Historic Lincoln Hall Seismically Retrofitted for Earthquake Safety at UNR

Lincoln Hall, one of the oldest buildings on the University of Nevada campus has been undergoing renovations for the last year.

The historic dormitory was build in 1895 and officially reopened on Thursday, but not for students like in decades past. Professors are moving in after the university added several safety upgrades. 

With Nevada being known for earthquakes, the old building had to be seismically retrofitted because it had little to no structural reinforcement. 

Graham Kent, the Director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory said, "For a seismologist, I think of a unenforced masonry building. And the first thing I think about is the brick walls."

For the last 120 years, the building served as the only male dormitory on the university campus. But if a large earthquake were to ever hit Northern Nevada, seismologists say Lincoln Hall would be at risk to partially collapse.     

"There was no structural strength, so they put some major structural walls running through the building so that it could sustain getting hit side to side," said Kent. 

According to construction crews who have been working on the renovations since December 2015, they discovered many of the beams from the building were sitting on stones. Safety standards like seismic retrofitting and upgrading the fire, mechanical and plumbing were completed, costing the university $8.5 million.

"We recognized that we had a very special piece of history that we needed to maintain, while at the same time, moving the campus forward and making this a very functional part of the future," said UNR President Marc Johnson. 

With a goal of hiring more than 400 new faculty members in the next six years, Lincoln Hall has turned into office space to make room.

For a former resident living in the dorms, Karl Walquist is pleased to see his home away from home, sticking around. 

"I'm glad to see it being preserved, because the alternative would have been to tear it down so the building remains. And it looks like the university has done a fantastic job of restoring it," said Karl Walquist, a former Lincoln Hall resident. 

During his five years living at Lincoln Hall in the 1970's, Walquist said the three story brick building will always hold special memories.

"It was just a lot of fun being here, just hanging out, in between studying of course," said Walquist. 

Lincoln Hall is just one 13 historic buildings on campus. Several other structures are getting seismically retrofitted so they can be preserved for the future.