The Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College celebrated the $5 million renovation and official opening of the historic French House Thursday afternoon with a ribbon cutting ceremony, headlined by speeches from several University officials, including LSU President F. King Alexander.
Other speakers at the event included Ogden Honors College Dean Jonathan Earle and Ogden Honors Student Council President Kurt Ristroph.
New features in the French House include five ADA-compliant chairlifts, a student lounge, seminar-style classrooms, improved acoustics in the Grand Salon, and a reception area.
“How about another big idea?” said Dean Earle regarding the new features. “Having the best honors college in the SEC, or the South, or [the United States].”
The event’s centerpiece, a purple ribbon extending from one end of the salon to the other, was cut with large gold scissors by multiple affiliates involved in the project. After the cutting, self-guided tours were issued through the three-story building.
According to Coordinator of Academic Advising and Enrollment Management Jeremy Joiner, he moves into his newly-renovated office in the French House with the rest of the Honors College faculty Monday and Tuesday, and the building’s official opening is Wednesday.
Lori Prochaska, French House project architect of Tipton Associates along with Shane Higdon, was one of the people who cut the ribbon. She said her team rarely has the opportunity to renovate a building as old as the French House.
Prochaska said she spent part of her undergraduate and entire graduate career at LSU, and Higdon spent his undergraduate career there. She said the building was not used much in the 1990s when she was a student.
The ribbon cutting was held in the grand salon, which used to host music concerts and performances. The chandelier-lit room was filled wall-to-wall with formally dressed faculty and affiliates and casually-dressed students, all excited and abuzz in the crisp and sunny weather and breeze coming in through the open doors. Refreshments included French vanilla artisan cupcakes, a nod to the building’s name and French traditions.
Biology senior and honors student Ellen Foster, who was at the event, said she has taken classes at the French House throughout her academic career and that the new renovations make the building unrecognizable to her and her classmates, except for the Grand Salon.
“We were like, ‘Whoa, this doesn’t even look like the same building!’” she said.

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Nicholas Martino

Ogden Honors College host the ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, January 28, 2016 in honor of rennovations being completed at the French House.