# Eads Hall: a first use of the detailed campus plans

September 6, 2026. Prepared for the checkpoint following release 37.

The plain block behind the Hall of Congresses has become a first model of Eads Hall, used by the Board of Lady Managers during the fair. Two cross-gabled wings now project from the long main building. Its eastern end meets the library reading room, closing an old false gap.

## What supported the change

- M001, the general ground plan, labels the building Lady Managers and places it behind Congresses.
- [M006, the Sanborn atlas](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), campus sheets 1–2, identifies Eads Hall and shows its two projecting wings. The sheet marks two storeys. Stacked wall figures describe thickness, not building height.
- [B021, the February 1904 magazine](https://archive.org/details/popularsciencemon64newy/page/358/mode/1up), printed page 358, includes the Physical Laboratory illustration. P027 is a reduced crop of that same illustration, not a separate historical witness. The image is a design view, not a photograph.
- [B023, the later campus nomination](https://nara-media.s3.amazonaws.com/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MO/79003636.pdf), describes Eads and dates its attachment to the library reading room to 1902. Later campus alterations must not be assumed to have existed in 1904.

## What is still estimated

The overall position is fitted to the general map and the existing reading-room endpoint. Wing proportions follow the detailed plan, but this is not a surveyed footprint. Wall height, roof rise and window spacing are provisional. The windows are simple repeated shapes. Entrances, chimneys, fine masonry, rooms and ground levels need more work.

## What Astra contributed, and what the review changed

GPT-6 Astra connected the sources to the existing building and movement code, built the first wing arrangement, prepared the labeled archival comparison and ran the software checks. Browser inspection then revealed that the shared renderer left the gable ends blank. Adding windows to those ends improved agreement with the illustration. The before and after are a correction within this model's work, not a comparison with a newer model.

The useful lesson is that a familiar component can silently omit a source-supported feature. Tests for collision footprints did not ask whether a gable had windows. Looking at the actual building answered that separate question.

No controlled timing, cost or newer-model comparison was performed. Better evidence and a corrected renderer both contributed to this change; a future comparison must account for those starting conditions.

## Review

The initial full suite passed 66 checks. After the gable-window correction, focused campus, place-description, source-record, rendered-ground and scene checks were rerun, including a new check for the closed gap and clear outdoor arrival. The route audit reported no centerline failures across 164 path and bridge records. This does not mean every square metre has been checked or every route belongs to one continuous paved network.

Actual browser views covered the cross-gabled front and the connection from above. The public comparison uses the same current world builder. These checks establish a usable first model, not historical completeness.

Full source identities, access notes and contact routes are in [the source register](/sources). No institution has been contacted by this project.