Ricketts Building on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Ricketts Building is a building that is home to the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the
The building houses the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering on its first floor. During the day the building operates labs on all but the second floor where Ricketts Building’s lecture halls and classrooms are held. After classes, the building hosts clubs such as the Rensselaer Rocket Society, RPI’s Design Build Fly team, Rensselaer Electric Vehicle Club ,and the RPI Chem-E-Car team on the top floor with other clubs and groups utilizing the second floors rooms for other activities.
In a 1989 issue of ''Chemical Engineering Education'', RPI professor Michael Abbott alleged that Ricketts was interred underneath his memorial plaque in the building.
In a 2019 issue of the university newspaper, two separate places in and around the Ricketts Building were listed in a humorous article about the best places to cry on campus.
Ricketts Building is a building that is home to the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...
in Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...
. It is named for Palmer C. Ricketts
Palmer Chamberlain Ricketts (January 17, 1856 – December 9, 1934) was the ninth president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He served as president for 33 years and oversaw a period of major expansion and development of the university.
Person ...
, the ninth president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The building opened in 1935. It is currently used for labs, lectures, and some clubs.
History
In 1933, during the final years of what is commonly referred as the “Ricketts Campus”, Palmer Ricketts initiated construction of a new laboratory building. The original name proposed for this new building to house these facilities was to be Van Rensselaer Hall, in honor of the founder of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. However, when the laboratory building opened in 1935, it was instead officially named the Ricketts Building in memory of Palmer C. Ricketts, who died December 10, 1934. According to Palmer C. Rickett, “The new laboratory building will be 184 feet long and 59 feet wide with four stories and a basement. It will house three laboratories and will have some lecture and recitations rooms. The laboratories are the aeronautical, the metallurgical and the chemical engineering.” It was built of Harvard brick and Indiana limestone, with steel and concrete floors and heavy tile interior walls. He had hoped that the building to be first college building to be erected with a welded steel frame. The elevator in the building today is a manually operated Otis Freight elevator that was most likely installed when the building was built in 1933.Current Use
The building houses the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering on its first floor. During the day the building operates labs on all but the second floor where Ricketts Building’s lecture halls and classrooms are held. After classes, the building hosts clubs such as the Rensselaer Rocket Society, RPI’s Design Build Fly team, Rensselaer Electric Vehicle Club ,and the RPI Chem-E-Car team on the top floor with other clubs and groups utilizing the second floors rooms for other activities.
In a 1989 issue of ''Chemical Engineering Education'', RPI professor Michael Abbott alleged that Ricketts was interred underneath his memorial plaque in the building.
In a 2019 issue of the university newspaper, two separate places in and around the Ricketts Building were listed in a humorous article about the best places to cry on campus.
References
{{Coord, 42, 43, 51, N, 73, 40, 47, W, type:landmark_region:US-NY, display=title Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Buildings and structures in Troy, New York