6 April 2005

Longwood to rededicate new Ruffner Hall and Rotunda in April 23 ceremony

Watercolor by Chris Register, Associate Professor of Art (Click to Enlarge)

Almost four years to the day after being destroyed by fire, the new version of Longwood University's signature building will be rededicated Saturday, April 23.

Ruffner Hall, topped like its predecessor with a rotunda dome, will be dedicated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. The celebration will include a picnic on nearby Lancaster Mall from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ($10 for the public in advance, $15 that day), along with self-guided tours of Ruffner from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Every Longwood class from 1930 to the present will be represented.

The red brick, classical style Ruffner Hall replicates the university's most beloved building, which evolved through several stages of construction and expansion from 1839 to1907, and burned down on April 24, 2001 while undergoing a $12 million renovation. It was reconstructed based on the original details and drawings from the state archives under the direction of the firm of Kuntz & Associates, Architects of Alexandria. The 83,143-square foot building will house four academic departments and the offices of the vice president for academic affairs and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

For decades the sprawling Ruffner, whose image appears on the university's logo and seal, was the main administration building, with administrative offices on the first floor and student housing on the upper two floors. After students vacated the building by the early 1970s, dorm rooms were converted to office and classroom space. The former library, Lancaster Hall, was renovated and reopened in 1996 as the main administration building. Ruffner was then used primarily for classrooms and faculty offices before being closed in 1999 for the renovation.

The morning after the fire, Longwood President Patricia Cormier vowed to rebuild Ruffner to its "former splendor."

"We've made a good effort to bring Ruffner back to its historic appearance and design," said Fred Kuntz, principal of Kuntz & Associates. "Our design intent was focused on maintaining the size, shape and integrity of the original design."

At the time of the fire, Kuntz & Associates was directing the renovation. About 80 percent of their work consists of renovation, restoration and reconstruction.

Unlike its precursor, Ruffner has a basement, giving it four floors. In another improvement, a dramatic skylight now extends the length of the hallway between Ruffner and Blackwell Hall (vacant since being replaced in 2000), which survived the fire.

From the outside, the new Ruffner Hall looks like the identical twin of its historic namesake.

The central Rotunda section is flanked by symmetrical wings and fronted by four Greek Ionic Erectheum columns, and a porch bordered with Tuscan Order columns extends across the front of the building, with a balustrade at the porch roof and main roof elevations. Also as before, a curved double stairway inside the Rotunda ascends to the second and third floors.

On the inside, that déjà vu feeling will continue when visitors cross the threshold and enter the dome room where the Rotunda interior features the newly restored original dome paintings.

Away from the dome room, however, the changes are dramatic with state-of-the art classrooms, office, research and conference rooms. There is a wide range of technology improvements and amenities, including a "sympodium" in each classroom, an observation lab in the psychology area, an archaeology lab, two plasma screens on each floor, nearly 20 miles of cable, 595 data outlets and wireless connectivity throughout the building. A sympodium, which can be mounted on the instructor's desktop, is an interactive pen display that works as a computer monitor. The observation lab has four cameras and a microphone, and an operator can switch from one camera to another, display the lab live to an adjacent classroom and record onto DVD. The plasma screens, near the elevator on the east and west side of each floor, will run announcements about student life.

The overall project, which began in December 2002, cost $17.9 million. It was built by English Construction Company Inc. of Lynchburg, as was the adjacent Grainger Hall, also reconstructed to closely resemble its predecessor. The original Grainger survived the fire but had to be razed later that year due to extensive smoke and water damage. The new Grainger, an academic building like the original, opened in August 2003.

Prior to the fire, all of the historic memorabilia from Ruffner, including plaques, paintings and other mementos, had been removed for the renovation. This includes the eight paintings on the interior of the Rotunda dome, done in 1905 by the Italian-born artist Eugene D. Monfalcone of Richmond, which delighted visitors for decades. These oil paintings on canvas - four portraits and four allegorical lunettes - were restored by Page Conservation Inc. of Washington, D.C., and were re-installed in their former location from Aug. 18 through Oct. 29 last year.

The paintings should look even better than before. The skylight system atop the Rotunda dome, originally part of the building, has been reconstructed "to restore the design to its original intent," said Kuntz. The original Ruffner Hall had a skylight about 15 feet above the interior lantern glass window, which apparently was roofed over after the 1920s, probably to eliminate leaks to the interior, he added.

In what became known as the Great Fire of 2001, some 350 students in nearby residence halls were quickly evacuated after the fire was reported at about 9:20 that Tuesday evening, and there were no injuries. The fire started on the third floor of Ruffner's west wing, the section that adjoined Grainger. In the interest of fire safety, that wing no longer connects to Grainger.

Ruffner will house the departments of History, Political Science and Philosophy; Mathematics and Computer Sciences; Sociology and Anthropology; and Psychology. It has 22 classrooms and 63 faculty and 28 administrative offices.

The public may tour Ruffner Hall on Wednesday, April 27, and Sunday, May 1, from 1 to 5 p.m., with free parking across the street on Buffalo Street next to the Crafts House.

For more information about the rededication and grand opening of Ruffner Hall, please phone Longwood University at 1.800.281.4677, Ext. 3, or visit online at www.longwood.edu/news/events/ruffnerrededication/