I figured I'd transition the discussion to this thread from the Hilton thread. 

 

I'm willing to definitively state that the Rhodes Tower was suppsed to be 150ft taller and the shape being a result of changes during construction is incorrect. A 'tall tale' if you will.  

 

If there was any plan for a taller tower, it would have been discussed or conceptualized before being unveiled and well before it would have impacted the final outcome. 

 

I've been digging through Plain Dealer archives and the earliest reference I can find to the tower is June 1970. In the articles, they consistently refer to a 42 Story building on Broad and include a photo of a model that features the same odd shape on the East side of the building from the unveiling of the project. 

 

 

In my digging, I really get an understanding of the deep seeded, ingrained, and at times, vitriolic distaste for Columbus that many Northeast Ohians have. The Plain Dealer consistently and persistently fought the notion that Columbus should deserve such a tower. Every article includes that bias, even being in the news section and not the opinion section. The editorial board makes their position known. And if most households rely on the Plain Dealer for their news in 1970, there's generations of folks with the same bias. It was fascinating. 

 

July 1970 - The PD takes issue that the state didn't just buy the LeVeque for a steal only to still 500,000 sf of additional space. 

 

 

August 1970 - details of the ground breaking also confirm 42 stories.  The second building referred here would eventually be the Vern Riffe center. Plans for an intended second tower on State and High appear to have been discussed concurrently. 

 

 

August 1970 - 1 new tower at the benefit of Columbus, you've gone too far!. 2 new towers?!  Off with their heads! 

 

 

Nov 1973 - the tower gets its first official name. Cincy also want to control the pet population. (Coincidentally shortly after Bob Barker started his run on the Price is Right) 

 

 

June 1974 - the tower begins to open

 

 

A couple of other interesting tidbits

  - the last article indicates the tower was the largest granite structure kn the world at the time according to state officials

  - they planned to stagger shifts to allow state employees to have parking spaces since they didn't have enough

  - there was a lawsuit involving a Becker & Becker employee who left the company to found his own company and submit a bid for the tower within 15 days of Becker & Beckers bid. The court agreed the employee knew too much before leaving to make it a coincidence

 

There appears to be an article indicating that the Vern Riffe Center office space was reduced by 100,000 SF but I couldn't get access to that article. There also appear to be indication the Ohio History Connection may have original architectural documents related to the Rhodes Tower. 

 

FWIW, I've never thought it was terribly odd under the context of there being a helipad on top similar to hospitals. Many older hospitals have that similar protrusion to accommodate access. But that might take further digging as I'm not sure the helipad is original. 

 

These were the buildings demolished to make way for the Rhodes Tower.

 

 

 

So yeah. ADHD fueled obsession satisfied. Time for sleep. 

Edited March 25, 20223 yr by DTCL11

Thank you for that wonderful post!

These old photos are absolutely awesome, thanks for sharing! 

More to the story with Rhodes...

While I haven't found anything yet specifically about it being proposed at a greater height, a Dispatch article from 1969 has an early proposal that was actually much smaller, at 20-24 stories, so the final built version was not the only proposal it ever had.  Perhaps at one time there was a taller proposal before the height was reduced to the final version, which is where the idea came from, but that version never made it into media sources?  One thing to note is that earlier articles around 1970-1971 list 42 stories, but later ones list 41 stories, so it may have actually lost a floor at some point, again indicating multiple versions.   

The tower seemed to be pretty controversial overall, and there was massive infighting about space.  There was near universal agreement that there wasn't enough room for everyone who wanted to move into it.  That may have also fed into the idea that it was supposed to be taller.  Regardless, the idea that it was supposed to be taller has been around many, many years, and not just something from Wiki.  

One final possibility is that a larger tower, closer to 50 stories, was proposed at the corner of High and Broad in the mid to late 1960s right around the time the original Rhodes proposal came about, and I wonder if some people confused the two over time.  

 

 

Edited March 25, 20223 yr by jonoh81

So we have now know that there was no "150 feet" taller for the Rhodes Tower, so if it has not been done already will someone please adjust the wiki article. We can put the "supposed to have been 150 foot taller" tower tall tale to a rest. 

 

*The worst thing, on the first article posted by DCTL11 was the "possible matching tower on State Street on the opposite side of the Statehouse..."  OMG we could have been stuck with two of these monstrosities. 

And "handsome addition to the skyline"? Man the 70's were jacked up.

14 hours ago, DTCL11 said:

 

 

 

In my digging, I really get an understanding of the deep seeded, ingrained, and at times, vitriolic distaste for Columbus that many Northeast Ohians have. The Plain Dealer consistently and persistently fought the notion that Columbus should deserve such a tower. Every article includes that bias, even being in the news section and not the opinion section. The editorial board makes their position known. And if most households rely on the Plain Dealer for their news in 1970, there's generations of folks with the same bias. It was fascinating. 

 

 

 

There was really no need for that sort of discourse at that time considering how much more powerful and important Cleveland was than Columbus at the time in almost every single way except state government. Perhaps nowadays those sorts of feelings can be somewhat understood with Columbus getting a lot of the good stuff over the past 25 years (sometimes needlessly) while Appalachian and Northern Ohio lag.

 

Then someone asks you where you get on the train here...

29 minutes ago, Toddguy said:

*The worst thing, on the first article posted by DCTL11 was the "possible matching tower on State Street on the opposite side of the Statehouse..."  OMG we could have been stuck with two of these monstrosities. 

 

I am guessing this ultimately became the Riffe Center. Riffe is no architectural gem but its so much more palatable than Rhodes, I am quite glad we ended up with Riffe vs. a second Rhodes. Oof

15 hours ago, DTCL11 said:

I figured I'd transition the discussion to this thread from the Hilton thread. 

 

I'm willing to definitively state that the Rhodes Tower was suppsed to be 150ft taller and the shape being a result of changes during construction is incorrect. A 'tall tale' if you will.  

 

If there was any plan for a taller tower, it would have been discussed or conceptualized before being unveiled and well before it would have impacted the final outcome. 

 

I've been digging through Plain Dealer archives and the earliest reference I can find to the tower is June 1970. In the articles, they consistently refer to a 42 Story building on Broad and include a photo of a model that features the same odd shape on the East side of the building from the unveiling of the project. 

 

 

In my digging, I really get an understanding of the deep seeded, ingrained, and at times, vitriolic distaste for Columbus that many Northeast Ohians have. The Plain Dealer consistently and persistently fought the notion that Columbus should deserve such a tower. Every article includes that bias, even being in the news section and not the opinion section. The editorial board makes their position known. And if most households rely on the Plain Dealer for their news in 1970, there's generations of folks with the same bias. It was fascinating. 

 

July 1970 - The PD takes issue that the state didn't just buy the LeVeque for a steal only to still 500,000 sf of additional space. 

 

 

August 1970 - details of the ground breaking also confirm 42 stories.  The second building referred here would eventually be the Vern Riffe center. Plans for an intended second tower on State and High appear to have been discussed concurrently. 

 

 

August 1970 - 1 new tower at the benefit of Columbus, you've gone too far!. 2 new towers?!  Off with their heads! 

 

 

Nov 1973 - the tower gets its first official name. Cincy also want to control the pet population. (Coincidentally shortly after Bob Barker started his run on the Price is Right) 

 

 

June 1974 - the tower begins to open

 

 

A couple of other interesting tidbits

  - the last article indicates the tower was the largest granite structure kn the world at the time according to state officials

  - they planned to stagger shifts to allow state employees to have parking spaces since they didn't have enough

  - there was a lawsuit involving a Becker & Becker employee who left the company to found his own company and submit a bid for the tower within 15 days of Becker & Beckers bid. The court agreed the employee knew too much before leaving to make it a coincidence

 

There appears to be an article indicating that the Vern Riffe Center office space was reduced by 100,000 SF but I couldn't get access to that article. There also appear to be indication the Ohio History Connection may have original architectural documents related to the Rhodes Tower. 

 

FWIW, I've never thought it was terribly odd under the context of there being a helipad on top similar to hospitals. Many older hospitals have that similar protrusion to accommodate access. But that might take further digging as I'm not sure the helipad is original. 

 

These were the buildings demolished to make way for the Rhodes Tower.

 

 

 

So yeah. ADHD fueled obsession satisfied. Time for sleep. 

What a fantastic report on the history of the development of the Rhodes Tower. Especially interesting to see it from the perspective of the Plain Dealer and the suttle barbs lobbed towards the Capital City, even that long ago. Thanks so much for putting this summary together. It really pieces together the development of the city's tallest, and possibly ugliest, skyscraper. 

1 hour ago, jonoh81 said:

More to the story with Rhodes...

While I haven't found anything yet specifically about it being proposed at a greater height, a Dispatch article from 1969 has an early proposal that was actually much smaller, at 20-24 stories, so the final built version was not the only proposal it ever had.  Perhaps at one time there was a taller proposal before the height was reduced to the final version, which is where the idea came from, but that version never made it into media sources?  One thing to note is that earlier articles around 1970-1971 list 42 stories, but later ones list 41 stories, so it may have actually lost a floor at some point, again indicating multiple versions.   

The tower seemed to be pretty controversial overall, and there was massive infighting about space.  There was near universal agreement that there wasn't enough room for everyone who wanted to move into it.  That may have also fed into the idea that it was supposed to be taller.  Regardless, the idea that it was supposed to be taller has been around many, many years, and not just something from Wiki.  

One final possibility is that a larger tower, closer to 50 stories, was proposed at the corner of High and Broad in the mid to late 1960s right around the time the original Rhodes proposal came about, and I wonder if some people confused the two over time.  

 

 

Here’s a 700’ tower proposed for Broad and High in 1970. I don’t know how serious this proposal was. 

48 minutes ago, Pablo said:

Here’s a 700’ tower proposed for Broad and High in 1970. I don’t know how serious this proposal was. 

We'll never know how serious this was, but the developer was from Cleveland and he said he was prepared to construct the tower but one parcel owner held out from selling the final piece of ground. This is the first rendition of the tower I've seen, but if this is it, it would fit right in with Columbus' penchant for bland, boxy buildings 

Additional Information on Rhodes Tower. 

 

There were certainly other design concepts that will require some digging to find. There was an RFP process so the state should have them archived somehwere. However the public one we know and love didn't change from its announcement to its completion with the exception of one detail. The reason it was at 42 stories until near completion is during the construction process, they updated the air handling design which resulted in the loss of a floor but didn't change the overall design from a height standpoint or exterior massing. 

 

And I received confirmation regarding the helipad playing a part in the design. The helipad was initially a relatively well kept secret (pre-aerial imaging) but is part of the original design partially accounting for the protrusion to the East and North. There are hefty mechanics and lifts for access not commonly found on rooftops. Where as most would require a shed sized structure for mandoor access, Rhodes needed more. And with the helipad, a central access point was not an option. This resulted in the asymmetrical approach. 

 

What tower should we dig into next? 

Edited March 26, 20223 yr by DTCL11

1 hour ago, DTCL11 said:

 

What tower should we dig into next? 

 

Leveque. Supposedly it was designed so zeppelins could land on the top of it. 

2 hours ago, cbussoccer said:

Leveque. Supposedly it was designed so zeppelins could land on the top of it. 

Man, apparently every large office building in Ohio built in the 1920s was designed for Zeppelins, despite the lack of any supporting evidence or, um, actual Zeppelin dockings. It is a very cool (apocryphal?) story, nonetheless. 
 

Back to that original deep-dive by the PD into what would become Rhodes Tower, it says that Gov. Rhodes promised an office building in Cleveland while he campaigned in the 1960s. Is this the origin of the Lausche State Office Building, or did that have another origin story?

12 hours ago, DTCL11 said:

What tower should we dig into next? 

 

I've heard that the AEP building is largely blank on the NW side so that an expansion could occur, sharing the same core/circulation elements?

 

If you look at the satellite, the odd shape seems to roughly support this, seeing how a missing wedge could be added atop the existing base to 'complete' a more square shaped tower... 

Edited March 26, 20223 yr by NW24HX

19 minutes ago, NW24HX said:

 

I've heard that the AEP building is largely blank on the NW side so that an expansion could occur, sharing the same core/circulation elements?

 

If you look at the satellite, the odd shape seems to roughly support this, seeing how a missing wedge could be added atop the existing base to 'complete' a more square shaped tower... 

I think the AEP building has its elevator core on this side so windows wouldn’t overlook the still open Ohio Pen, industrial areas and railroads that dominated this area in 1983. 

14 hours ago, DTCL11 said:

Additional Information on Rhodes Tower. 

 

There were certainly other design concepts that will require some digging to find. There was an RFP process so the state should have them archived somehwere. However the public one we know and love didn't change from its announcement to its completion with the exception of one detail. The reason it was at 42 stories until near completion is during the construction process, they updated the air handling design which resulted in the loss of a floor but didn't change the overall design from a height standpoint or exterior massing. 

 

And I received confirmation regarding the helipad playing a part in the design. The helipad was initially a relatively well kept secret (pre-aerial imaging) but is part of the original design partially accounting for the protrusion to the East and North. There are hefty mechanics and lifts for access not commonly found on rooftops. Where as most would require a shed sized structure for mandoor access, Rhodes needed more. And with the helipad, a central access point was not an option. This resulted in the asymmetrical approach. 

 

What tower should we dig into next? 

The helipad is no excuse-LA has a ton of buildings with them and none of them look this awful.  It is just a horrible bland design with a special ugliness to the top. There are no excuses. And that other 700 foot atrocity that would have been right next to our lovely Leveque Tower? A dodged bullet. I remember coming down Broad as a child and seeing the evil skeleton of this thing rising up behind the Leveque Tower...can you tell I really really hate it? lol 

 

The only thing I like about it is the name. Ugliness for ugliness.

Edited March 26, 20223 yr by Toddguy

1 hour ago, NW24HX said:

 

I've heard that the AEP building is largely blank on the NW side so that an expansion could occur, sharing the same core/circulation elements?

 

If you look at the satellite, the odd shape seems to roughly support this, seeing how a missing wedge could be added atop the existing base to 'complete' a more square shaped tower... 

When this building opened (or right about that time) Columbus Monthly wrote a review of it and IIRC it was all about 'the climate crisis" and "energy crisis"(when we had gone through those severe 70's winters) and they did not want windows on the northwest side because that was the direction of the coldest winter winds or some such stuff. They seemed to believe that these things went into the design, and why it looks to me like a 32 floor parking garage.

 

Maybe someone has access to CM's archives or something?

Re: AEP - I've heard the second tower and the views towards the penitentiary theories for the building's blank side, but not the energy crisis being a factor. @DTCL11your move! 😄

4 hours ago, CMHOhio said:

Re: AEP - I've heard the second tower and the views towards the penitentiary theories for the building's blank side, but not the energy crisis being a factor. @DTCL11your move! 😄

I swear that is at least how I remember it. We do need a proper investigation though. Maybe a whole thread-what is the real reason our buildings look so ugly?-separating facts from fiction! 

Rudementary Timeline of Columbus Buildings above 200'

 

My random project based on wiki. I couldn't readily find the heights of buildings like Bollinger, 250 S High, Canopy, Joseph etc. I don't believe they break the 200' mark but wanted to double check in case there are a few that do belong on this that aren't. 

 

Pre-1960 condensed. 

Edited March 28, 20223 yr by DTCL11

Here's some forgotten Columbus skyscraper history you all might find interesting: the Temple of Good Will.

 

Temple dedicated to Protestantism. 650 feet tall, plus a 100-foot spire, plan fell apart after over a decade of talks, property sales, new parking lots and a garage, ruining the Chittenden Hotel, and removing part of Civic Center Drive.

Here's some stories about it (requires CML card): August 1, 1980, May 4, 1954, May 27, 1951, December 5, 1948.

Very interesting.  Thanks!  Please share more if you have time!