Renderings provide a glimpse at plans for the renovation of Sikes Hall, which closed in Fall 2023 and will reopen in August 2024. At that time, Mabee Hall will be permanently closed and Sikes will be rechristened with the Mabee name. MACKEY MITCHELL ARCHITECTS
Faithful Partners
With Sikes Hall renovation, Mabee Foundation continues 73-year collaboration that has touched every corner of campus
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BY JONATHAN SMITH
or almost every ACU student or alumnus from the past seven decades, the Mabee name conjures up fond memories of a time and place on campus. Perhaps those memories are of a room in Mabee Hall, which has housed almost
every freshman man since 1953. For others, perhaps they are of a favorite class taught in Mabee Business Building, which has served as part of the face of campus and home to the College of Business Administration since it opened in 1986. But the Mabee name is much more than the namesake of two buildings on campus. It’s part of a 10
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story over 73 years in the making with its fingerprints on 10 buildings across campus and countless students. And that story gets a new chapter – and 11th building – this year. The J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation has pledged $5 million toward the renovation of Sikes Hall, which closed in Fall 2023 and will reopen in August. At that time, Mabee Hall will be permanently closed and Sikes will be rechristened with the Mabee name. The renovation will update the hall, which originally opened in 1977 and received a brick façade in 2007, to include additional common spaces on each floor, similar to Bullock and Wessel halls. The hall will house first-year students as part of the Freshman Village project, a comprehensive renovation and