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Green Hall Renovation images

Workers are putting finishing touches on the building, but already URI President Robert L. Carothers, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs M. Beverly Swan, General Counsel Louis Saccoccio and their staffs have been unpacking boxes and organizing their offices all while doing work for the University. Enrollment Services Director Harry Amaral and his staff will be moving in during the next several weeks. Amaral’s operations occupy more than 75 percent of the space in the building.

Alumni who remember the reading room of the library when it was located in Green Hall will now recognize its "new" look. The room’s rich woodwork has been refinished, and 10 large dome lights that complement the grand fireplaces and woodwork have been installed. In addition, carpet tiles mimic the two-tone tiles of the old library. A student work area will replicate the vintage tables of the old library.

While Green Hall is the new home of URI’s central administration, it also houses all aspects of Enrollment Services, including registration, student financial aid and the bursar. At Green, students will be able to register for classes, pay tuition, and apply for financial aid.
The project’s completion marks the end of "The Campaign for Green Hall, Restoring the Heart of the Campus," which raised $1 million in private donations.

Westerly’s Henry Nardone, a 1943 graduate of URI, chaired the successful private fund drive. "The completion of this revival of Green Hall is a landmark achievement," Nardone said. "It will return the ‘logo’ building of the campus to its rightful position of dignity and honor. How appropriate that President Carothers, Provost Swan and Enrollment Services will be the major occupants of the building. This magnificent edifice of Westerly granite was the center of student life and activity during the ‘40s and ‘50s. What wonderful memories it holds for the War generation."

"In the Campaign for Green Hall, we reached out to our alumni, faculty and friends who were here between 1937 and 1963, during which time Green Hall housed the University’s library and administration," said Assistant Director of Development Alan Axelrod, who coordinated the campaign. "Green Hall evoked fond memories among so many of these people, who cited their recollections of meeting, studying, and socializing in this venerable building. This campaign afforded us the opportunity to reconnect with many people who had not otherwise been engaged with the University since their days here."

Robert Schultz, the University’s project manager, said the building has been re-fitted with new mahogany windows, new gutters and downspouts. Sections of the granite exterior were re-pointed and cleaned and new landscaping matches the campus master plan. The renovations also include wall-to-wall carpeting throughout and wiring to support the full range of computer, electrical and phone technology. In the provost’s area, new offices have been created with wood treatments that match the older wood of the president’s suite.

The renovated structure will allow for full access to persons with disabilities. Funding for such accommodations came in part from the Governor’s Commission on Disability.

Construction began in fall 2001, and the project was completed on time and on budget, Schultz said. Berkshire Construction Services Inc., of East Greenwich, is the project contractor, Robinson, Green, Beretta Corp. of Providence, is the architect.
"Throughout the project, we paid painstaking attention to the details and elements of the structure to preserve its place in URI history," Schultz said.

Green was built in 1937 when URI was Rhode Island State College, and it provided full student services to 1,100 students. There are 11,036 undergraduates and 3,229 graduate students today. The 36,000-square-foot, three-story granite building last underwent a major renovation in 1965 when it was converted to house undergraduate admissions.

The stately Georgian Revival building is named after one of Rhode Island’s great statesmen, the late Theodore Francis Green, who was governor in the mid-1930s and served as a U.S. Senator.

Built in the shape of a T, Green Hall stands majestically behind Ranger Hall, reflecting the design of the earlier historic buildings surrounding URI’s Quadrangle. Its pitched gabled roof, central columned pavilion, magnificent Palladian windows and the cupola that houses the clock donated by the classes of 1937 and 1938 make Green a fitting symbol of the University’s origins and its future growth. Green Hall now serves as the logo on all official URI publications and signs.

For a digital image of Green Hall, please contact Nancy Gillespie at 874-2116.