“If zombies attacked campus I would go to Gruening, because it is a fortress it was built to be riot proof!” exclaimed Ben McDaniel. McDaniel’s backed by a rumor that the Gruening (pronounced GREEN-ing) building is riot proof.
“I have no knowledge if it being riot proof. I am not aware of any building on campus that is riot proof,” explained Lieutenant Syrilyn Tong from the UAF police department.

According to  “building information” provided by UAF University relations, it was designed in the image of the FBI building in Washington, D.C. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, planners feared university and other "establishment” buildings would be targets of civil unrest. Structures like Gruening were made to withstand attack. It has no ledges or fixtures from which the building can be scaled from the outside. The smooth flat walls and angled windowsills prevent people from climbing the building.

The Gruening building stands where the old Hess Hall once stood. Hess Hall was the first concrete dormitory on campus. Gruening was the first on campus to exceed three stories. The construction ran a year and a half behind schedule, but that wasn’t the only glitch that plagued the project.

As the construction crawled along, progress was halted due to a contractor’s error. It was found that the steel ties around the outside of the seventh floor had not been installed. It was thought that the cement on the eighth floor would have to be torn up and re-poured due to this mistake. After consulting with an architect, the university was advised that the steel ties were not important for the building’s structural integrity. They were only used to keep large chunks of cement from falling off the building in the case of seismic disturbances.

When the molds of the concrete were removed from the outside it was revealed that the concrete was not poured correctly. Crumbling sheets of cement and uneven slabs were the product of the faulty pouring. The architect’s solution was to chip away at the outside of the building to make the building look intentionally uneven. Weeks before the building opened students walked past crews hammering away at the outside of the building to make it look intentionally uneven.

The Gruening building was also supposed to have lights running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Instead of turning on the lights needed to use they would turn off the lights that were not needed. This was such a novel and cutting edge idea until the oil embargo in 1973 when the lights went out. That year Christmas lights were even temporarily banned. The lighting system in Gruening has since changed to a more energy-efficient system, even though you have to use those precious calories to turn on the light switch. It was also supposed to have an innovated moving wall system according to “The Cornerstone on College Hill,” by Terrence Cole “Gruening was originally intended not to have any closed offices, but the faculty rejected the idea and it ended up with walls it now has” explained Professor Terrence Cole.