The topics I discuss in this column generally relate to the process of engineering education that is, how we teach our students in the face of new methods and challenges. At this time, however, I wish to discuss not how, but where, we teach our students. In particular, I want to discuss the renovation of Wilmore Laboratories, which will soon undergo more than $10 million in reconstruction.
If you are a postwar graduate of Auburn Engineering, it is almost certain that Wilmore figured into your education. Built in 1948, it has served nearly every program in the College of Engineering at one time or another. When Wilmore was built in the immediate postwar period of the late forties, it was not uncommon for building and construction projects to suffer from limited availability of quality building materials. As a result, facilities erected in that period oftentimes did not produce the service life that the designers anticipated.
Wilmore, now nearly 50 years old, falls into that category. It has only been through the dedicated efforts of our faculty and facilities personnel that the building has remained useful for as long as it has. In addition, when Wilmore was constructed, its designers had no reason to know that in just a few years the scientific and technological revolution of the latter half of the twentieth century would take place.
The engineering and scientific emphasis of the early fifties, and therefore the technology for which the building was designed, was centered around prewar technologies such as internal combustion engines, vapor compression refrigeration, petroleum refining and electric power generation, to name a few. The turbojet engine, which first saw use in the war, and television, which was to come into our homes soon afterwards, characterized the leading technologies of the time. Transistors, microprocessors, sophisticated rocket propulsion techniques, computers, composites, interactive video, and the development of smart materials were all beyond the horizon.
With these circumstances in mind, it is easy to see how over the course of the next several decades continuous alteration, remodeling, and upgrading became routine for the students who used Wilmore. Even so, generations of students and faculty have found in Wilmore a facility so necessary to instruction and research that its shortcomings were overlooked. Literally thousands of Auburn engineering students have studied and struggled in Wilmore with such courses as statics, strength of materials, thermodynamics, power labs, circuits, transport and unit operations. In fact, you cannot find an engineering graduate between the years of 1955 and 1980 who did not spend at least some time in Wilmore. Even today, students can be found working throughout the night on activities such as individual assignments, group projects, and even extracurricular efforts such as our solar car or mini-baja project.
To a large contingent of the Auburn family, this building has become synonymous with Auburn Engineering.
Wilmore Laboratories will be reconstructed. It is our vision that just as the building has served faculty and generations of engineering students throughout the second half of the twentieth century, it will serve them, and future generations, well into the first half of the next century. The facility that results from this renovation, reconstruction and reconfiguration will for all intents and purposes be a new building. Only the original footprint will remain unchanged. Our faculty and students will have a modern building in which to study and do research a building that is adaptable to the continuously emerging technologies which will characterize the next century.
They can only do it with your help and support. Consider the doors that your Auburn education has opened for you, and help us reopen the doors to Wilmore.
We are seeking to raise approximately $2.5 million in alumni support as part of the overall renovation cost of $10 million. Our development director is Gary Bouse. Please give him a call at 334/844-1265.
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