Tanana Valley Campus Facilities
Automotive Technology Center
Bunnell House
Downtown Center TVC
Hutchison Institute of Technology
Tanana Valley Campus Center
University Park Building
Automotive Technology Center
3202 Industrial Avenue
US Department of Labor funding enabled TVC to lease its new Automotive Technology Center located in Fairbanks. The new 8000 square foot building has 5500 square feet of shop space with four overhead exterior doors. It also has two classrooms that will help meet TVC’s pressing demand for more instructional space adjacent to our shops.
According to Rick Caulfield, TVC Director, “the new shop allows TVC to meet its responsibilities to employers in the greater Fairbanks area for training qualified automotive technicians. Our new faculty member, Bob Gunn, is doing a terrific job preparing the facility for our FAST TRACK students. We plan to secure NATEF certification for the TVC auto program in the coming years, and this new facility is key to achieving that goal.”
The facility will allow expansion of TVC’s Automotive program in the new location and—importantly—allows expansion of the Diesel/Heavy Equipment program in its original location in Hutchison Institute of Technology. TVC’s program development in both areas is guided by community advisory committees that ensure the curriculum in each area is meeting industry and community needs.
Bunnell House
703 Chatanika Drive
In 1921, the territorial Legislature approved funds to complete the Main Building on campus and to build a house for the college president. The trustees appointed Charles Bunnell president in August 1921, the school opened for instruction in September 1922 and a six-room frame cottage was completed soon after. It had a concrete basement and was located halfway down the hill, approximately where the Lola Tilly Commons sits today.
In 1931, a fire gutted the interior of the cottage, but it was immediately rebuilt. The cause of the fire was never determined, however, arson was suspected. In 1949, Bunnell became president emeritus but continued to occupy the president’s house until his death in 1956.
In 1958, the building was moved to its present location on Chatanika Drive. From 1956 until the 1970s the structure was used for faculty housing. In the 1970s, Tanana Valley Community College, now the Tanana Valley Campus, housed its Early Childhood Development Laboratory in the building.
In the early 1980s, the housing office contracted with a child-care service to use the building to care for students’ children. In fall 1991, the Early Childhood Development program returned, under the new name of the Bunnell House Early Childhood Lab School. It currently uses the structure.
Bunnell House is the last building remaining on campus constructed under Bunnell’s direction. No other presidents or chancellors ever lived in the building.
Sources: “The Farthest North College President,” by William R. Cashen; Terrence Cole, professor of history; UAF, Eric Jozwiak, Assoc. Director for Residence Life, UAF; UAF Directory 2001-02; UAF Master Plan 1991, UAF 2001 Master Plan-Campus Development
Chena Building, Downtown Center TVC
510 Second Ave.
The Downtown Center is part of a three-building complex: the Lathrop Building, Chena Building and the Lacey Street Theater stand side by side between First and Second Avenues, west of Lacey Street.
Pioneer entrepreneur Austin “Cap” Lathrop built the Chena Building in 1952–1953. The first owner was the Chena Corp., which gave the building its name. The building originally housed the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and its “Alice” Press along with Monty’s Department Store and several professional offices. Until July 1981, when the Wometco Lathrop Corp. donated the center to the University of Alaska Foundation, it was home to many different types of businesses. The corporation hoped the UA Foundation would help foster a new, revitalized downtown area.
At first, the UA Foundation leased all three buildings to the Fairbanks Development Authority to help in their bid to develop a hotel, convention center and parking complex on the block. When these efforts failed, the lease was turned back to the foundation.
In July 1986, Tanana Valley Community College entered into an agreement with the foundation to use 75 percent of the building for its Downtown Center. In July 1987, TVCC merged with the University of Alaska Fairbanks as a result of major restructuring of the UA system. UAF opened the center as its own Downtown Center and as the headquarters for its School of Career and Continuing Education, which moved into the building in May 1988. Since then, UAF has occupied the second and third floors on a lease agreement from the UA Foundation, and the school was renamed Tanana Valley Campus.
The Chena Building was renovated in 1986. In 1991, the university, with the help of the Fairbanks Development Authority, renovated the Chena Building’s first floor as part of the development authority’s long-range economic revitalization plan for the downtown area. FDA financed renovations for classrooms, faculty offices, storefront businesses, learning assistance centers and computer labs. The university assumed all maintenance and operation of the space once the renovations were complete. UAF leases the space with the option to buy and maintains an option to expand into the Lathrop Building if additional funds become available.
The TVC Downtown Center focuses on general education at the certificate and associate degree levels. Computer labs and an office lab are located in the Chena Building. The Chena Building’s downtown location is especially convenient for students already in the workforce.
Sources: University Relations Directory 2001-02, University Relations files; TVC Director’s Office
Hutchison Institute of Technology
3750 Geist Road
The James T. Hutchison Career Center opened its doors in August 1973, after nearly three years of planning and funding grants from the state, the Economic Development Administration and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 1975, an aviation maintenance shop was constructed and annexed to the building, which left space available for heavy equipment and diesel mechanics. The building sits on 72 acres of land near the corner of University Avenue and Geist Road.
The university owns the land and leases it to the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District for educational uses. The school district owns the building and leases some of the space to the university for vocational and technical programs. In 1970, the school district already ran an active adult education program, located in Lathrop High School and in leased facilities all around Fairbanks. Local high school students were expressing interest in adult training opportunities, too. The district decided to build a facility to centralize its vocational education. The plan was conceived by Walt Taylor, the district director of adult and vocational education, and designed by John Graham and Associates.
In October 1999, the state Legislature allotted $1.6 million to pay design costs of renovating the center for UAF’s purposes and the school district turned Hutchison into a stand-alone vocational high school. An additional $5.5 million for renovation was included in the university’s 2003 capital budget request. The school district contributed $14 million through a bond election. The center reopened in fall 2004 as the Hutchison Institute of Technology with a total of 148,800 square feet, of which approximately 50,400 square feet is dedicated to classes offered by UAF’s Tanana Valley Campus.
Classroom and lab space at “Hutch” for TVC associate degree and certificate programs includes areas for culinary arts, drafting technology, process technology and maintenance technology with emphasis areas in automotive, aviation and diesel/heavy equipment. The aviation technology program is one of the few in the U.S., and the only in Alaska, where students can earn an A & P license (airframe and powerplant—an FAA approved aircraft mechanic’s license), in one year. A new multi-purpose shop for process technology was added during the renovation.
Due to its size and accessibility, the center has provided space for a variety of needs over the years. Summer and evening school classes, community meetings and hearings, bazaars and the Adult Learning Program of Alaska have all used the building.
James T. Hutchison was a master craftsman who worked as an aircraft mechanic for 40 years. He was well known by students and faculty when the learning center opened. In addition, Hutchison was recognized in 1972 as the Federal Aviation Administration’s Mechanic of the Year. He originally came to Alaska with the U.S. Army. In 1919, his outfit was transferred from Haines to Valdez, where he left the Army and married. He later moved to Fairbanks where he worked for the Independent Lumber mill, Samson Hardware and the Fairbanks Exploration Co. In 1929, he began his aircraft maintenance and repair career by working for Carl Ben Eielson’s Alaska Airways, where he learned how to work on a variety of aircraft and earned a reputation for meticulous work, often forging new parts or adapting replacements.
Sources: University Relations files; UAF Directory 2001-2; 2001 UAF Master Plan; Cheri Renson, Administrative Assistant, Hutchison; Lynda S., FNSBSD; Scott McCrea, TVC Hutchison Center Fact Sheet 2004
Tanana Valley Campus Center
604 Barnett Street
In 2002 the state of Alaska transferred ownership of the Fairbanks Courthouse building at 604 Barnette Street to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to house the Tanana Valley Campus, which had outgrown its other facilities due to increasing enrollment and new programs. The building has approximately 78,000 square feet contained within four stories. The courthouse was constructed in 1962 and was the primary location for the court system in Fairbanks until the offices were moved to a new facility on First Avenue in August 2001.
In the November 2002 general election, voters passed a proposition statewide for a general obligation bond that was used to fund educational projects across the state. TVC received close to $2 million from the bond to be used for general renovations of the first two floors of the facility.
TVC moved into the Tanana Valley Campus Center in August 2003. Academic programs that initially moved into TVCC included early childhood education, human services, paralegal studies and the associate of arts program, as well as TVC administration, student assistance, workforce development and professional development. The facility also features a satellite shop of the UAF Bookstore and a coffee/sandwich stand. The building serves as headquarters for the Tanana Valley Campus.
In November 2003 the UA Board of Regents named the student lounge area in TVCC the Ruth Lister Student Gathering Area, in honor of former TVC Director Ruth Lister. An official ceremony honoring Lister, who died in 2002, was held in February 2004.
In 2004 TVC was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Denali Commission to begin partial renovations on the fourth floor, to be used for the TVC Allied Health Learning Center. The renovations allowed the dental assistant, medical assistant and health care reimbursement programs to move in for the fall 2004 semester.
TVC is seeking funding to finish renovating the fourth floor, which would provide a home for all of TVC's allied health programs, currently located in the University Park building on University Avenue. A longer-term project would renovate the third floor, which is currently unavailable, replace the aged mechanical and electrical systems within the building, upgrade the exterior and complete seismic corrections, as well as revitalizing the interior spaces to meet TVC's rapidly expanding program needs.
Source: Scott McCrea, Tanana Valley Campus Center Fact Sheet 2004, TVC Director’s Office
University Park Building
1000 University Avenue
In 1959, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District built University Park Elementary School on land donated to the university by Jack Shanly and leased by the school district. University Park was part of President Patty’s plan to clean up the area known as College Flats surrounding the university. Located on the west side of University Avenue, north of Hutchison, the University Park facilities transferred back to UAF in 1994 as the school district constructed a new University Park Elementary School on Loftus Road.
The university renovated the old University Park building into space for classes and offices. It is now home to part of UAF’s Cooperative Extension Service, the Department of Codes and Safety and classrooms for many UA-affiliated programs.
Home economics teacher Roxie Dinstel, with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation, oversaw construction of a “smart kitchen” in the University Park Building in 2001. It is equipped with an uplink to the Alaska 3 statewide satellite system and is used to broadcast Cooperative Extension Service home economics and housing workshops statewide.
Sources: UAF Development Office fund mailer, 2002; UAF Master Plan 1991; “The Cornerstone on College Hill,” by Terrence Cole, 2001-02 Directory; UAF Master Plan 2001; Roxie Rodgers Dinstel, Cooperative Extension Service.
Page Last modified: April 09 2008.
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