After four years, the Tulane University School of Architecture moved into the newly renovated and expanded Richardson Memorial Hall and out of the tents in front of Newcomb Hall.

“That pairing of new and old is the most exciting part [of Richardson reopening], and I’ve seen that through watching students explore the space,” Naomi Englar, the director of marketing and communications for the School of Architecture, said. “They’re just so interested and want to learn more about the building and the addition and that, to me, embodies our school.” 

Since the fall of 2021, the 45,000-square-foot building has been under its first major renovation since its construction in 1908. Plans to renovate Richardson Memorial Hall first came to light in 2014 due to issues of safety and the usefulness of the building. 

“As designers, it’s important to be able to adapt, to reuse and repurpose existing buildings, rather than making something new all the time,” director of fabrication Nick LiCausi said. “As architects, everything has been made, we’re not making anything new; we are just innovating on what’s been done before.”

The first building on campus

Richardson Memorial Hall was first used as the Tulane School of Medicine until 1968, when it was given to the School of Architecture, and the medical school moved to its current Downtown campus. The building used to have operation rooms, laboratories and classrooms for students to observe autopsies and a manual elevator designed to hoist cadavers to upper floors.

“[The building] is the historic anchor of campus,” LiCausi said. “When Tulane moved to this area of New Orleans, Gibson Hall and Dinwiddie and Richardson Memorial were the first buildings that were built. They have a historic importance.”

In 1986, a large fire destroyed the top floors of the building where students would observe operations on cadavers in a tall, amphitheater-style classroom. Since that repair, only minor renovations have occurred.

The building fuses the past and the present. Attached to the back, a new 15,000 square foot addition features new classrooms, offices and bathrooms, incorporating the previous limestone brick façade into the pristine modern interior. Old columns, moldings, archways and floors remain present, serving as a reminder of Richardson’s historic past.

“They did selective deconstruction because we had to take great care due to the historic nature of the building,” Englar said. “They did a lot of work to repair and restore a lot of historic elements. The windows were taken out, restored and installed back in and because these are historic windows, and that’s a really important aspect of historic preservation.”

New beginning

The reopening of Richardson Memorial Hall also serves as a space for students of all programs in the School of Architecture, including design, real estate development, landscape architecture and historic preservation.

“It’s symbolic of our school in that we are entering a new era of the school as well,” Englar said. “Since we moved out, we’ve expanded our academic offerings, and while architecture remains a core program, we have expanded beyond the lens of architecture.”

The first floor of the building holds the fabrication lab, including large-scale printers, 3D printers, laser cutters and a woodshop. While Richardson was under construction, this equipment was spread out in various buildings around campus.

“Now everything is on one floor, instead of running around in the rain with all of our materials all around campus,” junior architecture student Syd Van Slyke said.

Architecture students were incorporated in the renovation process and observed the progression of the building process. 

“Throughout the renovation, we had tours of the building every month, so it was really cool to see the building through the various stages of construction and bring students through so it was part of their education,” LiCausi said. “It’s awesome to check back in with those students that came on these tours two years ago and be like, ‘I can’t believe that the building looks like this.’”

The renovation was run by Trapolin Peer Architects, a New Oreans based architecture firm. The goal was to transform Richardson Memorial Hall into a “dynamic, adaptable and inspiring space that emphasizes its role as a teaching tool for students,” according to their website.

“The building looks bright,” Englar said. “The façade is just beautiful. Although it’s a historic building, it looks new. It just looks clean. They repaired so much of the historical architecture of the façade … It’s amazing.”

Temporary tents to be removed from Newcomb Quad

The Newcomb Quad Pavilions, known as the architecture tents amongst students, were originally designed as additional classroom space for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. When Tulane stopped using them as social distance regulations were lifted, the architecture school moved into the tents while the building underwent construction.

“We could’ve either moved into those pavilions, or we would’ve been spread out across the campus and became a disjointed school, and the way our school is, it’s a very tight knit community,” Englar said. “Our students spend a lot of time together in the studio. They collaborate closely with faculty … it was a great opportunity for us to use those pavilions.”

The temporary pavilions were the prime location for architecture and design students and included spaces for studio work, meeting spaces and a fabrication space for 3D printing. 

“Compared to being in the tents, it is a major upgrade,” LiCausi said. “We didn’t have any running water in the tents, there were issues with electrical and air conditioning … They were only supposed to be up for six months, so it’s pretty wild that they were able to stay up for four and a half years.”

Despite rumors of the pavilions being converted to house other departments, they will be removed from Newcomb Quad.

“It feels like my tuition is actually going somewhere, which is cool,” Van Slyke said. “And we’re architecture, so it’s quite ironic when it’s in a temporary pavilion, whereas [Richardson] is really beautiful. I want people to come and look and interact with us, and be proud of it.”