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Architectural relics dot Mews

	The placement of column capitals from Beecher Hall and the crest from Swift Hall’s annex building within the Mews connects today’s students with those of UC’s past.

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Though it was demolished four years ago to make room for University Pavilion, Beecher Hall has resurfaced on campus in the form of architectural relics.

Beecher was originally constructed in 1915 to serve as the women's gymnasium and later evolved into an important administrative facility. Today, however, the building has been reduced to three column capitals at rest in the Mews, the open space at the northern foot of the Steger Student Life Center. Nonetheless, these interesting pieces of landscape art will forever remind the campus community of a small piece of its history.

And just up the stairs from the Mews is a second example of careful construction salvage. The seal from the Swift Hall annex building now rests in the scenic area known as the Baldwin Arch.

"These provide a whimsical reminder of UC's past," landscape architect Leonard Thomas says. "It is important to recognize that a university is a place that has a historical context, and it needs to be preserved."

In addition to Beecher and the Swift annex, other recent structures to crumble under the wrecking ball include the UC bookstore, Laurence Hall, the Old Service building, the West Campus power plant and the brick smokestack. Salvaged from those were columns, dentil molding and a door surround from Beecher, the crest from Swift, the door surround from Old Service and the massive terra-cotta UC seals from the smokestack.

"We have saved a number of pieces from buildings that we have demolished with the idea that we would get a chance to use them again someplace," UC architect Ron Kull says. "All of those artifacts give students an appreciation for what was here, even though they weren't."

NEXT | University Pavilion ends the "UC shuffle"

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