This is the first page in the Color Photo section of the Schaeffer Hall Visitor's Tour.  This page and the next were the original pages I constructed before the tour was expanded to include archive and construction photos.  As such, they have a different look than the other pages.

In the summer of 1995 the Department of Political Science, along with other departments and offices, moved out of Schaeffer Hall so work could begin on the building's badly needed renovation.  On July 14th, 1997, Political Science was the first of the units to move back into the renovated Schaeffer Hall.  Although some detail work is still in progress as of this writing, the major components of the project are completed and the building looks great!

Just after we moved in I took a few pictures to give folks a first look at the "new" Schaeffer Hall.  After posting those initial pictures I took another set of pictures and have posted them below with additional commentary.   The pictures don't show quite as much detail as I would have liked--partly because I was a bit out of practice with my camera and partly because these were the first scans I tried with my new scanner, but they do give an idea of the changes and improvements.  The official open house will be in October, but the building is open now if anyone wants to stop by.

Below are thumbnails of 26 pictures, along with a few comments about each.  The pictures are all JPG files that are about 600x400 and average about 30K. I've made the thumbnails a bit large to give viewers a good idea of what can be seen in the larger picture.  As a result, they do take a bit of time to load.  To speed things up I've broken the pictures into two pages.  This page contains the first 14 pictures and the second page the remaining 12.

(Note: My thanks to Doug Kelley for scanning the first eight pictures.  When I added the rest of the pictures I rescanned the originals--so the quality is my fault not his!)

After taking the first set of pictures it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to take a few pictures of the outside of Schaeffer.  The pictures above are of the east side from Clinton Street, the north side from in front of the Old Capitol, the west side from in front of MacLean Hall, and the south side from the sidewalk on Washington Street.  The changes on the outside are not as noticeable as those on the inside.  There are two, however, that may be noticeable from the pictures above.  The first is that all the stonework was cleaned.  In most areas it really wasn't that dirty, but it certainly has a freshly-scrubbed look to it now.  The second change is that with central air-conditioning in the building, all the window AC units are gone!  In the west picture you can see where some landscaping is underway.  This area between Schaeffer and MacLean was basically a camp for construction equipment for the last two years.  In the south picture you can see that some work on the sidewalks was still underway when I took the picture.

By entering Schaeffer using the east entrance one quickly sees the new and refinished woodwork.  You can also see in this picture the "marble" columns that have been added to the middle of the first floor hallway at the corners of a seal commemorating the initial construction and the renovation.  I suppose it would have been nice to have had a more detailed seal for the college rather than just "Liberal Arts," but it still looks nice.  Though you can't see it in this picture, there is a smaller metal seal in each corner with the letters "I," "S," and "U."  My first thought was that somebody either made a serious boo-boo or was playing a rather permanent joke.  Of course, as those better versed in University history can tell you the letters stand for the "State University of Iowa," as the U was previously known.
 

These pictures show a view of the south entrance as one enters Schaeffer and a view of the north entrance as one comes down the first floor hallway.  Naturally the building was repainted (and not in the strange color scheme used before).  The woodwork has been replaced or refinished.  In these pictures you can also see the new style of light fixtures used in the hallways as well as the refinished "marble" columns.  I recently learned that the columns are not really marble.  The marble appearance is actually just painted on!  Despite all these changes, probably the first thing you will notice upon entering Schaeffer is that it is air-conditioned!  (I suppose this may be harder to detect during the winter, but you can trust me on this.)

Here are three pictures of work progressing on the columns. Apparently the folks in charge were so pleased with how the columns on the first floor turned out that they decided to have the ones on the second and third floors done as well. Quite a bit or effort goes into preparing the columns before the painter, Roberta Williams, begins her work. The columns begin as an off-white color .  Once prepared, she applies a coat of reddish-brown paint with a cloth that she basically wads up and rolls over the column. This applies the paint in an uneven pattern that provides the base for the marble pattern. After doing additional work on the basic pattern, she then paints in the darker brown and black lines. (If you are wondering about the safety lines she is wearing, the scaffold overhangs the open stairwell and it's a pretty good drop to the first floor!) After the painting is finished, she applies two coats of varnish to each column.

Here is a picture of the south stairwell and skylight.  Though it's hard to tell because I took the picture at night, you really can see the sky now.  (No more grunge!  No more bats!)  In fact, when the sun is shining just right through the north stairwell skylight an interesting rainbow pattern appears on the stairs.  I'm not sure if this was intended, but it's still neat.  During the planning of the renovation there was some concern that the stairwells might have to be closed off to conform to fire code regulations.  Fortunately, in the final plan the stairwells were kept open to help maintain the  natural lighting and traditionally open character of the building.

Part of the compromise to keep the stairwells open was to reduce the size of the doorways at each end of the main hallways.  In this picture of the main hallway on the third floor you can see that the doorways were narrowed and the large wooden doors were replaced.  We now have a two-level door system with more-or-less standard size doors on the bottom and smaller vent doors on top.  They are held open by electric magnets that will release the doors in the event the fire alarm goes off.  Not all the magnets worked properly when we first moved in, so several of the vent doors were closed and the larger ones occasionally needed to be propped open while work on the renovation was being completed.

The layout of the areas at each end of the main hallways have been completely redone.  (If you think of Schaeffer as a large I, it would be the top and bottom portions.)  These areas previously contained a mix of classrooms and offices.  Now all the classrooms are on ground and first and these areas are all offices on second and third.  At the very end of the main hallways there are some department offices, such as History, or large teaching assistant offices.  Faculty offices are located down the main hallway and at each end of the smaller hallways.  This picture is a view of the entrance to one of the office "pods" on the third floor.  Once past the entrance you are at the bottom of a U-shaped hallway with a total of nine offices for faculty and teaching assistants.  There are four such pods with basically the same design on each of second and third floors.

The pictures continue on the second page (Color 2)

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Last updated on 10/9/97 by TH (timothy-hagle@uiowa.edu)