The Kober-Cogan building, once located next to the Leavey Center and across from Darnall Hall, was constructed from 1957-1958. Spanning 55,761 square feet, Kober-Cogan was a six-story brick building with each floor containing twenty rooms, separate shower and bathroom facilities, a lounge, and a suitcase storage room.
Name
The University dedicated the building in memory of George M. Kober, who was a professor of medicine and Dean of the School of Medicine, and William N. Cogan, who served as Dean of the School of Dentistry from 1901 to 1913 and again from 1926 to 1938.
Student Housing
When it opened in 1958, Kober-Cogan served as a dormitory for medical and dental students.1 In the fall of 1961, Kober-Cogan became Georgetown’s first co-ed dorm. By the spring of 1961, total full-time female enrollment between the Nursing School, School of Foreign Service, Business School and Institute of Languages and Linguistics had risen to 484 students. Previously, the majority of these students had had to live at the La Maria and Meridian Hill hotels located on 16th Street. Faced with rising female enrollment and the expected arrival of twenty-five nursing students from the Washington area on campus for clinical training at the hospital, the University moved female students to the top four floors of Kober-Cogan. The second floor continued to house medical residents working at the hospital, and the ground floor remained office and recreational space. When Darnall opened in 1965, the female undergraduate students moved there. 2The newly vacated third, fifth, and sixth floors were filled with freshmen in February of 1965. These students moved from the third floor of Old North, the fourth floor of Maguire, the fourth floor of Healy, and the second floor of Ryan.3
F.A.A. Facilities
During this time, Kober-Cogan’s basement housed a large complex of offices and research facilities run by the Federal Aviation Agency. The F.A.A. facilities, known as the Georgetown Clinical Research Institute, was entirely supported by the federal government and was legally and administratively independent from the University. The F.A.A. paid to rent Kober-Cogan’s basement and hoped that the program’s location at Georgetown with the University’s medical school and hospital would add weight to their findings.4
Administrative Offices
In 1970, the University officially converted Kober-Cogan from a dormitory into an administrative office building. In 1995, Kober-Cogan housed the Faculty Health Service, AIDS Clinic, American Family Physician, Audiology, Biostatistics, Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Center for Clinical Bioethics, Biostatistics, Center for Food and Nutrition Policy and the Ceres Forum, Division of Children's Health Promotion, Division of Health Care Studies, Division of Health and Humanities, Family Health Service, Academic Records Medical Center, Infectious Diseases, Pulmonary Outpatient Lab., Headache Treatment Center, Heart Station, Neurovascular Diagnostic Center, Thermography, Noninvasive Cerebrovascular, Psychiatry Department, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center, Specialty Clinics, Pulmonary Critical Care Center and Home Care Education Service.
Closing and Demolition
In May 2010, the University closed Kober-Cogan after a steam leak. In 2012, the building remained closed “indefinitely” because even though the leak was fixed, the ensuing mold had forced the University to shut down the building’s heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems and relocate the occupants. 5Because of the limitations imposed by the building’s infrastructure, the University eventually chose to demolish rather than renovate Kober-Cogan. In January 2018, the University began demolition in order to begin construction on the new Georgetown University Hospital’s medical and surgical pavilion.6
- 1Francis X. Ballman, "Kober-Cogan," Building Outlines Campus Buildings, 1789 – 1995, Father Lawrence Hurley Memorial Edition, Francis X. Ballmann and the Division of Facilities, 1995, p. 48-49.
- 2Kober-Cogan To House Co-eds Next Semester.” The Hoya. 16 March 1961, p.1.
- 3“Frosh Make Move to Old Girl’s Dorm.” The Hoya. 11 Feb. 1965, p.3.
- 4Terry Fortune, “Successful Marriage Between GU, F.A.A. Effected in Basement.” The Hoya. 5 Nov. 1965, p.3.
- 5Daniel Corry, “No Plans for Empty Buildings on Campus.” The Hoya. 23 March 2012.
- 6Will Cassou, “Kober-Cogan Demolition Begins.” The Hoya. 25 Jan. 2018.
