MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College’s Law Hall reopens for classes Monday, Sept. 4, following a 15-month, $6.4 million transformation into a technology center housing the departments of computer science, mathematics and psychology; the office of institutional research; and the campus network servers and telephone system.
Members of Cornell’s Board of Trustees almost single-handedly financed Law Hall’s renovation. The building is named for its original donor, Marion Law, who attended Cornell for two years in the 1870s, became a minister and was bequeathed a fortune by a wealthy parishioner. He gave $70,000 for a building, and Law Hall opened in 1925 for the departments of geology, biology and physics.
During the renovation, classrooms, offices, workrooms and public areas — 45 rooms in all — gained more than 220 data network connections. Three new computer labs were built for psychology, mathematics and computer science. Eight classrooms are equipped with permanently mounted multimedia projectors that can display computer images, videotapes, DVD and CD images and cable television; instructors will use wireless remote control units to operate all devices.
“Our lab is bigger than before, so there’s no need to limit class size for equipment reasons anymore,” said Leon Tabak, chair of the computer science department. Most Cornell classes are capped at 25, with the average class size being 14.
Law Hall’s fourth floor, mostly used for storage before, was redesigned with a suite of sound-proof research and observation rooms for the psychology department. Psychology is the most popular major at Cornell.
“We can use the research rooms to do an array of tasks on the computer in a relatively distraction-free environment,” said Sue Astley, chair of the psychology department. “In child psychology it is often helpful to observe children of different ages doing different activities. Our new observation rooms will allow us to bring kids into the laboratory for observation without distraction.”
Aside from a redesigned south entrance featuring seating and a wheelchair ramp, the exterior of Law Hall has not changed. Project architects Herbert, Lewis, Kruse & Blunck of Des Moines substituted more energy-efficient windows that look like the old ones. Inside, the redesign preserved much of the original oak trim and black slate chalkboards. A new stairwell, required for fire codes, was copied from existing stairwells. New terrazzo floors were installed to match the old ones. Plaster arches in the hallways were copied and given a modern use: storage for self-closing fire doors. As with all other buildings on the Cornell campus, Law Hall has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980, making Cornell the only campus listed in its entirety.