The Moore-Bartlett-Skarland complex includes three residence halls linked with a common area that includes the Hess Recreation Center, the Campus Cache and department offices.

•     Ivar Skarland Hall opened in 1964 as the "new women's dorm," to accommodate 142 students in double and single rooms. The hall was converted to coed in 1975. In 2009 the university administration determined that there are enough problems with the building that it should not be used for student housi ng. In August 2010, renovations to repair Skarland Hall began. Renovations are scheduled to be complete by fall 2011 and the hall will be used as an EDGE residence.

Ivar Skarland received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines in 1935. After earning a master's and doctorate at Harvard, he returned to the University of Alaska where he taught archaeology and anthropology from 1940 until his death in 1965. He became a world leader in northern archaeology. Students petitioned to name the new women's dorm after Skarland; the hall was the first on the UA campus not named after a member of the board of regents. The network of skiing and running trails on the main campus are also named after him.

•    E.L. Bartlett Hall is the central building of the residential complex. The eight-story building opened in 1969. Bartlett Hall has capacity for up to 322 students in single and double occupancy rooms, with a lounge on each floor and a large lounge on the ground floor.

E.L. Bartlett, known as Bob, was born in Seattle, Wash., on April 20, 1904. He lived in Fairbanks from 1905 to 1933 and attended the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines and the University of Washington. Bartlett was named congressional secretary to Anthony J. Dimond, his close friend who had been elected Alaska's delegate to Congress in 1933. He succeeded Dimond and began the first of seven consecutive terms as Alaska's delegate to Congress. When statehood was granted to Alaska, something he was instrumental in making happen, Bartlett was elected U.S. senator and served in that post until his death.

•    Terris Moore Hall opened in 1966. The eight-story coed residence hall is the western-most building of the M-B-S complex. Dedicated to former UA President Terris Moore in 1968, Moore Hall can house up to 322 students. The bottom floor of Moore Hall contains three lounges and a kitchen area.

Terris Moore was the second president of the University of Alaska, serving from 1949 to 1953. Moore, with Sydney Chapman’s help, assembled a distinguished research staff at the Geophysical Institute and established the first formal graduate study at the university. He was granted emeritus status in 1972.

•    The Harriet and Luther Hess Recreation Center opened in 1970, in the M-B-S complex. It was originally designed as a dining hall and called the Harriet and Luther Hess Dining Commons. It currently serves as a meeting area for social events, conferences and training sessions.

Harriet Belle moved to Fairbanks in 1907, where she was principal of the high school from 1907 to 1910. She married Luther Hess in 1911. She was elected secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines upon its founding in 1917, and she remained on the board when it became the University of Alaska Board of Regents in 1935.

Luther Hess was licensed to practice law in Alaska in 1901 and served as assistant U.S. district attorney for the Fourth Judicial Division until 1905. Hess served in nine sessions of the Alaska Territorial Legislature.