Students' Building (Vassar College)
| Students' Building | |
|---|---|
The Students' Building in 2014
|
|
| Alternative names | All Campus Dining Center, ACDC, Deece |
| General information | |
| Type | Student space, dining hall |
| Architectural style | Southern colonial revival |
| Location | Poughkeepsie, New York |
| Coordinates | 41°41′25″N 73°53′44″W / 41.690251°N 73.895491°WCoordinates: 41°41′25″N 73°53′44″W / 41.690251°N 73.895491°W |
| Current tenants | Vassar College |
| Groundbreaking | September 25, 1912 |
| Completed | 1913 |
| Renovated | 1973, 2003 |
| Renovation cost |
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| Owner | Vassar College |
| Technical details | |
| Material | Brick |
| Floor count | 3 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Joseph Herenden Clark |
| Architecture firm | McKim, Mead & White |
| Main contractor | Bishop and Company |
| Renovating team | |
| Renovating firm | |
The Students' Building on the campus of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S., houses the school's All Campus Dining Center (ACDC or Deece) as well as additional multifunctional student space on its second floor. Designed by Joseph Herenden Clark of McKim, Mead & White and built in 1913, the structure originally housed a variety of different student organizations and school functions. In 1973, it was converted into a campuswide dining hall; it underwent a second renovation in 2003 that returned multipurpose student functionalities to its upper floors.
James Monroe Taylor, fourth president of Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, wrote in 1901 of a dearth of a dedicated social space on campus "not devoted to college work but to college recreation." He envisioned a building akin to Harvard's University Club and the University of Pennsylvania's Houston Club; with a swelling student body size and rapid decentralization of the campus over the course of the first decade of the 1900s, the need for such a structure become even more crucial.
The Students' Building was erected in 1913 after its cornerstone was laid on September 25, 1912. Funding for its construction came from an anonymous donor who sought to provide for the "exclusive needs and interests of student organizations" with the gift and who specified the name Students' Building for the structure. Mary Babbott Ladd of the Vassar class of 1908 was later identified as that donor.
Until World War II, dining at Vassar was an elegant affair with table linens and serving maids, but after the war was over, these features were never brought back to student life. In 1973, the All Campus Dining Center, also called the ACDC or the Deece, opened within the building, serving as a replacement to individual dining rooms in each of the college's dormitories. The old system had proved too costly and overcrowded, necessitating the ACDC's creation. The $3.5 million renovation was conducted by Walker O. Cain and Associates, with over $1 million of the funds coming from friends and family of Babbott Ladd. An $11 million renovation in 2003 was designed by Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc. Another project, to renovate the kitchen of the Dining Center and adjust the locations of the building's bathrooms, is underway as of 2016. The changes, undertaken by LTL Architects, total $8–9 million.
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