The Foellinger Auditorium, located at 709 S. Mathews Avenue in Urbana, Illinois on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is a concert hall and the university's largest lecture hall. It is the southernmost building on the main quad. Its size and its dome make it one of the university’s most recognizable buildings. The building was completed in 1907 and was designed by Clarence H. Blackall, a noted theatre designer, in the Beaux-Arts style. The building is essentially a circle with a 120-foot diameter covering 17,000 square feet, with a large vestibule on the north side, and 396 lights in its copper dome.
Originally dedicated to the composer Edward MacDowell, the building was rededicated on April 26, 1985 in honor of Helene Foellinger, whose gift to the university enabled the facility to undergo a major renovation.
History
The idea for an Auditorium began in 1905 with the university's president, Edmund Janes James, who wanted to build a "noble monument" dedicated to the art of music. He wrote: "I am interested in having this the greatest hall of the kind in the Mississippi Valley". The university's trustees chose noted theatre designer and UI alumnus (Class of 1877) Clarence H. Blackall – who was responsible for the Wilbur and Colonial Theatres in Boston, among many others – and a site was chosen for the new building. Blackall later said about the location:
Our University of Illinois will focus about the Auditorium. This building is located upon the only commanding site of the entire grounds, at the crest of the slight rise towards the south from Green Street, where it will form the center of the growth for many years to come, so that ultimately this structure which now seems in a way too far to the south, will be surrounded on all sides by large and developed schools.
Blackall developed a design which was estimated to cost $200,000 to build. Unfortunately the state legislature only authorized $100,000 which necessitated Blackall making some drastic changes in his design, which originally called for an auditorium that would cover , have a copper dome with a smaller glass oculus, and 2,500 seats, as well as a south wing which would be the home for the School of Music. Blackall reduced the overall size of the building, had the dome constructed out of sheet metal, and eliminated the backstage areas, although he arranged the design in such a way as to allow the future addition of a backstage.
Despite the funding shortages, construction of what was originally called simply "the Auditorium" began and ended in 1907. It was constructed on a granite foundation of brick and Indiana limestone. Despite the deviations from Blackall's original plan, upon the building’s completion and its two-day dedication on November 4 and 5, 1907, it was capable of holding 2,500 students, more than the entire student body at the time. The building was originally dedicated to the noted composer Edward MacDowell.
Blackall was not pleased about the changes necessitated by the budget shortfall. He complained to university architect James McLaren White in 1923: "My best wish for that building would be to have it go up in smoke some night, and somebody would have the chance to rebuild it right."
Sound problem
Several weeks before the dedication of the building was scheduled, Blackall learned that the hall was acoustically imperfect, with what President James called "A fearful echo." Fixing the hall's sound was assigned to the professors of the university's Physics Department, in particular Floyd Rowe Watson, who knew very little about acoustics, but spent six years solving the problem, after which he was a recognized authority of the subject. Remodeling of the interior in 1915 and 1937 were a part of the effort to fix the acoustical problem.
Sculpture
The Lorado Taft sculpture Alma Mater, which now stands outside Altgeld Hall, was originally placed outside the south end of the Auditorium, where two fragments of the sculptor's Fountain of Creation are now located.
Renovations
The Auditorium was renovated in 1915, 1937, 1951 and 1970. The alterations to the interior in 1915 were intended to help the building's serious acoustical problem. The renovation in 1937 included a major seat replacement project, which reduced the seating capacity from 2,500 to 1,936 seats. The renovation also added dressing rooms and the interior dome ceiling was lowered to help eliminate the echo. Also, some decorative elements were removed.
In 1951, changes were made to bring the building into compliance with fire codes. These included adding fire doors throughout the building and separating the stairwells from the lobby.