University of Idaho Campus Photographs Collection

History

Known as the Art & Architecture Building since around 2001, this structure has had a long and varied history on campus. It was originally built as part of a wave of expansion after the 1906 fire that destroyed the Old Administration Building. Designed to support the School of Mines, it was equipped with machinery like “crushers . . . rolls, jigs, concentrators and magnetic separators” for ore processing.[^1] But not long after it was completed, newer flotation methods replaced the older gravity-based techniques the building was designed for—quickly making its large interior outdated.

With student enrollment booming after World War II, the university looked for better ways to put the underutilized space to work. In 1950, President Buchanan approved a “complete overhaul job,” joking that the building was “about to lose its long-held distinction as a space waster.”[^2] After this renovation, it was renamed the Mines Building and became home to both the School of Mines and the Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology.

This designation lasted until 1960–61, when a new, more modern Mines Building was built. Over the next ten years, the original structure hosted a rotating cast of departments: it briefly housed Art and Architecture classes, then the Entomology Department, and eventually the Department of Psychology. At that point, it was renamed the Psychology Building and used for offices, classrooms, and labs. Around 2001, the building found its current identity as the Art & Architecture Building–a role it continues to serve today.[^3]

Design

Constructed in 1906–1907 as a metallurgical laboratory for the School of Mines, the Art & Architecture Building was patterned on a “hillside type, gravity-flow stamp mill” common in Idaho mining districts. It was intentionally built on a west-facing slope and includes two above-grade floors and two below-grade levels, with the lowest opening to ground level on the west. The exterior of the building was originally designed in the Renaissance Revival style. It was significantly remodeled in 1950–1951 by the W.G. Clark Co., transforming the expansive inner core into a three-story interior featuring offices, laboratories, drafting rooms, and study spaces.[^4]

Physical Description

Art and Architecture is a two-story, rectangular building. It is wood-frame with brick veneer over a natural-faced basalt foundation laid in a broken-course pattern. Its roof combines hipped and shed forms with projecting eaves and exposed rafters that simulate an Italianate cornice. The primary, east-facing façade is symmetrical, with ground-floor windows that are topped with arches formed by bands of bricks and stones laid in radiating, wedge-shaped rows (voussoirs). This structural and decorative masonry is characteristic of Renaissance Revival architecture. The second story features elongated multi-pane windows, and a fanlight-capped semicircular window with a brick keystone arch is centered above the main entrance. The south elevation most clearly expresses the building’s hillside gravity-flow design, while a detached archway entrance mirrors the brick and basalt motif, with a plain concrete frieze, decorative cornice, and lighting elements.[^5]

Notes

Images of Art and Architecture Building