25 years ago: Plans for Lied Center conflict with KANU radio tower location

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for July 2, 1988:

  • Just four years earlier, radio station KANU had rebuilt its 605-foot tower on Kansas University’s west campus at a cost of $150,000 after damage caused by vandalism. Now, it appeared that the tower was going to have to be moved. Howard Hill, general manager for KANU, said that the structure would have to be relocated in order to make room for KU’s new performing arts center. “Preliminary design work indicates one guy wire will be in the way,” explained Allen Wiechert, KU’s director of facilities planning. “Of the 20 acres identified for the project, the guy wire comes down somewhere in the middle of it.” Pointing out that moving a tower would be at least as expensive as buying a new one, Hill said that he would consider recommending to the site committee that a new tower be purchased. A move “would take us off the air four to six weeks…. The best way to do it would be to put up a new tower. We could cut over to it … in a matter of minutes,” he said. Sam Chapman, KANU’s director of operations, said that a tower rebuild could cost between $250,000 and $350,000. Plans for the 2,200-seat performing arts center were still in the early design phase; the facility would be funded primarily by a $10 million donation from the Lied Foundation of Omaha, Nebraska.
  • In the continuing story of the old English Lutheran Church at 1040 New Hampshire, the Kansas State Historical Society was recommending that the Lawrence City Commission deny a request to tear down the 117-year-old structure. Allen Realty Inc., located in the Allen Press building at 1041 New Hampshire, had applied on May 18 for a city demolition permit to raze the vacant church and a neighboring house to make room for a planned expansion. However, the proposal had drawn the attention of the state preservation society because the building had been designed by famed Lawrence architect John G. Haskell. Of the 35 buildings Haskell had designed in Lawrence, the old church was one of only 11 remaining.