At a cost of $7,294,000, the D.P. Culp University Center was opened in the fall of 1976 as a place to bring all of students’ extracurricular activities under one roof.
The building was designed and built during the oil embargo of the early 1970s when energy conservation was a big issue, said Tony Warner, the assistant vice president of the university center.
“What they designed was a building that was, for the time, very energy efficient,” he said.
Students may have noticed some of these features: a distinctive center ramp instead of a bank of elevators, minimal light in public areas and few windows.
At the time, architects from around the country visited the Culp Center to see how it handled energy efficiency, said Warner.
But that is not the only feature of the building that was ahead of its time.
“We were, for a few years, the state-of-the-art for accessibility,” Warner said.
Owing in large part to the ramp that makes it easier than stairs for individuals who are physically challenged.
The designers of the building, in an effort to increase student interaction, designed the rooms in such a way that they flow into each other with few walls separating them.
What many students are not aware of are changes that have taken place.
There used to be an ice-cream parlor where the Buc-Mart now stands. The Cave was previously called the Rathskeller, and where the offices the Center for Student Life and Leadership was previously a lounge. The Student Government Association now stands in the place of a former art gallery.
There was once a music-listening room called the Sound, but that space houses the Student Affairs’ office.
Last Wednesday there was a birthday celebration for the Culp Center.
A cake decorated to resemble the Culp Center was given to students by ETSU President Paul Stanton.

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