Students and studying: How the Wilkinson Student Center has changed through the decades

The building known as the Wilkinson Student Center or the "Wilk has not always looked as it does today.

Since being built in 1964, the building has undergone many renovations, the most recent one happening during the 1990s.

Chad Brimley, general manager for the Wilk, said that in the '90s, the dean of students and vice president of student life wanted to bring as much of campus life together in the building as possible, hence the major renovations.

Brimley also said it was a big mess because the Harold B. Lee Library was also undergoing some extensive renovations.

(The Wilk) was operational, but things were scattered. For example, the Cougareat was in the ballroom, and they just had temporary service set up. They had like carts, and it was kind of like grab-and-go pre-made food that you'd come and get, and then tables and chairs in the ballroom, Brimley said.

There were different activity areas in the Wilk, such as a TV room, an art gallery and a gorgeous fireplace. There were also some beautiful outside areas. These included the Garden Court and the Terrace area.

That's why they have those funny names of Garden Court and Terrace, because they originally were outdoor spaces, Brimley said.

He mentioned that many parts of the building were completely torn down and redone, or gutted and remodeled. He said the library's reconstruction included the underground levels on the second and first floors, leaving much of what is now Brigham Square under construction.

That's why I said it was a mess when you were a student here, because you really couldn't pass (between the Wilk and library), Brimley said.

According to the University Organizational History Project page on the Wilk, this building "is the hearthstone of the campus community," inviting students to enjoy a variety of activities that help foster personal enjoyment and growth.

The "History of the Ernest L. Wilkinson Center," written by Darlene Oliver, said the building was one of the busiest places on campus, bringing in many students due to the activities offered.

The early trend in the center was toward unstructured activities the hobby center, the games center, and the movie program all had impressive growth, Oliver writes. Some of these activities included an arcade, maker space, hobby shop and photo studio.

During the renovations in the '90s, much of this space was turned into large classrooms and office space for academic purposes.

This building has suffered from a lot of differences of what people believe it should be. That kind of depends on what perspective you look at. If you look at the original 1964 building and a lot of the leadership at the time, it was very much supposed to be a place for students to come, have fun, hang out, Brimley said.

Along with some social gathering areas being lost in the renovations, Brimley said that many architectural features were also lost.

(There) was a glass stairway that used to go up the side of the building, inside the terrace, and up here, which is above the Sky Room, there was actually what was called the Legacy Deck, where you could go up there and view Utah County, Brimley said.

However, according to Brimley, a big part of the purpose of a student center is to help with student retention, something BYU doesnt necessarily struggle with.

Brimley mentioned that other universities in Utah work to make their student centers bigger and more technologically up-to-date because it invites students to stay in school. He said the WSC may not see major renovations done until around 2040.

Preserving the history of these buildings is just as important as the ways they are updated to better fit campus needs. Much of what is known about the history of the WSC and other BYU buildings comes from records kept in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections.

The Special Collections website states, The L. Tom Perry Special Collections preserves and houses materials requiring great care to protect them and ensure their proper long-term use.

Cory Nimer, an archivist in the Special Collections, said records were originally kept separately by each department until the '60s, when the University Archives was established. The history kept in the archives today is from 1875 to the present day, but it is not comprehensive, due to not having an established system for maintaining records for so long.

Nimer said that many of the histories of buildings on campus were written by Ephraim Hatch, an architectural programmer at BYU, between 1980 and early 2000.

He wrote a couple of good histories that have information on each of the buildings with photos and information on the architects, and the process and any major renovations that have been done to the buildings over time, Nimer said.

Nimer added that the archives contain many pictures of BYU buildings throughout the years because its hard to take a picture without getting a building in it. The collection also has many other historical documents associated with different campus buildings.