The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 27

I haven't taken photos of the Brooks Hall demolition in a number of days because, frankly, it's all over but the cleanup. All that's happened since last Friday is that trucks have continually been loaded up with building debris before taking that debris off campus to be dumped somewhere. As you can see from these photos shot today at 12:50 p.m. from atop the Fifth Street Parking Facility, there's not much left of Brooks but an ever-diminishing pile of rubble.




Here's some views of Kokernot Hall and Minglewood Bowl to show the continuing work going on there.




Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 22

As of this morning, the only thing left standing on Brooks Hall is the north wing, the one closest to Martin Hall. Here's a few shots I took around 10:20 a.m. Workers are wetting down the demolition site in an effort to keep down the large amounts of dust that are created by the falling debris.

Views from Dutton Avenue:




Views from atop the Fifth Street Parking Garage:




UPDATE: 6 p.m. All that's left of the north wing:


Front views from Dutton Avenue:


Elevated views from the adjoining parking garage:



Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 21

As of 10:20 a.m. CST, the Brooks Arch still exists, but not for long:






UPDATE: 2:55 p.m. The Arch is about to fall.



UPDATE: 5:45 p.m. Bye, bye, Arch.



Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 20

Demolition continues on Brooks Hall. The entire south wing (the one which ran parallel to Kokernot Hall) is completely gone. Here's what the building looked like about 1:15 p.m. CST.




Here's a view of Minglewood Bowl from the Fifth Street Parking Garage. That's Collins Hall in the background at the left and the Mary Gibbs Jones Family and Consumer Sciences Building to the right of Collins.

Another view of Minglewood Bowl, this one from a different angle with Brooks Hall in the background.

Before demolition of Brooks Hall began, workers removed some of the distinctive architectural features of the building and have laid them on the ground near the construction office on Minglewood Bowl. Dr. Dub Oliver, Baylor's interim vice president for student life, told me awhile back that these stone pieces will eventually be incorporated into the new Brooks Village buildings to provide continuity between the old and the new.

Another saved architectural element -- one of the large stone urns that flanked the entrance to the Brooks Arch at the front of Brooks Hall.

UPDATE: On my way home from work about 6:15 p.m., I noticed that demolition was still in progress, including what appeared to be the first tentative whacks to the famous Brooks Arch. Here's a few more shots I took at that time.








Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 19

Today began the demolition of Brooks Hall, once the oldest men's residence hall on the Baylor campus.

There is a good photo feature on today's demolition activity here on the Baylor Public Relations website. Also, I met a technician today who was installing a webcam on Pat Neff Hall which he said would soon provide daily views of the Brooks Village construction progress on the main Baylor web page. I'll post a link here to the webcam as soon as it's available.

I took photos of the demolition myself, about 11:30 a.m. CST today. Here's some of what I saw:









There was a pile of large stones on the ground in back of Brooks Hall, and it appeared that a weathered metal plaque was attached to the largest of these stones:


At first I was puzzled by what this could be, since I didn't recall any such plaque being attached to Brooks Hall. But then I looked closer and realized that this was the demolished remains of the Confederate soldiers' monument which stood until recently in front of the small parking lot next to the ROTC building, in what used to be known as Harrington Park. The monument was erected back in the 1930s to honor local Civil War veterans. I hope, but don't know for sure, that it might be erected in a new location at some point in the future.

I'll be taking more pictures of the Brooks Hall demolition as it progresses throughout the week.

Photos by Randy Fiedler