PARK UNIVERSITY

UNDERGROUND

SCOTT A. HAGEMAN
Associate Professor of Geology
scott.hageman@park.edu

www.park.edu

  
Fig.1-  Main pedestrian entrance to the underground at the Park
 University Home Campus.  The facility has five entrances for
  pedestrians and vehicles.  This entrance is dug into the Island Creek
  Shale and then Argentine Limestone. 

    
   Fig. 2- The main entrance has a foyer that houses an information desk
       and coffee shop.  These stairs lead from the foyer down into the finished
       descends to the Argentine Limestone.

                Fig-3- The first hallway into the finished area.  At the end of the hall is the
                universities copy center.  The hall then splits to the left towards the library and
                numerous offices and classrooms.  To the right it leads to the mail room, bookstore,
                    and classrooms.

                  Fig. 4- This shows the right turn leading to library, academic support center,
                  computer labs, information systems offices, and many classrooms and offices.
                     

Fig. 5- Park University library with one of the supporting columns of Argentine
Limestone. In recent years, the University of Kansas and University of Missouri
at Kansas City have both investigated the possibility of developing space on the
Park University to house some of their collections.

                                         
Fig. 6- The library houses books, study chairs, study rooms, art gallery, and
university archives.

Fig. 7- The underground houses two computer labs.  One for computer
courses and general student use and the other is a Macintosh lab.                           

                                        
Fig. 8- The boardroom is the main conference room on the campus.  Adjacent to
the boardroom is a small dining area and restroom. 
 

The boardroom and other areas of the underground were in a
very low budget film made during the flood of 1993 entitled Zombie Bloodbath.
I do not recommend the movie, but you can see the underground in the film.  It is
available on amazon.com with the following review: 

Pretty Good, March 14, 2002

 This is a pretty good movie. Of course the budget for this movie was next to nothing, but you have to look past that.   
The gore was pretty good and plentiful.
The acting was, of course, horrible, but most horror movie don't win awards for acting.
This is not a must see, but if you like Zombie movies go ahead a buy it.
It is a rare movie so at least you will have it for your collection.

                    Fig. 9A-  Door to boardroom and mail room beside the is vending 
                           machines.                                                                            

  

Fig. 9B- Hallway that goes to the bookstore and the doorway at the end leads to
the unfinished areas.

Fig. 10- Typical classroom in the underground.                    

  Fig. 11- Unfinished area of the underground.   The vehicle is parked at the
backdoor of the library.  Idling is not allowed due to exhaust collecting underground.

Fig. 12- Sealing the limestone surface is critical to prevent dust and continued
weathering.  On the left is the gunnite sealant’s natural color and on the right is the
gunnite painted “bright” white to help eliminate the dark “cave” appearance.

Fig. 13-  In unfinished areas lacking the gunnite, the limestone will leave the rock
surfaces and underground floor covered with dust.
 

                Fig. 14- The Argentine Limestone is a wavy, thin bedded unit, so to ensure added
                support to the ceiling, rods have been inserted to strengthen the ceiling by
                compressing onto the rods.

                    Fig. 15- Recently sealed and painted columns make this area ready to be
                    transformed into useable work space.

Fig. 16- Between supporting columns a cinder block wall has been constructed and
the tenant on the other side has air conditioning and heat coming from units like this
one coming off the cinder block wall.    
 

Fig. 17- The leasing office on the opposite side of the underground is the commercial
area that rents space out to a variety of tenants.

Fig. 18-  The dark green area on the left is the academic portion used by Park
University.  It covers approximately 127,000 square feet.  Other dark green areas
are commercial tenants leasing commercial space.  The light green areas are for
future tenants and the space will be completed to the tenant's specifications:
storage, office, partial finished office, etc.    

Fig. 19- Health South is one of the tenants.  Park University has an Athletic Training
Department that works very closely with Health South.  Student athletes do much
of their training and conditioning in the Health South facilities.

Fig. 20- The four other entrances to the underground.  Clockwise, the commercial entrance, the mail delivery entrance, the east entrance for pedestrians, and the back entrance to the underground where the mining first started.