Northwest beginning demolition of two residence halls

Northwest Missouri State University’s demolition of two former residence halls and an academic building is underway this summer as part of a multi-year plan to address aging facilities.

The university began preparing North Complex and Phillips residence halls for their removal after the conclusion of the spring semester. The demolition of Phillips Hall began May 22; the demolition of North Complex is expected to begin in mid-July.

Plans call for a demolition crew to pick apart the buildings with a long-reach hydraulic excavator. Building materials will be sorted and then hauled away by trucks.

The Northwest community may watch the demolition of Phillips Hall on a university webcam at nwmissouri.edu/webcam.htm.

Phillips Hall, named for Homer T. Phillips, who led the founding of Northwest’s Horace Mann Laboratory School and headed the education department for many years, was finished in 1966 and last housed students in 2014. Opened during the same fall, Phillips Hall and Franken Hall were the first of four seven-story residence halls to be constructed on the Northwest campus.

North Complex was completed in 1962 and last housed students regularly in 2018, though a small number of students lived in the building at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Northwest offered it as a low-cost alternative to other residence halls. The structure contains Cooper Hall, named for Albert H. Cooper, a former director of field services, and Douglas Hall, named for a St. Joseph attorney, who served on the university’s Regents for 24 years, RL Douglas. Most recently, North Complex housed Northwest’s Office of Title IX and Equity, academic space for Knacktive, the Regional Professional Development Center and the Career Closet.

In addition, Northwest plans to begin demolition later this summer of the Thompson-Ringold Building, which was built in 1931 for industrial arts programs and has housed various departments and offices in recent years.