As many RPI students left campus, President Shirley Ann Jackson, the RPI Board of Trustees, school supporters, and several students gathered in the Auditorium in Academy Hall to celebrate its rededication following a two-year $6.2 million dollar renovation. Following several short speeches by Jackson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Samuel Heffner, Jr. ’56, President of the Union Peter Baldwin, and Grand Marshal Mike Dillon, the mostly-finished Academy Hall, now designated the Student Life Services Center, was opened to a “hard-hat tour” for the ceremony attendees.
Highlighted in all of the speeches was the theme of RPI’s commitment to its student body and efforts to create a better streetscape on 15th Street, which cuts evenly through the two major areas of campus. In her speech, Jackson spoke of how “Academy Hall is becoming an anchor for the entire new 15th Street corridor, where [we] … are creating a new campus main street for student-centered activities.”
Michael Battista ’08, a ceremony attendee thought that “events like this are a great chance for students to be exposed to what’s going on in their school.”
Academy Hall was first opened as Public School 14 in 1923 and served as a public school for about 70 years. RPI purchased the building, as well as several adjoining acres of buildable property, in 1990. The building was renamed to Academy Hall in 1998, and renovations for the adaptive re-use of the building got started in 2002 to accommodate the offices of financial aid, the registrar, and the bursar.
Academy Hall was in need of much restoration and refinishing to prepare it for its new role on campus. Over the course of nearly two years, Academy Hall was renovated and provided with improvements in both heating and air-conditioning systems to accommodate the new offices. An elevator was added, and new stairways and restrooms followed. By the time of the dedication, the basic work was done, although the appearance of the building’s interior had not yet been fully defined, as most offices had yet to take occupancy.
After attending the dedication, and paying a visit to the functioning Student Life Services Center, Dillon commented that “the greatest benefit of the new offices is the expansive space these offices will now have available to them.”
At the time of the dedication the offices of the Dean of Students, First-Year Experience, and Health Center were open in Academy Hall. Over the break, the offices of Student Records and Financial Services and Financial Aid opened, essentially completing the building.
