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 1947 - There was expression of a special need to provide a vocational-technical building, pointing out that the Junior College had "acquired hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of technical equipment because of the war training programs which it sponsored, and to make the equipment useful for training purposes; it should be housed in quarters designed for such training together with adjacent classrooms for classroom work."
Wisdom and foresight are again significantly evident as the policies practiced by those at the helm of Pueblo Junior College. This expansion project was proposed on January 1, 1947. The mounting costs of construction and the wave of inflation since then are well known. The present campus of fifteen buildings is exemplary of the leadership by the college's governing board by its president.
1948 - At a meeting of the Committee on February 12, 1948, Mr. Walter DeMorunt Architect, met with the Committee to present "revised plans for the erection of the Vocational building." Plans were shaping up for construction of the new Vocational-Technical building comprising a gross area of 63,831 square ft: 22,101 square feet of floor space used for classrooms, engineering and physics laboratories, administrative suite, auditorium, and faculty offices, and a Reading Laboratory with 901 square feet of floor space plus 256 square feet Reading Laboratory office space; 41,739 square feet of floor space for shops, including (1) Machine Shop and Metallurgy Laboratory, (2) Auto Shop, (3) Diesel Mechanic and Diesel Electric Shop, (4) Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Shop, (5) Electronics Shop and Power Laboratory, (6) a Practical Nursing Laboratory, (7) a Woodworking Shop, and (8) a Welding Shop.
1949 - August 10, 1949, was the date bids were let for construction of the Vocational-Technical Building: General Contractor, Howard C. Whitlock at $414,850; Plumbing and Heating Contractor, Douglas-Jardine, at $51,524; Electrical Contractor, Gordon A. Shomaker, at $45,450.
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The Rood Building
in downtown Pueblo
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With the termination of its 1950 summer session in the Rood Building, the Vocational-Technical faculty set to work to personally move the equipment over to the new Vocational-Technical building on the college campus - this in time for the beginning of 1950 fall quarter classes. Finally the day came when the busy men cast their last and final glances into the empty rooms of the old downtown building. It had served the war needs, serving at the same time as the birthplace of the Pueblo College Vocational-Technical Division under the direction of A. W. Hinds until September, 1948, when his successor, L. A. Benz, took office. Open House for the new building was held in December, 1950. |
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Not until the beginning of the winter quarter was the vocational-technical building ready for full use. The '51 Tsanti stated that twenty-three full-time and ten part-time instructors comprised the staff of the vocational-technical division and showed a two-page section of this faculty, headed by Mr. Leland A. Benz, Dean of the Vocational-Technical Division. Included also was the statement that over five hundred students were registered in this department. This was inclusive of students in the evening division.
Pueblo Junior College now had modem equipment and facilities adequate to its statement of purpose, which, as stated in the catalog for 1950-1951, was as follows:
PURPOSE
"The purpose of Pueblo Junior College is to offer two years of college training in the arts, sciences, and humanities to students interested in a program of general education; to offer two years of professional and pre-professional training to students interested in engineering, medicine, law, home economics, teaching, dramatics, art, music, science, and business administration; and to offer vocational-technical instruction in business, home economics, trades, industry, and agriculture."
Factual data concerning the Vocational-Technical Building are as follows:
| Year constructed: |
1950 |
| Source of Funds: |
General Obligation Bonds and College Building Fund |
| Type of Construction: |
Red tile roof, yellow brick exterior. Load bearing masonry walls and steel construction. |
| Use of Building: |
Vocational-Technical Administrative suite, faculty offices, classrooms, laboratories, shops, and television studio. |
| Floor Area: |
63,831 square feet |
| Cost of Construction: |
| Cost of constructing building, 1950 |
$556,339.78 |
| Auditorium chairs, permanent installation |
$1,518.50 |
| Original construction cost of building |
$557,858.28 |
| Additions: |
| D. C. Laboratory, 1958 |
$10,831.35 |
| Woodshop Exhaust System, 1959 |
$850.00 |
| Relocation of Refrigeration Lab., 1960 |
$287.50 |
| Floodlighting front of building, 1961 |
$744.06 |
| Television Studio Wing, 1962 |
$77,351.13 |
| Construction Cost of Building |
$647,920.52 |
| Walks, Gravel Parking Area, 1950 |
$14,220.18 |
| Lawn Sprinkler System, 1950 |
$16,437.61 |
| Landscaping, 1950 |
$ 4,295.26 |
| Paving Parking Lot, 1957 |
$5,064.75 |
| TOTAL COST OF CONSTRUCTION |
$687,938.32 |
Source: History of Pueblo College, Pueblo, Colorado 1993-1963 by Harold A. Hoeglund |