White Hall dedication ceremony marries renewal with long tradition

During the White Hall reception, Sept. 12, Otto Doering '62, left, a member of the Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, is greeted by President Jeffrey Lehman, center, and his wife Kathy Okun, second from right, while Carol True-Palmer, second from left, director of Alumni Affairs and Development for Arts and Sciences, and G. Peter Lepage, interim Arts and Sciences dean, look on. University Photography

By Franklin Crawford

On a balmy Friday afternoon Sept. 12, Cornell staff cordoned off the south wing doors of White Hall that a half-hour earlier had been flung open by exiting students and faculty. Staffers adorned the doorway with a glossy red ribbon and streamer. Stationed near a large white tent outside the hall, the Cornell Trombone Choir struck up Franz Joseph Haydn's Achieved Are the Glorious Works and the official dedication ceremony honoring the $12 million White Hall renovation began.

Following remarks from a half-dozen guest speakers, Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman and G. Peter Lepage, the interim Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, wielded a pair of giant scissors and gleefully dispatched with the ribbon-cutting portion of the festivities. The south doors of White Hall reopened, and there was a party in the house that is now home to the Departments of Government and Near Eastern Studies. Dedication speakers included Lehman; Lepage; Peter Gisolfi, chief architect of Peter Gisolfi Associates; Valerie Bunce, chair of the Department of Government; Ross Brann, chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies; and Ellen Adelson, chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council.

Lehman reminisced about his undergraduate days as a math student taking classes in White Hall. Before an audience of about 80 or more faculty, alumni and other guests, he recalled having "to run downstairs onto the quad and then back upstairs to move a total of 15 feet," to reach another class -- in another part of the same building.

While the obstructing masonry walls helped to fireproof the building, Lehman said "the original traffic pattern was ... hardly conducive to the maintenance of an intellectual environment. So I am just delighted that, in carrying out the renovation, the architects were able to solve that part of the problem."

But the architectural firm of Peter Gisolfi and Associates went a lot further than just tearing down walls. The building was completely gutted, while White Hall's Florentine-style exterior was preserved. The old "Stone Row" of Morrill, McGraw and White halls looks pretty much the same as ever. But the interior of White Hall is completely transformed. It now includes eight state-of-the-art classrooms and seminar rooms, with attractive wooden wainscoting and trim, lounges for faculty and students, a gallery and more than 60 offices. The wooden floor joist system was replaced with a steel and concrete support system and state-of-the-art ventilation and heating and cooling were installed.

Guests at the ceremony gathered along corridors on each of the building's floors, toured classes and moved along the balconies overlooking the hall's skylit atrium. The late-afternoon sun played to the strengths of the building's centerpiece, bathing the space in natural light as planned by Peter Gisolfi Associates. Strains of exotic celebratory music performed by Cornell's Middle Eastern Ensemble resonated throughout the atrium.

Constructed in 1867, the hall is one of Cornell's three original buildings and was named for Cornell's first president, Andrew Dickson White. Brann said he couldn't confirm if A.D. White had ever traveled to the Middle East.

"(However) I'm reasonably certain that he never imagined that Cornell's proverbial 'instruction in any subject' for the 1,600 students enrolled in Near Eastern Studies courses each year, would eventually encompass Sumerian, Judeo-Arabic, Islamic Mysticism, Christian heresiography, as well as more conventional subjects such as Arabic and Hebrew literature, Turkish language and modern Middle Eastern history," Brann said.

Lepage said the dedication marked the completion of a top priority for the College of Arts and Sciences.

"This effort to reconfigure the academic landscape in the college was one of the major initiatives undertaken by my predecessor, Phil Lewis, and we owe much of what has been accomplished in this building to his vision and unflagging dedication."

Adelson, who led the arts and sciences advisory committee, which raised $1 million for the White Hall renovations, also praised Lewis, for whom the building's south wing gallery and a ground-floor seminar room have been named. Adelson linked the White Hall renovations in importance with the building of the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts in Collegetown and the renovation of Lincoln Hall, across the quad from White Hall.

After the ribbon cutting, David Owen, director of the Program of Jewish Studies, gave a tour of the new Jonathan and Jeanette Rosen Ancient Near Eastern Seminar Room and Tablet Conservation Laboratory. Earlier, Brann has pointed out that the cuneiform tablet collection "will enable generations of Cornellians and visiting scholars to investigate the legacy of ancient Mesopotamia," and it will serve as a "showcase humanities lab."

Provost Biddy Martin said the White Hall renovation was "testimony to the importance of preserving and renewing the liberal arts and the mission of liberal arts education at Cornell."

"It's gratifying to see that one of our major social science departments and one of our more important humanities departments have this kind of space," Martin said. "And I look forward to the point at which our Departments of History and Anthropology have a renovated McGraw Hall."

Bunce, who oversees a department that serves more than 3,000 students enrolled in government courses and graduates more than 90 students each year, said the new digs were a welcome change from the crowded "aesthetically challenged" confines of McGraw.

"We especially appreciate the elegance of the building as well as the degree to which it keeps to historical traditions," she said.