Drawings + Documents Archive: The Movie!

Learn about the Drawings + Documents Archive by watching our new, LEGO stop-motion movie on YouTube! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8wSirnkAYo) Follow Sarah, a student at the College of Architecture and Planning, as she navigates primary source researching at the archive and learns about all of the resources available to her--from original architectural drawings to 3-D prints.

Archives staff is incredibly grateful for the talents of its graduate assistants, particularly Raluca Filimon who directed the project, and for the enthusiasm of our narrator, Paul Jones, who stopped in one morning to remind us to buy donuts in the atrium and became an integral part of the project. 

Scheidler Apartments, Ball State University

Ball State University students are moving into their campus dorm rooms this week and we're celebrating this monumental milestone toward adulthood with architectural depictions of dorms, both past and present. First up is an interior presentation drawing of Ball State University's Scheidler Apartments phase III plan from 1970. The university has many dormitories to house the 15,000+ undergraduates on campus, however Scheidler and Anthony Apartments offer one to three bedroom apartment units for upper-level students and students or faculty with families. 

The interior presentation drawing, above, from the Muncie architecture firm Hamilton, Graham, Love, and Associates depicts a modern academic navigating the efficient apartment layout, while also directing attention beyond the sliding glass door where the exterior elevation of the neighboring apartment can be seen in the distance. The architecture and custom shelving, as well as the human figure, remain in black and white while plants, decorations, the puppy's bow, and the outside add color in a fairly restrained palette of green, blue, brown, and yellow. Due to the clever use of the outdoor scene, this interior drawing can also function as an exterior building drawing, as well.

Image: Ball State University Scheidler Apartments interior presentation drawing, 1970. Hamilton & Graham Architectural Records, Drawings + Documents Archive, Ball State University.

Ball State University Center for Historic Preservation and Indiana Landmarks release guide to historic architecture of Bartholomew County

Congratulations to the Ball State University Center for Historic Preservation and Indiana Landmarks on publication of the Bartholomew County Historic Sites and Structures Inventory. Graduate students from the College of Architecture and Planning's Historic Preservation program spent over a year making frequent visits to Bartholomew County to compile this comprehensive illustrated report of well-known landmarks as well as lesser-known structures, such as the c. 1865 Horace Solmon House in Haw Creek Township, Bridge #47 on County Road 1150 East over Clifty Creek, and the Nau House in the Forest Park neighborhood of Columbus.

The public is invited to an illustrated presentation on the inventory's findings Wednesday, December 5, 7:00 p.m. The presentation will be held at the Bartholomew County Public Library in Columbus. The 213-page report-featuring historic and contemporary photos and maps-may be purchased at the special price of $20. The price will be $25 after the event.

Greg Sekula, director of Indiana Landmarks' Southern Regional Office will present a brief program showing architectural highlights of the county as well as discoveries of overlooked gems. He will also discuss services available to assist those interested in saving and celebrating Bartholomew County's landmarks.

"This is an update of the 1980 survey that examined properties constructed prior to 1940," says Sekula. The 1980 survey identified 1,987 historic structures; the current inventory documents 3,245 properties. The 2012 survey documents properties constructed through 1969, which includes the county's large concentration of post-World War II architecture.

The survey and report were funded in part by matching grants from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (DHPA). DHPA oversees Indiana's Historic Sites and Structures Inventory.

For more information on the December 5 program, contact Julie Hughes at jhughes@bartholomewhistory.org or 812-372-3541.

Historic Muncie Students Shoot Architectural Drawings for Immersive Learning Project

Last week the Drawings + Documents Archive welcomed back film and historic preservation students in Prof. Chris Flook's Historic Muncie: Preserving Middletown's Neighborhoods Immersive Learning class. Offered for the first time last year, students created a website to chronicle their discoveries as well as a documentary film Stories and Legends: Historic Preservation in Muncie, Indiana that was just shown at this year's Heartland Film festival in Indianapolis.

The research and film project has been garnering much praise for the students' work and it has just been announced that the group will be awarded the Governor's Award for the Preservation of Historic Places, presented by the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, Indiana Division of Natural Resources. We're thrilled to see the students and faculty rewarded for their hard work and proud to be an on-campus contributer to the project.

This year's class focused their research on Beech Grove Cemetery and the Old West End neighborhood of Muncie. They spent the earlier part of the semester researching our collections of original drawings and Historic American Building Survey (HABS) drawings, and returned Friday to film the drawings and drawing tools for use in their upcoming documentary.

Both the drawings and the tools you see in the photograph, above, are from our extensive Kibele & Garrard Collection. Prominent gas-boom era architects Cuno Kibele (1866-1927) and Carl W. Garrard (1889-1981) established the firm in downtown Muncie and built many of the town's extraordinary structures, including Ball Gymnasium, Masonic Temple (now Cornerstone Center for the Arts), and Ball Memorial Hospital (now IU Hospital). The collection is rather unusual for its large amount of historic drawing implements, such as pencils, watercolor sets, technical tools, papers, eraser shields, and measuring tools dating from the early 1900s.

Image: Historic Muncie students filming in the Archives, October 26, 2012, photo by Carol Street.

The beginning of the Ball State University College of Architecture & Planning

Until the College of Architecture and Planning was established at Ball State University in 1965, Indiana students who wanted to become architects had to leave the state because none of the state schools offered an architecture program. The board of directors of the Indiana Society of Architects keenly felt this lack of educational opportunity affected their profession negatively and began planning to discuss the matter at the State Legislature in January 1961.

This article dates from October 9, 1960, shows the Indiana Society of Architects meeting at the Tavern Hotel in New Albany, Indiana, to plan their proposal. The agenda reads:

1. Establishment of a school of architecture in Indiana.
2. Revision of architect registration laws in Indiana.

Architects in attendance include Fran Schroeder, Wayne Weber, Alfred Porteous, Walter Scholer, Jr., Jim Walker, Harry Hunter, Ralph Knapp, R. J. Schultz, and Don Gibson. Fran Schroeder, from whose collection this article can be found, is shown seated, the third person from the left.

Around the College of Architecture and Planning

Anyone on campus who walks by the College of Architecture and Planning building along McKinley Avenue will likely recognize the metal CAP sign tucked in amongst the landscaping. It's located on the west side of the building, which served as the main entrance before the 1980 addition moved its main entrance to the south side.

It was built in a "Hands-on Steel" class from 1975. We recently uncovered photographs in our CAP Images Collection that were taken during its fabrication. The picture above is how it looks today, February 28, 2012, at 37 years old, and below is how it looked with its first layer of paint back in 1975--yellow!