Vandenberg Hall
From USAFA Folklore
Vandenberg Hall is the cadet dormitory on the north side of the Terrazzo. It is named after Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, former Air Force Chief of Staff.
[edit] Architecture
(taken from USAFA's National Historic Landmark application)
According to the architectural team, the site and design of Vandenberg Hall was the crucial decision in planning the academic area. "The dormitories were the heart," said Walter Netsch, "and. . . their relationships to the Dining Hall and the Headquarters and the Social Hall and ballrooms and the Administration Building, the Physical Education Building, the playing fields, and the Library were fundamental, in a way they might not normally be."
Working from a design directive to build a single dormitory for all cadets, the architects used the quarter-mile long quarters to set the scale and architectural vocabulary for the whole Cadet Area. The siting takes advantage of the dramatic elevation change in the Cadet Area. Nestled into the north side of the ridge, Vandenberg Hall, viewed from the ground floor, stands six stories high. However, from the Terrazzo level, it appears to be only three stories with a height of thirty-two feet. The first and fourth floors are open loggias. Floors two, three, five, and six contain cadet rooms. Thus, the cadets were only two floors up or two floors down from the Terrazzo, with quick access to the rest of the academic area. In particular, the design is sensitive to the surrounding environment. The Terrazzo level is predominately open, allowing for dramatic vistas from the Cadet Area. Slender columns, or pilotis, on the Terrazzo level support the upper floors of the building. The large rectangular building is arranged around six open landscaped courtyards. While the landscaping is minimal in these courtyards, Kiley's original design included extensive "free-form" plans, providing relief from the order and geometric tension of the Cadet Area architecture. In one section, the building height drops to three stories, opening a view from the Terrazzo level out to the surrounding valleys and peaks. The effect makes it appear as if there are two separate buildings, breaking the 1337-foot long façade.
The building is of flat-plate construction, with reinforced concrete floors and flat roofs supported on steel columns spaced twenty-eight feet on center. The columns are hollow rectangles formed by welding together a pair of channels. At their base, the columns are founded on drilled caissons. Because of its great length, Vandenberg Hall is divided into three parts by transverse expansion joints. Each joint is located seven feet from a row of columns, dividing the twenty-eight-foot bay into two segments. A shelf built into the edge of the seven-foot segment supports the end of the twenty-one-foot segment. Both edges of the slabs at the joint are reinforced with a steel angle, and a graphite sheet is placed between the bearing surfaces to reduce friction. This method eliminated the need for double columns.
The exterior uses modern architectural elements with a horizontally flush skin of rectangular glass windows and dark glass spandrel panels within an aluminum-clad structural frame. A typical window unit consists of a large spandrel panel with flanking sliding window units and fixed panels below. The flat, clean roofline consists of five-ply composition and gravel. Ornamentation is minimal, although the building uses a striking motif by covering the walls surrounding the entry vestibules with yellow Venetian glass tiles (indicating a housing function).
Adding to the significance of this resource, the interior remains in an excellent state of integrity. Long interior hallways provide access to 1,320 rooms for 2,640 cadets, organized by cadet squadron. A Charge of Quarters (CQ) desk is located at the end of each hallway. Walls are painted white, with the exception of special images that cadets have painted signifying squadrons or other Academy-related themes. Access to the cadet rooms is via the original wood doors. The two-person cadet rooms measure 18’6” by 13’4” (with a 14’ center). In 1974, additional wall lighting was installed due to the number of cadets that lost pilot qualifications. (The original lighting in a Vandenberg Hall cadet room consisted of a single light over the sink, and one office-style flourescent lamp over each cadet desk, creating an extremely dim and cave-like atmosphere.) The additional lighting took the form of one flouescent light wall-mounted over each caedt bed. In recent years, USAFA has reproduced—with minor improvements—the original furnishings designed by Walter Dorwin Teague Associates. The building also contains auxiliary squadron rooms, various activity and recreation rooms, the cadet store, post office, barber shop, tailor shop and storage rooms.
