YMCA Building Rehabilitation

At the heart of Texas A&M University’s historic core, the Academic Plaza, the YMCA Building has stood for more than a century as a symbol of service, community, and architectural pride. Designed in 1913 by Frederick E. Giesecke, the university’s first architecture program director, and Sampson J. Fountain, who took over the design when Giesecke left to lead the UT Austin program, the building was one of the earliest dedicated student facilities on campus.

The YMCA Building quickly emerged as a hub of campus life at Texas A&M, once housing the only chapel in College Station, a reading room, a hotel (as a third-story addition), a swimming pool, and, later, a bowling alley, candy shop, billiards room, and other student amenities. In the early 1930s, students gathered on its front steps for the first Midnight Yell, a tradition that continues to define Aggie spirit.

Its original construction showcased the Classical Revival style that Gieseke introduced to the campus with buff-colored brick and cast stone columns and belt courses. The interior was simple but included terrazzo flooring and two fireplaces decorated in colorful tile. Over time, the building adapted to changing needs. The chapel space was filled in to create two floors of office space, the hotel rooms were converted to other functions, and the bowling alley was removed. The rear wing of the building was also compromised structurally, with extensive cracking and changes in floor elevation. As the campus grew, all functions housed at the YMCA building moved to other facilities on the campus. The building eventually sat vacant for several years.

In 2004, Texas A&M completed a campus master plan that, for the first time, formally identified Heritage Buildings on campus. The YMCA Building stood among them. While program requirements could have justified demolition, the university’s administration, guided by the master plan, chose preservation. This decision required removing the heavily altered rear wing and replacing it with an addition that would restore the building’s stature, meet modern program needs, and connect to the newly completed Military Walk renovation.

The interior restoration included the historic reading room on the piano nobile, the main floor, but the remainder of the historic front wing was adapted to new uses, mostly office space. The envelope of plaster walls and wood trim was restored, but new layouts maximized the available space to suit current functions, respecting surviving historic features while integrating new materials for modern performance. Terrazzo flooring was restored, and new terrazzo was used in new corridors. The historic color scheme was recreated in the reading room, and a compatible new color scheme was developed for the remainder of the building. The historic pool tile, which remained buried under later construction, was used to create a pattern for the new terrazzo and influenced the tile used in the restrooms. The typical baseboards were designed at a height that matched the more elaborate wood baseboards, and wainscotting was added to the primary corridors on the first level.

In a nod to the historic design, the swimming pool tile was taken out intact, where it denoted the depth of the water, and that tile was reused to denote the floor levels at the building’s elevator landings. The original brick on the rear wing was salvaged and used in the vestibule of the rear wing entrance, as another connection to the historic design. A new cornerstone was added on the rear wing, similar to the one on the front wing, and drawings of the renovation were encapsulated within the wall for future generations.

We designed the new addition to harmonize with the preserved historic front while signaling its contemporary role. This meant that the historic form was retained, with a solid base and terraces at the first level and three stories above that, with a separation at the third level to reinforce the historic building’s third-floor addition. We used cast stone for trim and belt courses that aligned with their historic counterparts. We maintained the solid-to-void ratio of wall to window, and the pattern was repeated. Our team selected the color of the windows to harmonize with the brick, a decision confirmed with paint analysis of the single remaining historic window.

Although we explored several options, it was important for Treanor to be respectful of this historic location on the campus—literally the historic entrance to the campus—by maintaining the height, form, materials, and general design of the original. We designed a hyphen element to house the core functions of the building, including a wide communicating stair, elevator, restrooms, and mechanical space, clad in metal panels of a different scale and color than the historic and new construction to distinguish old from new. This creates a clear distinction between old and new while expressing the organization of the building.

The initial investigation of the structural cracking and unlevel floors at the rear wing of the building and, to a much lesser extent, the front wing led to the decision to underpin the original shallow foundations. The program to have classrooms on the first level also led to lowering the elevation of that level to create adequate floor-to-ceiling height. We stabilized the front wing foundation, anticipating some continued movement, and the new rear wing foundation was designed as a structured slab.

Today, the YMCA Building houses the Department of Philosophy and some smaller departments with classrooms on the first level. From the outside, it looks stately and historic, while inside, the plan of the historic building is respected, but the construction is clearly modern, with recycled materials, open layouts, daylight-filled spaces, and flexibility. Glass and wood partitions complement the historic millwork, while durable finishes are compatible with the building’s original materials.

The YMCA Building rehabilitation stands as a model of how historic preservation architects can honor original design while meeting contemporary needs. By blending traditional materials and techniques with high-performance systems, Treanor’s team preserved the building’s architectural heritage and extended its life for decades to come. It is also a textbook example of how to add on to a significant and prominent historic building.

This project shows that restoring a historic building isn’t about freezing time, it’s about exploring new possibilities while keeping it relevant. At Texas A&M, the YMCA Building continues to serve as both a physical and symbolic gateway, its story enriched by the care and vision that shaped its renewal.

_{Historic photographs courtesy of Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University.}