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By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
The university’s senior administration moved into new quarters in the restored and renovated  administration building in late February, stepping back in time into a structure that looks much as it did when it was built more than 90 years ago.
Through careful research and painstaking craftsmanship, architects and workers have eliminated well-intentioned but misguided efforts to modernize the 1907 building on the university’s historic North Campus. With its historically correct wooden doors, intricate plaster cornices, wide skylights and windows, the building now faithfully reflects the graceful, ornate architectural style of turn-of-the-century America.
“This isn’t just a preservation, it’s a restoration,” says Paul Cassilly, the UGA architect who managed the project. “This building is a valuable historic property owned by the state of Georgia, and under state law we are required not just to take care of it, but to maintain its historic significance.”
President Michael F. Adams and his staff began occupying offices in the building Feb. 24. They were followed by Allan Barber, senior vice president for finance and administration, and his staff; Karen Holbrook, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, and her staff; and Kathryn Costello, senior vice president for external affairs.
The moves culminate work that began in the spring of 1998, nearly two years after the  Georgia Museum of Art vacated the building for new quarters on East Campus. Initially planned as office space for two other university units, the building was assigned to the senior administrative staff as part of Adams’s reorganization.
The president and senior vice presidents are the third occupants of the building, the 15th-oldest among UGA’s more than 330 buildings. Opened as the university’s library, it remained basically unchanged until 1955, when it was converted for use as the art museum.
That 1950s conversion included installing a contemporary entrance that demolished a limestone header and keystone above the entrance and replaced the wooden doors with a glass-and-aluminum “store-front” appearance. A spacious, high-ceiling atrium was eliminated when interior ceilings were dropped and covered with acoustical ceiling tile, concealing intricate plaster cornice work and two large skylights.
Woodwork around the walls was torn out, and 50 windows were blocked off with stucco and masonry.
“Remember that this was the 1950s, when people thought everything had to be new and modern,” Cassilly says, explaining the alterations. “Also, the museum had special requirements for light, humidity and temperature.”
Cassilly and his colleagues planned the restoration to comply with strictures of Georgia’s law governing historic properties. This law requires that restoration work must maintain the structure’s historic character and features while also incorporating modern technology for safety and comfort.
The planners found photographs that showed the entrance and atrium in the original library. They also studied other old documents, including the plans for the art museum conversion.
Their goal from the start was to make the main entrance and main lobby atrium look as much like the original as possible, Cassilly says. Workers recreated the entrance by installing wooden doors and placing a new header and keystone above the doors. They built new steps from Elberton granite.
When they reopened the atrium by removing the false ceiling and walls, they were stunned to find about 70 percent of the scrolled plaster cornice work still intact, along with one of the large skylights. Plaster-restoration experts--including the man who did the plaster work for the recent renovation of the state Capitol--repaired the plaster, cornices and column beams. On the outside, stucco around the windows was demolished and windows similar to the originals were installed, admitting sunlight for the first time in almost a half century and revealing an intricate pane pattern on the windows facing the North Campus quad.
When the building was a library, the front upper-level wings had been large reading rooms with high shelves of books. The rooms were reconfigured into smaller galleries for the art museum, but Cassilly opened them up again as offices.
Adams and his staff occupy the office suite on the southwest front of the building, and the provost and some of her staff are on the northwest front. Offices for the senior vice president for finance and administration are on the northeast back side, and offices for the senior vice president for external affairs are on the southeast back.
Cassilly says most of the restoration work was concentrated in the lobby and front entrance, but parts of the building were reconstructed to complement the historic restoration. Most of the renovation in the rest of the building is contemporary.
Cassilly says the $2.5 million cost of the administration-building project included entirely replacing the building’s old and inefficient heating, cooling, electrical and plumbing systems. Making the restoration historically authentic, he says, required fine craftsmanship from Evergreen Restoration Plasterers and Athens cabinetmaker Pat Quinn, who did all the millwork.
Cassilly says several Athens businesses also worked to make the project a success, including Vandiver Construction, Martin Mechanical, Classic Electric and Quality Glass.
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