John T. Condon Hall is an academic building of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. The building formerly housed the UW School of Law. The hall was named after John T. Condon, the first dean of the School of Law.
History
In 1973 the Philadelphia architectural firm Mitchell/Giurgola was selected to design the building with Joyce / Copeland / Vaughan / Nordfors Architects serving as associate architects. In 1975, the University of Washington School of Law moved from the former Condon Hall, which was renamed Gowen Hall. At the time, the new facility afforded much more space to the School.
The university planned for Condon to house classrooms, a moot court, seminar spaces, and a main reading room. The project's first phase had of space. The budget for general construction was $3,814,900. The budget for furnishings was $250,000. The first phase included a law library and classroom space for 500 students. The university planned to construct a second phase, which would have increased the size of the building to . The second phase was supposed to have space for 50 post-graduate students and an addition to the law library that would double its size.
In 1982 an economic recession occurred, forcing the university to cancel its plans. The law school gradually increased in size, and Condon became too small for the law school. Various departments of the law school were forced to occupy other buildings.
The Washington State Legislature, on two occasions, failed to provide the funds to expand the building. At a later point the university decided that it could build a new administrative services building and then store extra administrative services that were previously spread across the university campus at Condon Hall. The university would use the cost savings to allow it to build a new law school. For a period of over one decade, officials from the law school advocated for a replacement for the Condon building.
In 2003 the UW School of Law moved out of Condon into William H. Gates Hall. The university planned to use Condon as "surge space" after the law school moved out. That means that departments or offices would be temporarily located at Condon while their permanent facilities underwent renovation. Colleen Pike, the UW principal higher education facilities planner, said that the UW campus had no other "surge space" facilities.
Beginning in 2006, on a temporary basis, Condon began to house the UW College of Built Environments Department of Architecture, the Department of Applied Mathematics, and the UW College of Engineering Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics. From around 2007 to around 2009, the university used it as surge space and, while Savery Hall was refurbished, several humanities departments were housed at Condon.
Location
Condon Hall is located on Campus Parkway, four blocks away from the UW main campus. "The lack of integration between it [the building] and the rest of campus impeded collaboration efforts" was noted as one of the reasons for moving out by Penny Hazelton, a professor and an associate dean for library and computing services of the current UW School of Law Gallagher Law Library, and Jonathan Franklin, the associate law librarian."
Architecture
Condon Hall, a poured-in-place concrete and glass building, has of space. It was built in the Brutalist architectural style, for which the architectural firm Mitchell/Giurgola was known. Along with the newly built dormitory buildings nearby, the building stood out in the surrounding lower rise neighborhood.
Early on, the building received several awards. However, controversies emerged in the local press some years later. Marsha King of the Seattle Times said in 1996 that Condon was "an ugly, badly designed, 20-year-old structure. With its narrow halls, windowless classrooms and sparse public spaces, the exposed concrete building is only slightly more appealing than the county jail." Eric Feigenbaum of The Daily of the University of Washington wrote "The only thing everyone, inside and outside the University, agrees on is that Condon Hall was a poor law school building from the moment it opened." Several law school deans complained about the building's design. In 1996 William P. Gerberding, the University of Washington President Emeritus, recalled that when he arrived to UW in 1979, he heard many complaints about Condon. In 1996 Ronald Hjorth, the Dean Emeritus of the University of Washington School of Law, said that Condon was "a miserable structure" and that "[t]he future of this law school is not bright, if we stay in this building."