Brookings Hall
Encyclopedia
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
. The building, first named "University Hall", was built between 1900 and 1902 and served as the administrative center for the 1904 World's Fair. The first cornerstone was laid on November 3, 1900.
In 1899, after holding a national design competition, Washington University's administrators selected the Philadelphia firm Cope & Stewardson
Cope & Stewardson
Cope & Stewardson was an architecture firm best known for its academic building and campus designs. The firm is often regarded as a Master of the Collegiate Gothic style. Walter Cope and John Stewardson established the firm in 1885, and were later joined by Emlyn Stewardson in 1887...
(represented by James P. Jamieson
Jamieson and Spearl
Jamieson and Spearl was a St. Louis, Missouri architectural firm that designed most of the buildings built at Washington University at St. Louis and the University of Missouri between 1912 and 1950.-Biography:...
) to design the building as the centerpiece of an extensive new campus master plan. The general contractor was Bright Construction Company. Inspiration for the design most likely came from the Great Gates of Trinity and St. John's colleges at Cambridge University in England, where Cope & Stewardson are known to have visited. Additionally, the building draws more recent inspiration from Blair Hall of Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, which was designed by the same firm and built in 1897. Since 1905, the building has served as Washington University's administrative center. Initially known as University Hall, the building was renamed Brookings Hall on June 12, 1928, in honor of board president Robert S. Brookings
Robert S. Brookings
Robert Somers Brookings was an American businessman and philanthropist, known for his involvement with Washington University in St. Louis and his founding of the Brookings Institution.-Biography:Brookings grew up on the Little Elk Creek in Cecil County, near Baltimore, Maryland...
.
There are numerous inscriptions on the building; most prominent is the inscription above the clock on the Western side which reads Cedunt Horae, Opera Manent (The hours go by, the works remain). The inscription on the east facade reads Discere Si Cupias Intra: Salvere Iubemus (If you wish to learn, enter: we welcome you).
Alumnus Steve Fossett
Steve Fossett
James Stephen Fossett was an American commodities trader, businessman, and adventurer. Fossett is the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon...
used Brookings Hall as a mission control center for two of his attempts at circumnavigating the globe
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
in a balloon, including his sixth and ultimately successful attempt in the Spirit of Freedom in 2002.
Currently, South Brookings houses the Admissions Office and the administrative offices for the College of Arts and Sciences. North Brookings houses the Office of Student Financial Services, the Office of the Chancellor, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.