Old Jordan Hall is a seven story building opened in 1971. A new addition providing laboratory, office and classroom space was opened in December 1995. This HVAC replacement is for the original building and does not cover the new addition.

The first floor of Jordan Hall contains two lecture halls, each seating 152 students, as well as a smaller seminar room and the anatomy laboratories. The majority of the first and second year lectures are given here. The second floor houses additional student laboratories designed for both individual exercises in histology and pathology, as well as group experiments and teaching sessions in microbiology. The rest of the second floor contains basic science research laboratories. The academic offices and research laboratories of the Departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Microbiology occupy floors three through seven, respectively.

In June 1999 the University completed an exhaustive study of the HVAC infrastructure of Old Jordan Hall. The major findings of the study are as follows: 1) nearly all of the HVAC infrastructure equipment is as old as the building; thus it is well beyond anticipated life expectancy and in dire need of replacement; 2) distribution components (ductwork and piping) are obstructed and/or overloaded; 3) controls are functional but outmoded, limit flexibility ,and include only minimal interface with the central campus system; 4) provisions for energy reclaim, system redundancy, and adaptability to change are minimal to nonexistent; 5) spare capacity exists for heating only, which in fact wastes energy; 6) there is no smoke evacuation or stairway pressurization, which is noncompliant with current code; and 7) the HVAC infrastructure concepts are no longer commensurate with modern research laboratory facilities. Also, the study concluded that the emergency power system is marginal and will not support necessary HVAC upgrades. This remains an essentially accurate assessment of the system with the following exceptions: 1) in the intervening eleven years the system has continued to deteriorate; 2) the building is now on central chilled water; the original chillers and one of the original cooling towers having already been removed; and 3) the air-handler serving the basement floor has been replaced.