Hugo and Ina Champ Urbauer Hall was begun in 1957, completed in 1959, and formally dedicated in March 1965.
The consulting architect was a former Washington University in St. Louis dean of Architecture, Joseph R. Passonneau.
Hugo Urbauer
Hugo Urbauer was born in September 1868 in Austria. During a visit with his family to the United States, Hugo Urbauer’s father died, so he decided to stay rather than be a financial burden on his mother.
Urbauer got a job as a steamfitter’s helper, and he started his own business a few years later in 1899, Urbauer-Atwood Heating Co. In 1913 he married Ina C. Champ, whose father owned Champ Spring Co. Mr. Urbauer started a new company, Midwest Piping and Supply Co., which absorbed his earlier company, and soon saw annual gross sales of $18 million. Mrs. Urbauer played an active role on the company’s Board of Directors.