Hartman renovation continues

  Thursday, January 3, 2013 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

New energy-efficient windows will make 85-year-old Hartman Hall at Pittsburg State University a more comfortable place, but for the workers installing the new windows, there is no refuge from the chill.

The work on Hartman Hall is part of an upgrade that includes new windows, doors and an entrance facing the PSU Oval. In 2011, workers restored masonry on the building and replaced the roof.

Hartman Hall was originally known as Mechanics Hall or the Mechanical Arts Building. In 1970, it was rededicated to honor Harry V. Hartman, an alumnus of PSU (then Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg) who taught industrial education at the university from 1920 until 1959.

Hartman, who may be best known as the founder of the university’s automotive technical training program, drew up the plans for the original building, which is in a neo-Egyptian architectural style popular at the time. His plans were also used for an addition in 1947.

For much of its life, Hartman Hall housed the university’s automotive technology programs as well as Instructional Media. Since the construction of the Kansas Technology Center in 1997, the building has been home to PSU’s electricians, painters and carpenters. In 2010, the third floor was remodeled to house the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology.