Booth Hall
Construction Began: Spring 1961
Occupied: February 1963
Dedicated: November 9, 1963
Estimated Cost: $2,000,000
Location: Ostrom, Comstock and Waverly Avenues and Marshall Street
Contractor: R. A. Culotti Construction Co., Inc.; ; Plumbing: Edward Joy Co.;
Heating and Ventilation: H. H. & F. E. Bean;
Electrical: Krause & Heil Inc.;
Elevators: Otis Elevators;
Landscaping: D. W. Winkelman Co., Inc.
Landscape Architect: Noreda Rotunno
Architect: King and King Architects
Notes:
Booth Hall is named for Willis H. Booth, former president of the International Chamber of Commerce, the United States Council of State Banking Associations, and the Merchants Association of New York. He also served as vice-president of the New York State Chamber of Commerce. He was presented a Doctor of Laws degree from Syracuse University in 1955 and named an honorary trustee in 1956.
Booth Hall was constructed as a companion building to DellPlain Hall on the site formerly occupied by the Flick Apartments. The original residents of Booth were all male but the dormitory has since been made coed. It initially housed 318 students with a staff of eight resident advisors and a dormitory director. Booth’s occupancy has dropped in recent years to 216 people due to reconfigurations of the building’s interior.
The majority of rooms started as doubles or split-doubles, along with eight single rooms. Six-person suites were added to the building’s “short wing” in 1989 as part of a $100,000 improvement project which included new carpeting, furnishings, and new fire walls. A number of two-and four-person suites were added in 1994. Each floor has a lounge and connecting kitchenette as well as a study room. Booth Hall also has a main lounge, library, television room, audio-visual equipment, recreation room, and laundry room.
There are eight stories on the east side and nine stories on the west side because of the incline of the site. It is a fire resistant building, built upon a reinforced concrete frame with red face brick and limestone trim. The window enamel module is composed of aluminum sliding windows with blue-green porcelain enamel panels.
Booth Hall was financed by the Housing and Home Finance Agency of the United States Government in addition to a major contribution from the Booth Ferris Foundation.
