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AKA: Central Washington State College (CWSC), Grupe, Mary A., Conference Center, Ellensburg, WA; Central Washington University (CWU), Grupe Conference Center, Ellensburg, WA
Structure Type: built works - public buildings - schools - university buildings
Designers: [unspecified]
Dates: constructed 1959-1960
1 story, total floor area: 1,799 sq. ft.
This round conference center was named in honor of Mary A. Grupe, a Kansas-born, experimental psychologist, who worked at the Ellensburg campus during two periods, 1897 and 1907 and from 1912 to 1929. Since its completion in 1960 it has served multiple purposes, including as a classroom, conference center and assembly hall.
A thin-shell, concrete roof, composed of shallow, segmented vaults, covered a round, open, multi-purpose meeting space. Tiny supports ringed the building's perimeter. A wing, appended to the building's west side, contained a kitchen, storage rooms and men's and women's bathrooms. The west half of the 30' x 19'6"-foot Grupe Conference Center had a rubble masonry wall, while the east half-circle was composed of a glass and metal exterior wall.
In the Fall of 2013, the administration of Central Washington University converted the Grupe Conference Center into the new Grupe Faculty Center.
PCAD id: 19202
