Alumni House

The Alumni House was built in 1959 and is located just west of the main campus entrance. It houses the Office of Alumni Relations and serves as a gathering space for alumni returning to campus.

The home was designed by Earl Pellerin, FAIA (1905–1994), the first professor of architecture, and later, the first dean of architecture at Lawrence Tech. Originally, it was a two-bedroom campus home with garage for President and Mrs. E. George Lawrence, who moved into the residence in 1960. 

Now called Mid-Century Modern in design, all the rooms are on one level and it featured wide doorways that allowed easy access for the wheelchair of President Lawrence, who had Multiple Sclerosis. It was subsequently used as the residence of President and Mrs. Wayne H. Buell beginning in 1964. During both the Lawrence and Buell presidencies, it was the frequent site for student and alumni receptions and parties. Buell, an Indiana farm boy in his youth, cultivated a large patch of raspberries in an open area just south of the house. An outdoor patio offered glimpses of the campus to the east, through a heavily treed natural area.

After Buell died in 1987, the house was redeveloped as LTU’s Presidents Conference Center, then later refitted as the first Distance Learning Center. In 1996, it was repurposed again as the Professional Development Center to house facilities for non-degree professional training and business acceleration. In 2017, fundraising was begun to redecorate the home as a headquarters for alumni activities.