in 1973, franzen and associates, the architectural firm that was designing cornell's statutory college buildings at that time, conducted a study indicating that roberts, east roberts, stone, caldwell and comstock halls were unsafe and should be condemned. franzen concluded that it would cost $14 million to renovate the five buildings and that it would be cheaper to tear them down and replace them with new buildings, presumably designed by franzen. (ironically, as of 2010, caldwell and comstock halls are still in use, but another franzen-designed building, the north wing of martha van rensselaer hall, had to be demolished as structurally unsound.) by 1978, the cost of demolishing the five buildings and building two replacements had escalated to $18 million. in response, two groups, historic ithaca and a student-group called the "ag quad preservation society" applied to list the five buildings on the national register and sought to protect them under a newly enacted ithaca historic preservation ordinance. just before historic ithaca could gain a court injunction to stop the demolition of roberts, east roberts and stone halls, cornell began the demolition. the state of new york renovated caldwell and sold comstock back to cornell for use as a computer center.