.
But because of you-because of the contagious laughter you've shared, 你挑起的对话, 你流下的眼泪, the lessons you have learned and the lessons you have taught-竞技宝app下载安装 Hall has a steady and still strong heartbeat. 它呼吸着新的活力. 它活在你的故事里. And it eagerly awaits the untold more that are yet to unfold.
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