Hill Hall history gets a deeper look

Some students take items like a loose brick from UNC’s campus to keep as a memento of their time at the University after they graduate. Class of 2015 graduate Isaac Warshauer has a whole building’s worth.

Warshauer, who will start Columbia University’s graduate architectural program this fall, has spent the past few months documenting Hill Hall Annex before the building is demolished.

“I thought something should be done about the annex because that’s a lot of history to lose,” he said.

Warshauer heard about the plans for Hill Hall Annex’s demolition this spring, years after the decision to tear it down was made.

“The matter had been decided long before I was even a part of this campus, it was really too late to change those plans,” he said. “After that, I thought since there’s no way to save the building, I may as well document it.”

In the early days of researching the annex, Warshauer discovered there were no documents containing the architectural plans for the building, which has served as the Delta Kappa Epsilon house, Works Progress Administration building, health clinic and Asian Studies office building over the past century.

“Given there weren’t any architectural plans of the building and there weren’t many plans for what the University was going to do in terms of documentation, I decided if it was going to happen, I was going to have to do it myself,” he said.

Warshauer began documenting both the annex’s exterior and interior this past spring while working with Steve Davis, associate director of research laboratories of archaeology.

Davis said he was impressed but not surprised to see Warshauer’s research.

“When he came here as a student, he came and introduced himself and that he was interested in the lab,” Davis said. “It very quickly became apparent that he was real sharp, he was real interested in archaeology and he was a very reliable lab worker.”

Also impressed with Warshauer’s work is his friend and class of 2016 graduate Austin Andrews, who helped with the documentation.

“It really is impressive to see the amount of time he put into documenting the space to take each millimeter to find out more about the space and dedication it took,” he said.

The final plans for Warshauer’s research have not been confirmed, but he has been in talks to have his work archived in Wilson Library.

Regardless of where the work ends up, Andrews said he thinks Warshauer’s research will be impactful for the future.

“If someone ever wants to do future research on the building, you can look at the pile of what was Hill Hall annex and wonder ‘Oh, what was this building?’” Andrews said.

“Because of Isaac, the future will always know.”

arts@dailytarheel.com