The Rotary Balita no. 739 (February 11, 1954)

Last month the new headquarters building Rotary International, now rising in Evanston, Illinois, were under roof and walled in. With exterior walls going up and acquiring their facing of lannon stone and Bedford cut stone, gang of ventilating men, plumbers, steamfitters, and electricians are putting their equipment in place. Following them will come plasterers and then cabinet workers, working in air warmed by portable blowers. All will shoot to finish well before the announced completion date of October, 1954. Once completed, the two-story-with-English-base ment edifice will provide 48,000 square feet of floor space for the Central Office of the Secretariat of Rotary International, which will be completely housed at this new address. Air conditioning, fluorescent lighting, accoustical ceiling treatmen: and other systems of modern building design and engineering will make the new building contemporaneous in every major detail. The Central Office of the Secretariat of Rotary International is Rotary's workshop-the service station from which flows service to Clubs, Governors, Committees, and individual Rotarians in the 88 countries and geographical regions which have Rotary Clubs. It is also the meeting place of the Board of Directors, and of international Committees Over it, under the direction of Convention and Board, presides the Secretary. To give the 130 staff members of the Secretariat a first-hand view of the new will work, Secretary George R. Means one day last Autumn moved their place of work from 35 East building in which they I Wacker Drive, Chicago, to the corner of Ridge Avenue and Davis Street in Evanston. For two hours the staff roamed the concrete floors, heard descriptions of where this Department and that Division will operate, met architects and contractor, and ate a box lunch. The Cornerstone Committee met in January to discuss what should go into the stone which, on a day yet to be announced, will be cemented into the niche reserved for it in the lower front corner of the left-hand wing. Convention action in 1952 authorized the Board to construct the headquarters. Aiding the Board is a Headquarters Committee. Serving on it are Frank E. Spain, of Birmingham, Alabama, Chairman; H. J. Brunnier, of San Francisco, California; Howell G. Evans, of Two Rivers, Wisconsin; and Claude W. Woodward, of Richmond, Virginia.