Designed and constructed as home to the College of Home Economic, Martha Van Rensselaer Hall is the heart of the College of Human Ecology. Named in honor of Martha Van Rensselaer a pioneer and extension leader in the field of home economics and founder and original co-director of the College of Home Economics, MVR Hall is registered with the New York State National Registers of Historic Places.
Totaling 327,725 square feet, MVR provides the College with auditoriums, classrooms, distance learning rooms, student computing facilities, studios spaces, faculty offices, research and laboratory spaces, as well as housing the college administration. The original 199,753 sf of MVR hall was built in 1931-33 with state appropriations of just under $1 million. Design was performed by William Haugaard of the NY State Dormitory Authority. At time of occupancy, the original ’33 building provided the College with an Auditorium, a tea room and cafeteria, a reading room, a costume shop, teaching kitchen, gallery, nursery, and student housing. Today, many of these same elements exist in the College in much the same way as originally designed. In 1968, a 87,307 sf addition designed by Ulrich Franzen was added to the north side MVR Hall. This addition provided much needed faculty research and student studio and laboratory spaces to the College. Unfortunately, North MVR was closed in 2001 due to structural deficiencies. Currently work is underway to design and build a replacement building. (See for additional information on this effort.) In 2002, a 40,665 sf addition designed by HOLT Architects was added to the west of MVR to provide state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities of the College. The West Addition provides the College with two 135 seat auditoriums, a 50 person distance learning room, one 30 and one 50 seat electronic classrooms, a 35 seat CAD instruction lab, and houses the Frances A. Johnston and Charlotte M. Young Human Metabolic Research Unit.
