“.... someday the University of Minnesota will have a student union as the center of its social life...”
-Dr. Lotus Delta Coffman, President, University of Minnesota, 1936.

It was the realization of his dream when Coffman Memorial Union officially opened to 14,000 University students on Homecoming Day, October 25, 1940, named after the president who did not live to see its completion.

The Union Idea

The need for a student union on campus dates back to England at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. At the University of Oxford and Cambridge, students sought a place where they could express themselves freely by debating the issues of the day. The union became training ground for leadership, statesmanship and civility. They were idealized as a “laboratory for citizenship,” an opportunity for students to practice in daily life what they learned in the classroom.

Around the turn of the century, the idea of a union began to surface in schools along the eastern seaboard. This idea envisioned a place where students could come together with other students and faculty to discuss and apply classroom lessons without the rigidity of the curriculum. The Harvard Union, organized in 1832, was the first union organization in the United States. However, with the opening of Houston Hall, the University of Pennsylvania was the first organization with a building.

With increasing migration west, many professors who started their careers at such universities as Harvard, Princeton and Yale, found their way to the University of Minnesota. Accustomed to the social circles formed in the unions of these institutions, these professors set out to replicate at the University of Minnesota that which they had back east.

Although by definition a union was a facility for men, the first such facility at the University of Minnesota was commissioned by women. Shevlin Hall opened in December 1905 as a building designed to house women's groups. Soon after Shevlin Hall opened in 1906, men at the University began to organize for a place of their own, which led to the creation of the Minnesota Union in 1908. Support for a physical structure to house the Minnesota Union was widespread. In 1914, when sufficient funds could not be raised to erect a new building, the Board of Regents authorized the use of the old Chemistry Building, now Nicholson Hall, by the Minnesota Union. To cover the operating expenses of the union a $3 annual fee was charged to all male students.

As time went on and enrollment increased from 8,268 in 1920-21 to 14,000 in 1938, Nicholson Hall became insufficient to house the activities of the men on campus; the call for a new union would be heard every few years.

During this timeframe, the University was experiencing a growth not only in enrollment, but facilities. Under the presidency of Lotus Delta Coffman, University College, General College, Memorial Stadium, Northrop Auditorium, Walter Library, the Institute of Technology and the Center for Continuation Study were established, and buildings to house them were constructed. After the Minnesota Union joined a national association of student unions in the 1920s, its appetite for a new building was whetted by reports of large union buildings being constructed at Iowa, Wisconsin, and other universities.

Plans for a new building were finally drawn up in 1935. Construction of the building began on August 1, 1939, and Coffman was completed in 1940 at a cost of $2 million, funded primarily by student fees and public works administration grant. In 1940, a Time magazine article discussed the new union at the University of Minnesota:

“Rare in Eastern colleges, but common in the Middle West is an institution known as the Student Union...In the last ten years [they] have become the social centers of the huge State Universities. Last week, the University of Minnesota capped them all with a new Union that rivaled the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.”
- Time magazine, Nov. 11, 1940

Student Life, 1940-60s Style

“Thousands of students have poured through CMU since it was unofficially opened a week ago,” the Minnesota Daily reported in October 1940. Though it wasn't the Hanging Gardens, Coffman was spectacular. Sixteen pianos were scattered throughout the building, including a Steinway grand in the Main Ballroom (now known as the Great Hall), which could accommodate 1,200 dancers on its oak parquet floor. Recreation facilities included a bowling alley, a game room for cards and chess, and a billiards room. Men's and women's lounges on the second floor provided a respite from the coed two-story main lounge with its four gold-bronze columns.

The building's opulence made news nationally, and newspaper editors in Minnesota's small towns also voiced their concerns. Though the union building was “awe inspiring,” the editor of the Hokah Chief wondered in February 1941 if perhaps it wouldn't be better to make students work for the “splendid things which are handed to them…we had to work harder for our education and we enjoyed the simpler entertainments and the homelier things.” But the glamorous union building served a worthy, democratic purpose, opined the Lindstrom Press in October 1940. The “college snob” will be lured into the building, “where he can mix and blend more in harmony with the plain and unpretentious people, thereby melting away from his exterior some of that false veneer of self-superiority.”

“Go to the Union at any time during the day and it is obvious that it is the most popular center on campus,” the 1956 Gopher yearbook asserted. In 1960, its 20th anniversary year, a survey ascertained that Coffman was used by more people each week than any other building at the University.

In the 1960s, many students were becoming concerned with social issues outside the University. At Coffman's 25th anniversary in 1965, Robert Weinhagen, president of the Union Board of Governors, called attention to the differences he perceived between his generation of “demanding, outwardly questioning and dynamic” students and the students of the 1950s.

The first renovation in the 1970s

By 1972, 22,000 people visited Coffman each day. Office space was available for only 28 of the 400 student organizations. The overcrowded building was set for its first major remodeling to accommodate 42,000 students. Much of the public space was gutted, removing many of the original Moderne details. The classic front pillars remained, though the doors were removed and replaced with the “latest architectural fashion deep cut apron windows, shed-roof and hipped-roof greenhouses and the like.” The two-story main lounge was reduced to one story to provide more space for student organizations.

“An architectural crime,” protested critics of the remodeling, led by University art librarian Herbert Scherer. Coffman was one of the Twin Cities’ few remaining examples of the Streamline Moderne style-an offshoot of Art Deco. Coffman Ed Siggelkow responded, “I just don't think students are hooked on Art Deco.”

Estimated remodeling costs increased from $2 million in 1972 to $3 million in early 1973 and $4 million later that year, the increase was attributed to inflation and the energy crunch. Construction was delayed six months while an air conditioning feasibility study was conducted. In a decision that would have considerable impact for the next two decades, the study concluded that air conditioning should not be installed. Remodeling-which eventually cost $7 million-began in March 1974.

In spite of the continuing furor, the face-lift was completed as planned in March 1976. A new theater/lecture hall appeared on the site of the game and billiards lounge, which were relocated to the basement near the bowling lanes. The Art Deco character of the Main Ballroom, renamed the Great Hall, was preserved, as were a few other details. A few months after the rededication, hot weather arrived, and so did an outcry about the temperature in the building. The acres of non-openable glass used to bring more light to the building also created a greenhouse effect in the summer. In June 1976, Minnesota Daily editorial cartoonist Steve Sack rechristened the building ”Coffman Memorial Microwave Oven” and versified, “The windows of dear Coffman / Were designed to most of all / Waste energy in winter / And deep-fry us spring and fall!”

Everything Old was New, Late 1970-1990’s

During and after the 1970s remodeling, Coffman continued to offer folk, jazz, and rock concerts; sponsor outings and film series; and play host to bowlers, speakers, and banquets. But Coffman was less the “living room of the University” than it had been. “Most students come to Coffman Memorial Union to use the restroom, make a phone call, or buy a candy bar, a union employee grimly conceded,” a 1976 Minnesota Daily article began.

A subculture of detachment that seemed worlds away from the sociability of Coffman’s early years was chronicled in the Daily in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Soap opera viewers were brown baggers, “munching their lunches mechanically, eyes glued to the tube.” The pinball machines were another draw. Pinball games then were two for a quarter; Jim Sleezer, CMU game room manager said some regulars spent $50 a week.

In 1990, a 1940s-style Moonlight Dance commemorated Coffman's half-century milestone, as did rock bands in the Whole. Several disheartening events were reported in 1993. The Minnesota Student Association Store closed after two decades in business, victims of a bad economy and $20,000 worth of shoplifting each year. Gangs of violent nonstudents congregated on weekends in the basement recreation area, and the number of program volunteers was so low that there was a fear that concerts, films, and art shows may be jeopardized. Lack of community on campus was one culprit, students said. But the same year, students were asked what Coffman should look like in the next 25 years.

Renovation: Linking the past and the future

The plans for Coffman’s renovation began in the early 1990s with a push from students on Coffman’s Board of Governors in response to costly repairs on aging building systems and student research indicating that Coffman was not effectively serving the campus community. In fall 1998, a stratified survey of 1000 students was conducted, which found that Coffman was not providing 7 of the top 10 services students wanted in their union, such as more short-term parking, a bookstore, air conditioning, computer lab, more quiet lounge space, food choices with national and local brands, and a first-run movie theater. Similar to when Coffman was first constructed in the late 1930s, the renovation process to make Coffman an innovative 21st century facility was intense and consultative. Since 1998, more than 6,000 students were involved in the renovation project in some way, either serving on the Board of Governors or providing input through surveys.

In spring 1999, students presented to the student services fees’ committee to raise student fees for a Coffman renovation, and their request was approved. Design for the renovation began that summer and lasted through fall 1999. The building was closed in November 1999 and all occupants were temporarily relocated. During the winter months, the building underwent asbestos abatement and interior demolition, which continued through the summer. Also during that time, the University sent requests for proposals (RFPs) for a Design/Build/Bid contractor. However, no bids were initially received, and after the deadline was extended, all contractor bids came in over budget. It was then decided that the project move into the Design/Build method, in which the contractor is brought on board earlier in the process to work with the architect to design the project within an established budget. This included sending out a revised RFP, and analyzing the original design and project scope once the general contractor was hired. The Regents approved the final $71.5 million budget in May 2001, and construction began in June 2001.

Coffman will once again become the “living room of campus” when it reopens its doors on January 21, 2003. The renovation added all of the top 10 things students wanted in their union, including a central 45,000 square foot bookstore. A full-service bank and student travel agency were also added, as well as a police security escort station. Many of the building’s original art deco characteristics were restored, including original terrazzo flooring on the first floor. The original central first floor entrance was brought back, and windows were uncovered on the building’s stairwells. Natural light was also added with the construction of a glass face on the south side of the building, providing beautiful views of the Mississippi River and new Riverbend Commons area. The Riverbend Commons project, which included construction of a 1,900-plus space parking garage, a new 400-plus-bed apartment-style residence complex, a new plaza area similar to Northrop Mall, and the Coffman renovation. The aim of this more than $153 million investment was to revitalize this area and link the Northrop Mall to the Mississippi River, as intended by the original Cass Gilbert plan for the University.