The oldest building on Kansas University’s campus will be partly demolished to make way for a new Hall Center for the Humanities, officials said Tuesday.

KU plans to knock down all but the south wall of the Powerhouse building originally constructed in 1887. The remaining wall, which includes nine arches, will be incorporated into the new Hall Center building.

The Powerhouse, east of the Dole Human Development Center, was largely rebuilt after an 1898 lightning strike. It has served as storage for Facilities and Operations since 1922.

Victor Bailey, director of the Hall Center, said combining renovation with new construction fits the mission of the center.

“We are delighted to be able to combine the old and the new in one building,” he said. “In a sense, that’s a metaphor for the work of the center, making the heritage of civilization relevant to contemporary issues and concerns.”

The $3.76 million, two-story building will be 11,000 square feet and will include a 120-seat conference room, a seminar room, a kitchen and offices for Hall Center staff and researchers.

KU officials said they hoped to move into the building in spring 2004. No groundbreaking date has been set.

It will be funded through a $3.26 million gift from the Hall Family Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., announced in July 2001, and through $500,000 in other private donations.

“When it comes to major gifts and grants, the humanities are sometimes the neglected orphan at a university,” Chancellor Robert Hemenway said.

The Hall Center was founded in 1976 and has provided endowed research positions, faculty seminars, aid to professors seeking grants and public programs. Bailey said the new building would allow more people to use Hall Center events.

“Now if we get 25 or 30 people, we’re absolutely crushed, and we have to go outside the Hall Center,” he said.

Bailey said he knew of only one other building  at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill  that was built specifically as a humanities center.

“It’s a great leap for the Hall Center,” he said. “In 1976, the Hall Center had one office in the Spencer Research Library.”

Bailey said it was possible the architect  James R. Calcara of CDFM2 Architecture in Kansas City, Mo.  would choose to incorporate other walls of the Powerhouse into the final design. Officials said design work for the building must be done before construction contractors are chosen.

The Powerhouse was the second power plant constructed at KU, at a cost of $16,000. It was struck by lightning and burned in March 1898. The limestone walls, which feature Romanesque arches, are the only remaining feature of the 1887 building.

“The arches are the only original design element worth preserving,” said Warren Corman, university architect. “They are similar to the arches of Stauffer-Flint Hall, just up the hill to the north, and are reflected in the arches of the Dole Human Development Center to the west. So they’re an important part of the historical context for this part of the campus.”