F.W. Olin Hall

F.W. Olin Hall is a building on the University of Denver campus. The predecessor to F.W. Olin Hall at the University of Denver was Science Hall. Science Hall was built in 1912 and the first building at the university to be completely dedicated to science. After 84 years of service, Science Hall was demolished in 1996 and replaced with F.W. Olin Hall.

F.W. Olin hall was built in 1997 because of an increased enrollment in chemistry and biology students. Science hall is not completely forgotten though, as the cornerstone is still housed in Olin Hall.

The University of Denver lacked the resources to construct a new building, but Chancellor Daniel Ritchie found a way to raise the funds. The F.W. Olin foundation, in addition to smaller donations, provided the money to build F.W. Olin Hall. The F.W. Olin Foundation

The majority of the money used to build and equip F.W. Olin Hall at University of Denver came from the F.W. Olin Foundation, which was established by Franklin W. Olin in 1938.

The organization has awarded 57 different schools 300 million dollars in grants to build 72 buildings. The buildings constructed with money from the foundation are not strictly science buildings. Some are business schools, libraries or arts and humanities buildings.

Other universities that have buildings as a result of the F.W. Olin Foundation are Johns Hopkins University, Colgate, Marquette, Tufts, and the University of San Diego, amongst many others.

In 2000, the board of the F.W. Olin Foundation began to phase out the organization. The F.W. Olin Foundation closed, and is no longer donating.

G. Cabell “Cab” Childress IV is responsible for designing numerous buildings on the University of Denver’s Campus. Daniel Ritchie, who became DU’s chancellor in 1989, named Childress the university architect in 1994, which he held until he retired in 1999. Childress was, however, consulting with the university as the school’s architect emeritus until he died on November 17, 2006.

The American Institute of Architects awarded him Denver Architect of the Year and Colorado Architect of the Year in 2003.

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