The University of Delaware Memorial Hall
The University of Delaware commissioned a complete renovation of this landmark building in order to consolidate the English Department under one roof, provide additional modern classrooms and lecture halls and upgrade building services for state-of-the-art instructional technologies. Additionally, the University wished to renew the original design intent of the historic building by restoring it as a memorial in honor of those Delawareans who sacrificed their lives in World War I.
Under the University’s stipulation, the renovation was accomplished without expanding the overall footprint of the prominent building at the end of the mall on the old campus. This limitation, in addition to requirements imposed by the historic nature of the building, forced the adaptive reuse of underutilized spaces and the horizontal and vertical reconfiguration of spaces deriving from the straightforward alignment with the original structure.
Thornton Tomasetti addressed structural challenges which included the design of extensive underpinning and shoring to permit lowering of the basement floor, the design of infill framing for the conversion of two existing courtyards, the evaluation of existing framing to support additional dead loads from “restored” floor finishes and the design of shallow, heavily loaded lintels to facilitate the routing of new building services.
Project Stats
Location: Newark, Delaware
Owner: The University of Delaware
Architect: Anderson Brown Higley Associates Wilmington, Delaware
Completion Date: 1999
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