The newly renovated Busch Hall is home to various departments within the school of Arts & Sciences. The renovations, completed in June 2009, consisted of gutting the building and reworking the entire interior. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

At the south end of the Brookings Quadrangle sits Busch Hall, one of Washington University’s oldest buildings on the Danforth Campus. While its exterior today looks just as it did in 1900 when it was built, the building’s interior recently underwent its first complete facelift.

Busch Hall’s renovations, which began in May 2008 and continued until this past June, left the building closed for almost exactly one year. In that time, the building was fully gutted and reworked on the inside. It received all-new interior partitions, a new layout and architectural improvements, along with a new floor plan.

“Not much had been done to it in its 100-year history. It was probably time for some upgrading,” said Steve Rackers, director of capital projects and records. “The exterior architecture has been maintained, but it’s a building that is 108 years old. Obviously, it takes some wear and tear.”

A student walks down the second floor hallway of the newly renovated Busch Hall. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

Busch Hall now boasts new HVAC, electrical, communication and fire alarm systems and an elevator at the building’s west end. Unlike before, there are restrooms on every floor.

“If you look at it now, it looks like a new building on the inside,” Rackers said. “It functions like a new building.”

The building’s renovation was designed with similar standards and aesthetics in mind as those for the renovation of Wilson Hall, which took place only the year before.

Busch Hall houses classrooms, lounges, meeting rooms and central office spaces for the Department of Asian & Near Eastern Languages and Literatures; the History Department; the Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies program; and the religious studies program.

The new space is intended to better accommodate these Arts & Sciences humanities programs, according to Arts & Sciences Director of Facilities Tom Simmons.

“We’ve given everyone modern and good-looking space. Lecturers have considerably nicer offices,” Simmons said. “We standardized the office spaces so that the historical serendipity was minimized.”

Many of the changes and new amenities in the building were suggestions from the building steering committee, which has faculty and staff members from each of the different departments.

“Basically, anything you’d anticipate in a modern building is all there,” Simmons said.

All the administrative offices have been moved into one central area to encourage greater faculty and staff interaction. The two departments and two programs have also agreed to share one copier and one mailroom in the central administrative space.

“This [setup] also provides a little bit of a backup, especially for the smaller programs with one administrative staff,” Simmons said. “Everyone is sharing meeting rooms in the building and lounges. It benefits everyone, and there is less departmental turf war.”

Faculty and staff office spaces have been reorganized into small clusters to replace the previous arrangement, with one department occupying an entire floor. Each department was also provided storage space.

Four soft-seating areas have been placed throughout the building to promote more casual interactions between undergraduate students.

“We wanted to provide them a spot to stop and sit down after class or meet each other,” Simmons said. “We’re hoping to make the building a friendlier place.”

Graduate students also received more space and a few other amenities, such as a small kitchen and lounge.

The project’s architects preserved as much wood as possible throughout the building, serving both historical and environmental purposes.

Simmons said he is working on putting together a history of Busch Hall to be displayed at the west end of the building on the first plan.

Busch Hall was one of the few University buildings used for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, when the building was occupied by the engineering and architecture departments.

“I think it’s a good thing when the University reuses their buildings. That is a very green, sustainable approach in the first place,” Rackers said. “I think it really brings the building back to life.”