Cordley Hall shines after major renovation

The west side occupants were relocated to a building on Research Way in June 2020 while their wing was renovated. The second group relocated in the summer of 2022. The work was worth it as far as Sievers is concerned.

“The fact that people here are able to go back to work in this modern science building with 47 research labs is so amazing,” he said. “This is my baby. I love it.”

What was once a series of windowless hallways lined with closed doors is now a dynamic space, interspersed with study areas, lounges, and most exciting of all, views to the outside. Large classrooms have been revamped to meet modern accessibility and acoustic standards, laboratories are completely updated, and classroom and teaching lab spaces are all focused on the first two floors, with research labs and research support on the remaining three.

The main entrance to Cordley now faces Campus Way and includes an accessible ramp. All bathrooms have been replaced with single user, non-gendered spaces instead of multi-stalled rooms.

Other less glamorous improvements also make a huge difference, including an updated HVAC system, fire alarms and sprinklers, and new custom windows which meet the requirements of being in a historic district, but which provide a huge jump in energy efficiency. The environmental improvements alone save around $150,000 in energy bills annually.

And while the building may be cutting-edge, some of the permanent inhabitants of Cordley Hall would be right at home in the Addams Family mansion, from arachnids and hissing cockroaches to rows of taxidermy owls to an actual cadaver lab. Two important natural history collections are housed at Cordley, the Oregon State Arthropod Collection and the Herbarium. Both are now in modernized, expanded display spaces on the second floor, giving visitors and students more of a chance to interact with the extensive collections. A large collection of taxidermy avian species is also available for viewing on the second floor, as well as a sizeable collection of mammals, many of which can be seen in one of the larger classrooms.

There are two large art pieces by Ann Hamilton in Cordley, a mural in one of the lounges on the first floor, and a giant piece in the concrete of the interior courtyard. While the colored pavers spell out a piece of text by biologist William Emerson Ritter, Sievers said careful observers will eventually figure out what all the small letters on the courtyard floor represent.

“We want them to explore it with their college minds and figure out what this is,” he said.