Rockwell Hall
Building Success since 1939
Quick Facts
Year Built
1939
Originally received funding in 1937 but was unable to complete construction until 1939 because of the difficulties caused by a flood in 1938
Original Purpose
All Female Dorm Hall
Rockwell hall was originally built to serve as a women’s dorm hall and could house 116 people. Later some basement rooms were remodeled so the building had a new capacity of 142 residents.
New Purpose
College of Business
Today, Rockwell Hall serves as the college of business, which ranks 12th in the country for the best business schools. This building has the notable new extension of Rockwell West, providing for the expanding student population
Location
501 W Laurel St.
Architect
Architect
Earl C. Morris
Builder
Builder
Woehler & Force Construction Company
Historical Overview
Rockwell hall is named after Aileen Miller Rockwell. Aileen is the late wife of Robert Fay Rockwell, who was a member of the State Board of Agriculture and donated 20,000 dollars to the construction of Rockwell. This donation is equivalent to 459,450 dollars today. Rockwell hall was originally built to serve as a women’s dorm hall it only cost $270-$324 per school year to live there and weekly laundry service was included in this fee.
Rockwell was first granted funding to start construction in 1937 but in 1938 there was a flood that impacted the land where Rockwell was supposed to be built leaving over three feet of standing water. This caused them to choose the location that it currently stands. The original plan was to build Rockwell between the TILT building (the school library at the time) and Ammons Hall. This is significant because if there hadn’t been a flood that forced the location change Rockwell would have been heavily impacted by the Spring Creek Flood of 1997. Along with this Michael Barber Architecture Professional Corporation of Denver was hired to design and build the new horseshoe structure on Rockwell. Construction was completed in the summer of 1997 just shortly before the flood hit.
Building Timeline
Architecture Features
Modernism Design
Earl C. Morris, of Frank Frewen and Earl C. Morris was the architect hired to complete the Rockwell project. He employed the modernism style of the time keeping the building simple yet functional.
Location
Rockwell is located on the extreme Northeast edge of campus. This region is where most of the earlier buildings were constructed.
Brick Construction
Rockwell is built with similar buff-colored brick that is seen in many other notable buildings on campus. Along with this the building features a terracotta roof.
Notable Features:
U- Shape Design
The architects chose a U-shape design for the dorm hall to allow natural lighting into every room. This also comes with a view of Long’s peak and the Rockies foothills.
Half-Levels
The addition of the Horseshoe structure complicated the interior of Rockwell, making it appear to have extra levels or half levels that can only be reached from certain points of the building.
Then and Now
Historical View
Rockwell shortly after it was built in 1939, we can see all the windows of the dorm rooms created for the growing population of female students. CSU has been committed to educating women alongside men since it was established.
Modern View
Today with the Rockwell serves as the college of business at CSU. Through the years there have been many additions such as the horseshoe attached to the original building and the new Rockwell West building. CSU has put in a lot of effort to reconfiguring Rockwell to account for the needs of its students.
Historical Significance
World War Two brought around a new era of architecture where the tall columns and details of classical revivalism were ignored. 1939, the year Rockwell was built, was a significant time, this was the tail end of the great depression and the start of the Second World War.
This is reflected in the architecture of the time, across America styles such as brutalism which features raw materials showing how the building was constructed; it is common for brutalist buildings to be largely made of concert. Next, modernism was gaining popularity relying on clean lines, simple shapes, and open spaces. And finally, minimal traditional which was commonly used in the construction of new homes, known for its simplistic unadorned design.
These styles were popular because there was no access to funding for non-functional features in new buildings. The original design of Rockwell Hall shows the use of modernism of the time with a very simple design utilizing basic rectangular sections to form the U-shaped building.