Clemson's Lee Hall/Lowry Hall listed on National Register of Historic Places

Published: June 1, 2010

A bust of Harlan McClure is on display in the courtyard. image by: Clemson University

CLEMSON — One of Clemson University’s modern spaces now is one of America’s historic places.

The National Park Service has placed Clemson University’s Lee Hall/Lowry Hall complex on the National Register of Historic Places.

Constructed in 1957-58 as the Structural Science Building, the modernist Lee/Lowry complex now is considered two buildings connected by a covered breezeway.

With his design, the late architect and educator Harlan McClure dropped on South Carolina soil the first really good example of modern architecture in the International Style.

"I remember the first time I saw Lee/Lowry Hall. I had never seen a finer example of modern architecture. It served as a model for all of the students studying architecture,” said Clemson President James F. Barker, who was an architecture student during McClure’s tenure.  

Hired in 1955 to head the department of architecture, then in the College of Engineering, McClure (1916-2001) later became the first dean of architecture at Clemson.

Bob Bainbridge, who taught city and regional planning and landscape architecture in Lee Hall for 22 years, said the Structural Science Building reflected not only McClure’s approach to architecture, but also his philosophy on teaching.

“The design of the architectural wing was firmly rooted in Harlan McClure’s approach to architectural education,” said Bainbridge, who nominated the building for historic designation. “He believed that artists and architects should collaborate on most, if not all projects, so studios on the main floor were artists’ studios. To encourage free interchange among architecture students, design studios on the upper floor were open-plan spaces with few interior partitions. The exhibition space/gallery was both a place for presentations of student art and design projects but also a place for interaction with the general public. “

Under McClure’s leadership, the architecture program rose from obscurity to national prominence, and the Lee/Lowry complex was fundamental to that success, according to Bainbridge.

“Because of its audacity, Lee Hall became a marketing piece to demonstrate the advanced state of architectural education at Clemson and strongly influenced more than a generation of students and practitioners. It is still fundamental to our now-numerous programs,” Bainbridge said.

Lee continues to be home to graduate and undergraduate programs in architecture; art; city and regional planning; construction science and management; landscape architecture; real estate development; and a doctorate program in planning, design and the built environment. Lowry is home to civil engineering.

Lee Hall was expanded in 1975 and again in 1991, and ground was broken in April to expand, restore and renovate the building. The $31 million effort is funded by private support and federal money.

The expansion portion of the project is a 55,000-square-foot building at the south end of the existing structure.

The additions pose no threat to the building’s newly acquired historic status, said Paul Borick, one of Clemson’s capital projects managers overseeing the expansion and renovation. The new construction will be attached to the 1991 addition.

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