After years of debate, several demolished houses and tarnished town-gown relations, Dennis E. Rieger Scholarship Hall will open its doors to its first batch of Kansas University students on Sunday.

The opening of the hall, at 1323 Ohio, in some ways represents the end of an era that strained relations between KU and the surrounding Oread neighborhood. But neighbors, who initially were worried about the aesthetic impact of the hall, remain concerned that parking will become even more scarce in the blocks surrounding the hall.

“I think not only is it a disservice to the neighborhood in not adequately planning for the parking, but I think it’s a disservice to the students,” said Debbie Milks, who lives at 945 Ohio. “It seems to me to be unrealistic to expect even freshmen not to have cars.”

The $3 million hall, which will house 50 women, was funded by a gift from Roger and Annette Rieger, of Seattle, in memory of Roger’s brother, Dennis, a KU alumnus who died of complications of diabetes.

Ken Stoner, director of student housing, gives a tour of Rieger Scholarship Hall as workmen complete the finishing touches to the scholarship hall.

The hall is KU’s 11th scholarship hall. The halls offer reduced rates compared with residence halls because students are required to work eight hours a week performing hall chores.

Plans call for another hall in the northern half of the 1300 block of Ohio to house 50 men, though no time frame or donor has been identified for that project.

The new halls have residents of the Oread Neighborhood concerned about parking.

Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said residents of the hall were directed to park in the parking garage attached to the Kansas Union. He said because there were 127 living units on the block previously, there would actually be fewer students living there than there once were.

“We really significantly reduced the load,” he said.

But James Dunn, president of the Oread Neighborhood Assn., said he expected students to hunt for closer places to park than at the union.

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“That big garage by the union is a block away, and it’s up a hill,” he said. “If I lived in that scholarship hall, I’d be looking around for street parking, too.”

KU and some neighborhood residents have been at odds over the project since it was proposed about five years ago. The two historic advisory boards affiliated with the city and KU deadlocked in October 2001 over whether KU could demolish three century-old houses on the block where Rieger Hall now stands.

Approval was necessary because the houses were near two buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, the Usher House at 1425 Tenn. and Spooner Hall at KU. Former Gov. Bill Graves finally ruled KU could demolish the houses, and they were knocked down in October 2002.

Ken Stoner, director of student housing, gives a tour of the outside of Rieger Scholarship Hall.

KU also demolished two apartment buildings there and allowed one of the houses to be moved.

Stoner said he thought the finished building – which was designed with input from a community advisory committee – “fits very well” with the surrounding community. He said little details, such as gabled roofs and railing from the top of former Old Fraser Hall, which now is a fence north of the hall, help give the hall character.

He also said a technologically advanced heating and cooling system would reduce noise in the neighborhood. The system pumps glycol 400 feet below the ground to either heat it or cool it, depending on the time of year. The solution then heats or cools air circulated through the hall.

“All I’ve heard is positive,” he said. “I’ve not had a complaint on this building since construction started.”

But Greg Hickam, a former president of the Oread Neighborhood Assn. who previously lived in one of the houses torn down by KU, said he remained opposed to the hall – and to KU’s development in the neighborhood.

“I don’t think there’s any question it’s had what I regard as a negative impact on the neighborhood,” Hickam said. “It disrupts the residential flow of the neighborhood. As a setting for the scholarship hall in and of itself, I’m sure it’s a nice place. I just hope it represents the final intrusion by KU into the Oread neighborhood.”