Origin[edit]

One of the westernmost buildings on the RPI campus, the Carnegie Building now stands as a four-story building, home to the Cognitive Science department. Initially, the building was part of a plan by the university to rebuild and recoup losses from the fire of 1904. One of the buildings that were destroyed was the Main Building (on land donated by the Warren family), which featured a library, assembly hall, and lecture/recitation rooms. After the destruction of the Main Building, RPI had the options of moving downtown into the city of Troy, uphill, or leaving Troy altogether to join Columbia in New York City. Thankfully, RPI acquired the whole Warren Estate a year later, and decided to expand campus uphill, and built Carnegie to replace the Main Building. It was even featured on one of RPI's postcards!

Construction[edit]

As part of this uphill plan, Andrew Carnegie donated $125,000 for the construction of the building, around $3.8 million today. In his honor, the Carnegie Building was completed in 1906 for a grand total of $133,000. Designed by the architectural firm Whitfield (Henry Whitfield was Carnegie's brother-in-law) and King, the Carnegie building was constructed out of Harvard brick and Indiana Limestone, like many of the buildings on campus at the time. In addition to this, concrete and steel were used for the structure. The building was designed to be fireproofed, with terrazzo floors and white tiled walls. It was later dedicated along with Walker Lab.

Purpose[edit]

The first floor contained four large recitation rooms, and the second floor was used by the department of Mechanics and Mathematics. On the third floor was a small drawing room and various classrooms. The fourth floor consisted of a large drawing room, as well as a side room for blue-printing.

Today, various classes (including our very own Local History class) from departments are held in the Carnegie building. The first floor as well as the fourth floor are no longer utilized, and have fallen to disrepair, although it is unclear why this happened. Recently, JMZ Architects completed an extensive renovation of multiple classrooms on the second floor (entrance level), and combined them, turning the space into a large lecture room. Designed to be flexible, the room can now accommodate 80 students, with furniture that can be rearranged. Mostly, the Carnegie Building today is the headquarters of the Cognitive Science department.