OUR TOWN
story by Gunner Stuns photos by Yohanes Goodell design by Alejandro Vizcarra
The
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We are gathered here today in memory of a building that once stood tall at the north end of Central Washington University’s campus, the Language & Literature building, or L&L. Having been a staple of CWU’s English, world language and philosophy departments, the L&L building stood for over 50 years before its closure and demolition earlier in 2024. Many faces over the decades had passed through its confusing halls, ascended its seemingly-unending staircases and learned in its classrooms that looked over the rest of campus. In honor of the building’s longevity in CWU history, here is a retrospective look-back at the brick behemoth that was once called L&L.
A Brief Sense of History Prior to its timely demolition and removal, L&L stood as CWU’s primary hub for the humanities discipline for around 53 years. According to a story written in the Spokane-Spokesman-Review from all the way back in 1967, drawn schematics were approved for the building that same year. The article further states that “The new language and literature building, to house the foreign language, English, and philosophy departments, is being designed by Grant, Copeland & Chervenak Architects, Seattle.” As those who have spent time in L&L can confirm, those plans certainly held true. It’s also written on the Pacific Coast Architecture Database that construction of the building took place from 1968 to 1969 and that it was finally opened in all of its linguistic and literary glory in 1971. From there, the rest is academic history.
10 PULSE SPRING 2024