University of California-Irvine

a Progressive Architecture Award in 1985 and had brought UCI to prominence in architectural circles, was demolished in 2007 to make way for the new six-story, 180,000 square foot Engineering Hall. It sparked outcry from architecture critics and art historians alike, while campus architect and associate vice chancellor Rebekah Gladson maintained that the ICS/ERF building was an "interim fix" during the building boom of the 1980s. The relatively inexpensive cost of construction, at $2 million in 1986, was merely adequate at a time when state funding was insufficient for larger, more permanent facilities. As a result, the twenty years that had passed since construction had led to problems with exterior waterproofing and structural deterioration. A target enrollment of about 30,000 students, which called for higher density accommodations on campus were other motivators for the razing. Two buildings designed by Frank Gehry in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering still remain today, the McDonnell Douglas Engineering …