The Haley Center has been an iconic Auburn building since it’s completion in 1969.
It received it’s name from Shields Haley, a civil and mining engineer, according to the novel Who’s Who in Engineering, Volume 1 by John Williams Leonard, Winfield Scott Downs and M. M. Lewis.
Laura Weaver, 2015 Auburn public relations graduate, said Weaver only ever missed one board of trustees meeting during his time as a board member.
“It was named in honor of Paul Shields Haley, who was an Auburn graduate in 1901,” Weaver said. “He served as an Auburn Trustee for 51 years.”
Housing courses for the College of Liberal Arts and Education, as well as the Auburn University Bookstore, the Haley Center has ten floors and stands at 408,652 feet tall.
The top floor, known as the Eagle’s Nest, used to be open as an observation deck people got to by taking an elevator to the ninth floor then climbing a flight of stairs, according to Weaver.
Though the Eagle’s Nest is rarely open to the public now, it is still used for special events or by appointment, according to Weaver.
In 2009, the Plainsman editorial staff said the Haley Center was outdated and posed a threat to grow mold in the humid, southern climate.
“The black mold issue is a pressing one, but the central thesis of Haley’s problems stems from one simple word: renovation,” said the 2009 Plainsman editorial staff.
Though asbestos was found and removed in 2014 during Haley renovations, they have since made changes and added new technology through the development of EASL classrooms.
Wiebke Kuhn, College of Liberal Arts IT manager, said these engaged active student learning spaces contain technology, such as television and glass board that hook up to laptops and other devices.
“The two major components in this classroom are the collaborative furniture…and the glass boards all around the room,” Kuhn said. “The technology is like the icing on the cake.”
The latest updates made to the Haley Center were some window repairs made in June of 2015, according to Joe Ruscin, campus architect.
"We are redoing the caulking around the windows and resealing the glass in the frames, so that we can prevent window leaks that have been occurring," Ruscin said.
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