The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

William G. McGowan Center for Graduate and Professional Studies

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William G. McGowan Center for Graduate and Professional Studies (three-quarter view), Marywood University

William G. McGowan Center for Graduate and Professional Studies (detail, ramp), Marywood University

Institution Name: Marywood University
Original/Historic Place Name: Psycho-Educational Clinic; Center for Human Services
Location on Campus: N. Washington Ave.
Date(s) of Construction and Designer(s):

1971	original construction Domanish, John
1982	expansion; doubled in size Hemmler & Camayd Architects
1998	expansion; name change Unknown

Type of Place: Individual building
Style(s): (Glossary)
Materials:

Foundation: metal (deck); rubber (roofing)

Walls: matt slab; concrete

Roof: block (exterior); brick (exterior); plaster (interior); drywall (interior)

Function:

ca. 1971	classrooms (for study and speech therapy)
ca. 1971	other (offices, diagnostic areas, facilities for speech pathololgy, audiology, education of the deaf, reading, psychological testing, counseling, remedial education and child development)
ca. 2004-present (2007)	academic department building (Center for Graduate and Professional Education)

Significance: culture, education
Landmark designation:

none

Narrative: see below
References: see below

Narrative:
By 1940, Sister Cuthbert Donovan, Chair of the Education and Psychology Department, had grown acutely aware of reading deficiencies in area children. Sister St. Mary Orr (later President of the College), then earning her doctorate at Fordham University, concurred and also discovered that the problems extended into speech. Through their efforts and with the assistance of Sister M. Bernardina McAndrew IHM of the Psychology faculty, the Marywood Reading Clinic had its beginning in a storage room of the Liberal Arts building. Later, the Reading Clinic moved to larger quarters on the terrace floor, where it formed the nucleus of the later Marywood Psycho-Educational Clinic. In the early 1950s it moved to the Old Science Building, now known as Maria Hall.

The Psycho-Educational Clinic building (now the McGowan Center) opened in April 1971, a one-story, twenty-seven room structure with offices, diagnostic areas with one-way observation windows, and classrooms equipped for the study of speech therapy. In 1982, the building was doubled in size by the addition of 19,000 square feet of space. Now the Center could provide offices for thirty faculty members and facilities for students in fields that included speech pathology, audiology, education of the deaf, reading, psychological testing, counseling, remedial education, and child development. In 1998, the building was expanded again and became the William G. McGowan Center for Graduate and Professional Studies. (The Center was named for William G. McGowan, founder of MCI.)

References:

I. Bibliographic sources:

None specified.

II. Location of other data:

University: Facilities Management Office