Some Intersting UL History
There was an interesting post on Facebook recently made by Herman Mhire, local artist and former art prof at UL.
Although I had heard of the old Brown-Ayres building I had never seen a pic of it; these three give us a great idea of what it looked like. It was located on the Quad, in the approx location of the current Moody Hall.
The first pic (judging from the car is from the 1920's-30's?) is from Hebrard Blvd looking toward the Quad, and you can see the old Martin Hall to the right in the background. The second one is from 1955, per the caption. The last one is from the fire in 1972, when it burned to the ground. The building housed the art/architecture folks, who then moved to the 'new' Fletcher Hall (which is where the old BB diamond was located) in the spring of 1977....... I started in the fall of 1977 and had classes in it.
Also, below is the comment from Mr. Mhire, which I thought was very insightful:
"After the loss of Brown Ayres in 1972, and the five year odyssey of art and architecture departments occupying spaces in then vacant Stephens Library and O K Allen Dining Hall, I recall the anticipation of faculty and students who looked forward to having a new building to call home for the first time. I also recall the collective sense of disappointment with the new building - its brutal form and sharp stone impregnated skin; its inhospitable courtyard and barren, uninviting terraces; the awkwardly placed entrance to its lecture hall that allowed daylight to disturb the darkness during slide lectures every time someone entered or exited the room; the poor lighting in many of the building's studios, the absence of restrooms (and a water fountain for many years) on the third floor; the lack of adequate storage space throughout the building; the absence of a proper loading/delivery zone on East Lewis Street and an effective linked delivery path through the building; an elevator too small to meet the needs of studio classes on the building's third floor; the location of a metal work and jewelry studio that generated ear bending decibels immediately adjacent to an advertising design classroom; the installation of a parquet wood tile floor over a concrete slab as opposed to an appropriate wood floor that would respond to the weight of dancers' bodies in a dance studio; the absence of a glass roof over the inner courtyard that left terrazzo walkways and wood railings exposed to the elements; shared open classrooms that often resulted in two basic design classes meeting simultaneously generating disTurbinece for one class by unsupervised students in an adjacent class and competing faculty lectures; and a realization that the warmth, historical resonance and patina of Brown Ayres Hall and the old Engineering Lab Buildings at the back of the campus had been replaced by a cold, inhospitable, faux office building that neither encouraged creativity nor welcomed the "mess" associated with studio work. It is a testament to the creativity and perseverance of faculty and students who continued to produce outstanding work in a less than sympathetic environment. Anticipation now runs rampant among current and former students and faculty regarding the renovated and expanded Joel L. Fletcher Hall, eager for many of its problems to be resolved. Let 2015 bring good news and a better future for faculty and students of UL Lafayette's College of the Arts!."
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Originally Posted by ulXrunner
