Historical Campus Tour
Danforth Campus
Hugo and Ina Champ Urbauer Hall
Construction on the Hugo and Ina Champ Urbauer Hall begun in 1957, and was completed in 1959, and formally dedicated in March 1965. It contains laboratory space for the School of Engineering. The consulting architect was a former Washington University Dean of Architecture, Joseph R. Passonneau.
Hugo Urbauer was born in September 1868 in Austria. During a visit with his family in the United States, his father died, so he decided to stay rather than be a financial burden on his mother. He got a job as a steamfitter's helper, and he started his own business a few years later in 1899, Urbauer-Atwood Heating Co. In 1913 he married Ina C. Champ — her father owned Champ Spring Co. Mr. Urbauer started a new company, Midwest Piping and Supply Co., which absorbed his earlier company, and soon saw annual gross sales of $18 million. Mrs. Urbauer played an active role on the company's Board of Directors.
The following are housed inside Urbauer Hall:
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