Johnson C. Smith University began demolishing one of its signature dormitories this week, a process that will eventually make way for a redevelopment project with details still undetermined.
Workers began dismantling the 35,000-square-foot Liston Hall on Monday, just across Beatties Ford Road from the main Campus.
Built in 1962, the building had fallen into disrepair and could not be saved, JCSU President Valarie Kinloch told QCity Metro.
“To renovate Liston Hall is to spend resources that would probably equate to, or be very close to, what it would cost to really reimagine that entire space,” she said.
In a statement, the university acknowledged the generations of students who lived and studied there, but said its removal “symbolizes JCSU’s continued commitment to growth, innovation, and student success.”
The building’s demolition is part of a campus-wide review of university facilities that began under Kinloch’s predecessor, Clarence Armbrister. When Kinloch began her tenure in Aug. 2023, she began to review that master plan, with a special eye toward Liston Hall, named in honor of former JCSU President Dr. Hardy Liston.
.“The plan is to make space for us to vision and envision what we want, what needs to happen, and it’s going to be efforts between Johnson C Smith University, the board [of directors] and the community,” she said. “And so we don’t have a definitive plan at the moment for what exactly will be there.”
Even as plans are unfinished, Kinloch said she envisions creating a “living-learning community” on the Liston space, a project that would include student housing, space for visiting faculty and guests, and amenities to increase foot traffic from the surrounding community.
