Bissell Hall to Be Thayer School
Work has alread begun upon the remodelling of Bissell Hall, the old gymnasium, for use of the Thayer School of Civil Engineering. The quarters on the eastern side of the village, which the school has occupied since 1892, were long since outgrown; the erection of the new gymnasium makes available a building of excellent construction, which when reconstructed will provide the Thayer School with three times the space at present available to it.
The plans of remodelling call for the complete gutting of Bissell Hall and the refitting with steel and cement interior construction. Three floors and a roomy basement are called for, where height will be gained by elevating the level of the first floor by about one foot. This basement will be devoted exclusively to laboratory purposes and will contain apparatus for experiments in hydraulics, electricity, and for tests of cement construction. A small shop will likewise be provided.
On the first floor will be located the office of the Director, together with an instrument room, recitation room, offices, coat room, and a large laboratory. The second floor will have a library, pamphlet and reading room, museum for collections of materials, a senior room, large enough for the holding of assemblies, and an office for Professor Holden. This floor will be on the level of the former drill hall and will be lighted by the cutting of additional windows. The third floor will be on the level of the former gymnasium gallery and will be lighted in part by existing windows, in part by a skylight in the roof. It will be -given over mainly to drawing rooms for first and second year men, to rooms for blue printing and photography, and to a mineralogical museum. There will likewise be quarters for the librarian, who will live in the building.
Plans and specifications for the work of alteration have been drawn by the Thayer School students who have had various phases of the problem to solve byway of a thesis. The steel work, which has been figured and approved, will be supplied by the American Bridge Company.
Bissell Hall was erected in 1867 with funds furnished by George H. Bissell of the class of 1845. The lines and proportions of the building are excellent. Outgrown and outworn as a gymnasium, as a school.of civil engineering it will serve to do real honor to the name of its founder for many years to come.
