Faner Hall II

Faner Hall II

By: Adulsak "Otto" Chanyakorn

            When Faner Hall appeared to the public eyes, professors and students had given it a few nicknames, such as “the aircraft carrier” and “the concrete zeppelin.” Faner Hall finished a year behind schedule, which led to other complaints by professors and students like the confusing building layout, leaking pipes, and temperature control problems. Most of all, people did not like the appearance of Faner Hall with exposed concrete. It did not merge with other buildings on campus, which were mostly constructed with the vibrant red and brown bricks for their exterior appearance. However, the complaining did not lead to demolition of the building. Instead, Faner Hall led to in-depth discussions and considerations for future buildings on campus. As we see, all the buildings that have been built currently must contain the harmonious characteristics of the campus by using bricks on their exteriors.

While it is good to be concerned and to care about the unity of campus, nevertheless, it doesn’t mean we have to imitate the form of existing buildings around the campus and apply it to new buildings. Those buildings were built around the nineteenth century when the constraints of building technology were different. Keeping the same form and material doesn’t mean that we are successfully unifying our campus as a whole. In contrast, we are now living in a different context than the past. The ways we use our buildings have changed, so understanding users and context is significant for designing public spaces on campus.

              Despite the exterior appearance of Faner Hall, it is one of the most active buildings on our campus. Especially, the ground level of Faner Hall allows students to walk through it from Morris Library to their dormitories.  On rainy or snowy days, students can walk underneath Faner from the northern side to the student center without getting wet. Furthermore, a lot of students use the ground level of Faner Hall as a social place, a space used for meeting friends, promoting their clubs, selling things for charity and so on. Also the internal courtyards of Faner Hall allows natural light into some rooms on the second, third and forth floors which reduces the use of artificial light in the daytime. In my opinion, Faner Hall is one of the more successful buildings on SIU’s campus. The designer understood user behavior and the context and he analyzed and synthesized them to create proper spaces, especially on the ground level. Hence, the building space interacts with its users successfully. I agree with the university’s decision to demolish the ramp on the eastern side of the building because it opens up the pedestrian traffic flow from the northern and southern sides very well.

           Finally, Faner Hall is a good case study for our campus. There are a lot of good examples that we can learn from it which will help us be aware and carefully select architects who will design our future buildings. I believe all of us as students, staff, and professors love SIU’s campus, and I also believe we would like to see our campus be a beautiful place to live and learn for us and for the next generation as well.

References:

Jordan, M. (2010). Faner Hall: Faux pas and follower? Legacy, 10 (1), 37-48.