20 Years at the Top: Past building projects reshape campus, renovations continue

Acacia O'Connor Senior Editor

President Fran Fergusson has often been lauded for her campaigns to renovate and construct buildings that improve the College campus. The piece-by-piece restoration of Vassar’s buildings and grounds led by Fergusson will continue up until her departure at the end of this term.
Fergusson has sought to refurbish current College buildings instead of replacing them entirely. This fact is evidenced in the work done in Jewett, which reopened in 2004 in a condition that many students have likened to a five-star hotel.

The Center for Drama and Film was also conceived with an aim of preservation in mind, as the building has retained the brick façade of the original Riding Academy built in 1866. Additions to the Library, including the Martha Rivers and E. Bronson Ingram Library, have also blended old with new in a way that is both aesthetically pleasing and practical.

Several completely new buildings have also been constructed in the past 20 years, including the state-of-the-art Class of 1951 Observatory, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Ferry House, the Athletic and Fitness Center and the Weinberg Sports Pavilion at Prentiss Fields. Several of these designs, including the Lehman Loeb and the Center for Drama and Film, were produced and executed by world-famous architect Cesar Pelli and introduce a feeling of modernity to Vassar’s traditional northeast campus.

“Working with Cesar Pelli has been one of the most marvelous things I’ve done,” said Fergusson. Fergusson noted with pride that upon her departure at the end of the 2005-2006 academic year, every performing art on campus would have a space that suits their needs.
The FLLAC has greatly increased the influx of high-class visual arts to Vassar. Fergusson explained that prior to the construction of the museum, very few of the College’s vast collection of paintings were displayed. Since its erection, many prestigious traveling shows from the Metropolitan Museum of Art or Museum of Modern Art.

“It was sort of a ‘if you build it, they will come’ sort of thing,” said Fergusson. “A Field of Dreams, but for art.”

The renovated Kenyon Hall, scheduled to reopen at a May 11 meeting of the Board of Trustees, will include new dance facilities and a volleyball-specific court. Kenyon’s new dance theater will be named after the President when it is finished. Kenyon will also include six “smart”classrooms, which will be equipped with the latest in technology.

A million-dollar naming gift for the Center for Drama and Film on behalf of Board of Trustees member Barbara Vogelstein and her husband John will be dedicated on May 11.

Other projects will be carried out of the summer of 2006 are overhauls to the Multi-Purpose Rooms in the Quad dorms and the living room in Joss. Fergusson noted that she plans for the seating in Taylor Hall to be replaced as well.

According to Fergusson, the funding is in place for one other project, though she declined to say what the project would be. She revealed that details would be announced within the next several weeks.