graf-hall

OREGON STATE’S ‘ENGINEERING TRIANGLE’

In 2008, 180 acres of Oregon State University’s Corvallis campus was designated a National Historic District. At the time, it included 83 structures, 59 of which are historically significant. One wedge-shaped area in the district’s northeast corner encompasses buildings predominantly related to engineering, physics, and chemistry. Landscape architect Albert Davis Taylor, who updated the campus master plan in 1926 and 1945, dubbed this area the Engineering Triangle.

Since 1920, Graf Hall — originally Engineering Hall — has endured as a stalwart of the College of Engineering. Over the decades, its cavernous high bay has housed materials labs, hydraulics labs, and steam and gas engine labs, all served by a 5-ton overhead crane. Using a monstrous, two-story machine nicknamed “the Nutcracker,” researchers brutally tested the strength of construction materials. Offices and smaller labs have occupied Graf’s west end and ground floor, and a radio tower once soared above the roof.