Building up humanities: An inside look at Klarman Hall

Every day, around 100 workers gather inside the shell of Cornell's new humanities building, Klarman Hall. They're installing glass, affixing pre-cast concrete panels to the outer walls, connecting electricity and prepping the newly drywalled offices for the paint to come. A trip to the construction site also offers a step back in time - you can view the well-built, four-foot foundation of Goldwin Smith Hall, which workers excavated and opened up in places to connect the building to Klarman through several passageways. Goldwin Smith was erected in 1904 with two-foot stone masonry walls that have held up well over time. The building stone removed during the Goldwin Smith renovation will be re-used in the construction. "We have the original drawings of the building designed by the firm of Carrere & Hastings," says Gary Wilhelm, project director at Cornell Infrastructure, Properties and Planning, as he gives a tour through the site. "It is interesting to note some of the drawings were drafted by William Lamb, who eventually was a partner in the architectural firm that designed the Empire State Building and the Olin Chemical Engineering building on campus." The new 67,500-square-foot Klarman Hall, set to open in January 2016, will include 124 spaces for offices and conferences rooms and a 330-seat auditorium, the largest on the Arts Quad.