Historic references link renovated Sage Hall with its past

By Justine Dougherty

The Johnson Graduate School of Management's $38.2 million renovation of Sage Hall has not only made the historic structure a model for 21st century academic buildings, it has preserved its architectural continuity with the past.

Back in 1873 when Sage was built, making it the first women's residence at a major university, the elegant building helped provide a meaningful coeducational experience. Its primary academic function has been altered, but through careful renovation, its functional elegance has remained.

Sage Hall's large new atrium, with its massive skylight, has the feel of a relaxed courtyard, with sensitive acoustics allowing for casual conversations at its many tables. Before the renovation, the area was a parking lot. One alumna, who lived in Sage back in the '50s and was back for Cornell Adult University, was in the atrium recently, staring up as if stunned.

"I can't believe it," she said twice. "It's absolutely beautiful. But it's not Sage Hall." Not the old Sage Hall, that is. Other returning alums have searched for their old rooms in vain, but they've often found their old windows.

"Along with the exterior walls, the windows were saved, which resulted in some of the new offices having windows that are very low or very high," said Bob Stundtner, Cornell's project manager for the Sage renovation project. "The old building used to have many little staircases and many different levels, as well as narrow hallways."

Now the roomy, remodeled interior fuses the historical and the modern with seamless elegance.

For the renovation project, and to meet landmark preservation requests, the original windows and three exterior facades of the building were kept, and replacements were made for two old balconies that used to be on the south and west sides of the building. And the spire that had fallen off the building 50 years ago was reconstructed, complete with an ornate finial fashioned by craftsmen in Cornell's sheet metal shop.

There has been some controversy over the scope of the renovation, with some people wondering why the newer parts of the building don't fully match the historic portions in style and appearance.

"What people don't realize," said Stundtner, "is that because this building is a historic landmark, there were mandates we had to comply with -- one of which was that any new construction look different from the old. Otherwise, it might be confused with what is truly historic."

Giving a tour of the building, Stundtner discussed the ways in which the aesthetic elements of the old and new portions blend. "The modern additions use the vocabulary of the older building," he said, "respecting but not replicating it. It's not note for note but more like a jazz riff -- the feel of the song is there."

Stundtner pointed out some of the areas in which this referential system is in evidence:

• The new triangle windows facing East Avenue make reference to the older gable end dormers.

• The cut of the new front entrance, on East Avenue, is in reference to the shape of the older south entrance.

• The granite that clads the new exterior, though not the same color as the older bricks, shares the same color warmth and will match them as the old bricks lose their clean shine.

• The Rheinzink (sheet metal used for roofing) was cut and laid to imitate the patterning of the glass on one of the old greenhouses -- now library reading rooms -- on the southeast corner.

• The exposed steel buttresses in the atrium (decorative rather than structural) point to when the building was first built: the height of the Industrial Revolution.

• The new brick walls in the atrium are ribbed with steel control joints to make the facade look modular and therefore more modern in assembly.

There are also other additions that are indirectly related to the past. For instance, the terrazzo tiles in the atrium match the floor pattern in the Sage Chapel crypt, and the tops of the carrels in the new library are rounded like chapel pews, both being allusions to the fact that Sage Hall and Sage Chapel were designed by Cornell's first professor of architecture, Charles Babcock, and built at the same time.

The only large project left to complete is moving the rest of the contents of the library from Malott Hall to the large, new space in the renovated building. But the library is still busy, filled recently with the knocking of Jake Klaven's hammer. One of the finish carpenters from Local 603 of the carpenter's union and a worker for subcontractor Terminal Millwork, Klaven paused while completing some complicated knuckle work to talk about what he's fashioned.

"This was one of the hardest parts," he said, pointing to an overhead corner where the wood wrapped tightly around a balcony column. "And my favorite," he said.

Klaven said he feels lucky to have been hired on at the beginning of the project to pour concrete, because it's enabled him to see the construction from start to finish. Like many of the other workers, he's brought his wife to the site so she could see the work he's done.

"A lot of the craftsmen take pride in their work and bring their families by," said Claude LeBlanc, general superintendent for contractor Beacon Skanska Construction, "and their work shows that pride."

Sage Hall's occupants are moved in now, and classes have been going on for summer students. A grand dedication ceremony is planned for the first three days in October, by which time the new and returning students will have learned their ways around the building and will be well into their own knuckle work.