Year Built: 1971

Purpose: Academic/ Theatre Building

 

In the past the drama and art departments were housed in The Little Theater, with seating for 360. It was grafted to the west side of the Classroom Annex. Two more pre-fab, wood-frame structures were erected together to become the art and music wings of the “Art Barn.” In 1971 students were able to vacate both the Art Barn and the Little Theater when the Harold and Ruth Schaefer Fine Arts Center was completed. The project costed $3.3 million dollars and was under construction for three years. The building was designed by Hammel, Green and Abrahamson. It was built of Swedish-style yellow brick and furnished in honey blonde wood. When the Fine Arts Center was almost completed, there was a 4 week carpenter strike. Later, the structure had to be boarded up and redone because of energy loss from the cold NW winds in the winter. The Fine Arts Center fit very well into the hilltop environment and goes harmoniously with the older structures nearby.  The center comprised two wings, one housing the Jussi Björling Recital Hall, two theater spaces—the Evan and Evelyn Anderson Theatre and a smaller, experimental stage—and classroom, office, and practice space for the music department and the speech and theatre department (now two separate departments: communication studies and theatre and dance); and the other housing the art department, an exhibition gallery, and a studio for the College’s new sculptor-in-residence, 1952 graduate Paul Granlund, many of whose works now dot the campus.