I never resided in Luckett Hall, as it was a male dormitory, but I did play a few games of Risk into the early morning hours there. God, I couldn't stand that game. The company was good though. Anyway, my mom was sent this e-mail (I didn't receive it for some reason):

"In my role as President of Austin College, I face many decisions that are very difficult, but over the past two years I have been dealing with one of the most difficult: the future of Luckett Hall. As many of you know, in August 2002 we discovered a major problem with black mold in the building. There were 123 students scheduled to live in the building that fall; therefore, we immediately tried to reclaim the building through the traditional process. We quickly discovered the black mold was rampant and that it would necessitate the removal of the drywall throughout the building, as well as ceilings and mechanical systems. With this discovery, we began the process of reviewing the future of Luckett Hall, with the goal of retaining the building and converting it to another use.

"We realized that the traditional residence hall, such as Luckett, was no longer attractive to students. A double-loaded corridor with gang bathrooms at the end of the corridor was “quaint” but not popular for today’s students. This meant that if we were to renovate the building for residence hall use, it would need to be converted to a suite style of living. In 2003, we built the apartment-style residential facility unofficially known as ‘Roo Suites in order to fill the void left by Luckett. Four buildings were built with a total of 152 beds and with each suite having four bedrooms and two baths and housing four students, The total cost of constructing the ’Roo Suites was $4.5 million. In our analysis of Luckett Hall, the estimated construction costs to create comparable suites for 60 students was over$6.5 million.

"With that in mind, we asked the architects to determine whether Luckett Hall could be remodeled for academic space. Since we already have plans in place for a new science facility and will eventually have additional general classroom space made available in the Moody Science Center and Thompson Hall once the sciences eventually relocate to the new facility, the most logical use would be for music and art. It was our hope that a major renovation project involving Luckett could result in the creation of much needed contemporary space for these departments. Ultimately, it was discovered this was impossible, as the roof structure of Luckett could not be changed in order to create adequate ceiling space for rehearsal rooms, recital halls, and studios. To change the roof structure, which is badly deteriorated and must be removed, would alter the weight distribution on the exterior walls, and the engineers and architects concluded that the exterior walls could not bear such ! weight.

We then turned to the idea of reclaiming Luckett Hall for a classroom-office building. The cost estimate to do this was nearly $6 million."

"With input from the architects and engineers , I made a recommendation to the Board of Trustees at the June 5, 2004, Board meeting that we remove Luckett Hall from the campus. The Board of Trustees unanimously approved this recommendation."

"In essence, the decision was based upon the following factors:

1. The cost of restoration is considerably greater than new construction.
2. The structural integrity of the concrete walls is questionable, as one projects the long-term use of the building.
3. The interior wood structure would have to be completely replaced, since it has greatly deteriorated and has been weakened by previous renovation efforts.
4. The expenditure of funds at the college for the renovation of Luckett Hall would have to fall well behind the construction of a new science building, new art and music facilities, and the adaptation of Moody and Thompson Halls to classroom and office space when the science building is complete. Serving today’s students with contemporary facilities is critical to the future of the college.
5. The ability to raise money for the project is very limited."

I have had to quote the letter, because it goes into explicit detail about what all is wrong with the construction. Someone from my church was at school in the 30s and remembers when some of the armed forces were living on campus and they used Luckett Hall. This building is pretty much the oldest one I know of still on campus, so it saddens me that they are taking it down. But that's what college is all about - progress and change.


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