Building Memories
Close Hall, 1924 to 1940
It was the best time of my life! Times were tough back then, but Close was always a comfortable safe haven. I will always remember the beginning of my great adventure in journalism.
I remember my grandfather talking about the bad plumbing in the restrooms.
East Hall 1940 - 1952
Communications Center, 1953 to 1997
Ancient, dumb computer terminals. (Staff member in 1985.)
Walking up the hill to The Mill after Tuesday Ph.D. seminar.
[Three from Dave Dierks]
I first met Phil Adler when I was stringing for the Quad City paper. Phil introduced himself and said he always liked to meet his employees. I was really impressed by that and have always remembered how Phil made even this little old, lowly campus stringer, feel like a big-time reporter.
I remember the physical condition of the Communications Center because I always had the feeling that it was a building that was never completed. The electrical conduit was still exposed, the plumbing looked like something out of a third world country, and the elevator shaft went to a non-existent fourth floor. The air handling system (the cool air system was handled by opening a window) never worked, or if it did it was like a sauna.
It was mandatory to work on The Daily Iowan for at least two semesters. That was great fun and eventually that little career in writing on the city police beat with Sarah Holm (now Sarah de Tagyos) led me to a couple of stringer jobs with The Quad City Times-Democrat (now the Quad City Times), The Des Moines Register, and ABC News. Working with Sarah was great fun. She could open any and every door at both the Iowa City police station and the Johnson County Sheriff's Department. We knew a lot of the officers by name (or at least Sarah did). If it were left up to me, I would never get the story. They all LOVED Sarah. I was just that "other guy" that was always tagging along.
The building was nice when it was new. My memories tie to The Daily Iowan where I spent countless hours, as did most DI workers then and today. Faculty and administration include Les Moeller, John Bremner, John Harrison, Ed Bassett, and more. The learning process involved the combination of faculty and DI work. The building was the setting, but the people brought the education. [Signed: Phil Currie, class of 1962.]
The terrific smell of the lunches that international grad students brought to eat while they worked in Room 108.
Scavenging for dividers, lamps, desks, and chairs for grad student space in 108.
Working at The Daily Iowan and taking cigarette breaks outside next to the dumpster in the alley. Also, parking in the lot behind the building. You could place a soda can on the concrete in a certain spot in order to open the gate.
I was the only person in the DI newsroom (and in the entire building) over winter break when the fire alarm went off. So, I followed my first instinct and grabbed a camera and went outside to take pictures. Smoke was coming out of the windows on the second floor. It turned out to be only a motor that had burned, but I caught it all with my camera.
I have slept many an hour on the darkroom couch during all-night printing sessions for Documentary Photo. There's a saying: "If you haven't slept in the building, you aren't working hard enough."
I spent a lot of late nights at the Communications Center when I worked at the DI. Many times I ran downstairs to open the locked door for a fellow reporter who was throwing rocks at the window.
The "Day the Music Died." Interviewing students after Buddy Holly's plane
crashed.
Seashore Hall, 1997 to present
also 1940 to 1952 when the building was named East Hall
Read an historical account of Seashore Hall in the Spring, 2002 issue of the Iowa Journalist.
I remember a student who spent all semester in Online Journalism with a rolled up newspaper in his hand, waiting to swat the wasps that lived in the W412 lab overhead projector and regularly buzzed the room.
Bats in the basement ITC, the slowest elevator I've ever been in, the doors at the end of the hallways that just end, the mysterious staircases that lead to nowhere. It's always so hot on the 4th floor, but if you turn on the AC you can't hear anything.
Seashore is a rundown piece of crap!
UI vacates aging southwest wing of Seashore Hall as precaution
Why is it 95 degrees in the 4th floor computer lab?
Managing to survive the heat in the majority of the classrooms in Seashore Hall.
Journalism Writing and Reporting with John Erickson -- it was summer, it was hot, and we had no idea what we were doing.
Wasps dive-bombing me in my office. Hearing about a faculty member's ceiling caving in. Listening to the wind whistling through the windows in winter. The marvelous stories about the doors being wide enough for gurneys. Gutters in the basement ceilings because they used to be the morgue. About patients expiring in the slowest elevator on Earth. The wonderful location, with Takanami across the street and The Cottage so close. The big offices. That incredible old-building feel. I'll miss it all.
I'll always remember the wasps that flew down on my students in Room 411, making them shriek as they crawled under their desks. I'll also remember the way the guest speaker looked. Also, the oppressive heat. God, I'll miss that classroom.
I had a gorgeous corner office with wasps every spring. A palace compared to the Communications Center.
The slowest elevator of all time.
I remember waiting for the one, very slow elevator.
I'll always remember the elevator in Seashore and hoping that it wouldn't decide to give out when I was riding in it.
I remember being late for an advising appointment on the 6th floor and sprinting up the stairs. By the time I got to the 6th floor I was absolutely breathless. The elevators never seem to come when you want them to.
Trying to decide if I should wait for the elevator or run up the staircase to the 6th floor.
Thinking I should get some exercise, I always passed up the elevator [it was too damn slow anyway] and took the stairs to the 6th floor. By the time I got to the top, I'd be sweaty and out of breath. Going up the stairs too quickly in Seashore made me feel like I had the bends.
The Design Lab on the 4th floor of Seashore Hall was my home away from home last semester (Fall 2003). I had many frustrating moments, but Dominic (the lab monitor) always lightened the mood with his jokes.
Once during my senior year, I thought I would get out of the cold early and slip into Seashore through the Psychology entrance. After four years of being in Seashore I was lost and wandering around trying to find my way back to the J-School's part of the building. Some of those hallways are creepy! I'll never forget the good ol' 6th floor.
I avoided Seashore this semester (Spring 2004), but it was affectionate avoidance.
Up the stairs, down the stairs -- no matter what you needed.
HOT!
One of my favorite memories is Professor Bennett's Journalistic Writing and Reporting class. He used to always point at me and say, "Look whose got a story in the DI today! Big reporter!" No teacher made me blush more than him! Then after class he'd pull me aside and say, "Now this is what you need to improve on."
I remember the time the Asian beetles (ladybugs) attacked me in the stairwell while I was hanging SPJ signs.
I remember all the research I did on the building for the Iowa Journalist. Although the new building will be great, Seashore Hall (as one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings on campus) will always have a special place in my memories.
Learning that Seashore Hall was once the UI Hospital and wondering where the surgeries were performed.
Send us your memories of life in Close Hall, East Hall, Communications Center and Seashore Hall