Strong Hall (Lawrence, Kansas)

After 1900, rising enrollments overwhelmed the Old Fraser Hall, known at the time as the "university building," necessitating the construction of a new administration and academic center. Chancellor Frank H. Strong (1902–1920) began requesting financing from the Kansas Legislature for the new structure. Montrose Pallen McArdle, a St. Louis architectural company, was chosen to design the building that Strong and the regents anticipated would be "the center of the university architecture as well as the university life."[5]

Under the advisement of State Architect John Stanton, art professor William A. Griffith, and College Dean Olin Templin, McArdle designed a $500,000 classical Renaissance building that included pillars, a rotunda, an art gallery, and a classical museum. The Kansas Legislature objected to the scope and cost, and the designs were curtailed, while remnants of the original design vision remain; the building was ultimately finished in a Classical Revival style.[5]