Originally built in 1960 as SUNY Oneonta’s campus library, Alumni Hall was converted into a campus office building in the mid-1970s. Since that time, the three-story, 48,000-sf building only had minor renovations. The recent rehabilitation of Alumni hall involved a complete building renovation to house the School of Economics and Business and the college’s Advancement and Alumni offices.

The design showcases learning on display, with classrooms, small-group study rooms, and innovation center, and a Bloomberg trading room all positioned along a center core. Glass partitions allow those who walk through the building – including students, faculty, alumni, and donors – to see the wide variety of teaching and collaboration opportunity used on campus. Thoughtful redesign of both building entries harmonize with the existing architectural language of the facility.

The building core also visually links access from the perimeter loop road to the residential quad on the other side of the building. Strategic exterior improvements highlight building entrances and create a recognizable and attractive terminus to the campus’s academic spine.

A gut renovation, the project included all new M/E/P/FP and AV/data/security systems, along with new electrical switchgear, emergency generator, elevator, roof, and ADA improvements. Alumni Hall uses geothermal energy (a renewable energy source that uses the earth’s ambient thermal energy as a source of heat), an entirely different technology than the rest of campus. Electrical power is only used for heat pump operation and for other equipment required to move heat into and out of the building, rather than for generation. The geothermal field required the drilling of an array of 36 wells, 499 feet deep, located under the current parking lot between Alumni and Tobey Halls. The renovation of Alumni Hall is pursuing a Platinum LEED ID+C certification.

Design: Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation
Architect of Record: Daniel J. Wilson, AIA
Contractor: Fahs Contracting Group
Photography: David Sundberg