Rubbish district: City's cutbacks in bulk-trash pickup mean waste is more likely to accumulate in the campus area

Friday, February 20, 2009 - 3:18 AM

By Mark Ferenchik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

When Columbus laid off 13 bulk-trash drivers last week, it also ended daily treks by a truck that rumbled down University District alleys picking up couches and other large items.  A truck still will roam the alleys but not daily, Assistant Public Service Director Mary Carran Webster said. How often? "We don't know," she said.

 

That concerns neighborhood leaders.  "The fear is that it would sit there," attracting firebugs and vermin, Steve Sterrett said of the cast-off furniture and other debris.  He is a spokesman for Campus Partners, the nonprofit development arm of Ohio State University.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/20/UNIVERSITY_TRASH.ART_ART_02-20-09_B1_2MCVPDE.html?type=rss&cat&sid=101&title=Rubbish+district

Follow-up to the February news about the Holiday on Lane Avenue previously posted in this thread.

 

Holiday Inn to become 480-bed OSU dormitory

Tuesday,  February 10, 2009 - 3:03 AM

By Mike Pramik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Holiday Inn on Lane GM enjoying hotel's final days

Business First of Columbus - by Doug Buchanan

Friday, March 20, 2009

 

The Holiday Inn on the Lane will close after lunch March 30 as Ohio State University prepares the building for possible student housing.  High school sports and other conventions have kept the hotel's staff busy in its waning days.  "It's been a great ride," said Fred Harris, who became the property's manager soon after Harper Hotels Inc. from Muncie, Ind., opened it in 1974. "It was an exciting property. You could never get old."

 

Harris said the 11-story, 243-room hotel hosted many guests during the Arnold Sports Festival on March 5-8 and was keeping busy with those attending the high school state wrestling and basketball tournaments.

 

Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment, a development affiliate of Ohio State, expects to close its deal to purchase the building for $19 million by March 31.  Harris said he welcomes the "extremely busy" end of his tenure at the hotel. "We're going out like a lion," he said.

 

Read more at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/03/23/tidbits1.html

OMG! I worked in the restaurant of that place when it first opened (I'm that old!!), when it was called the Ohioan Room. John Glenn was a part-owner and he came in with his campaign entourage when he was running for Senate. I just remember there was a bellman working then whose name was, I swear, Rino Pelino; and the hostess of the restaurant was the wife of Columbus TV legend Flippo the Clown (she was very cool and classy though). I also remember the top rock acts of the time stayed there (since it was across from St. John Arena), you know, like Mott the Hopple (who? :wtf:); and I believe that in good rock star fashion they totally trashed their rooms.

Last guests leave OSU Holiday Inn

Tuesday,  March 31, 2009 - 8:32 AM

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The last guests have checked out of a hotel popular with Ohio State University families and football fans.  The Holiday Inn across from campus on Lane Avenue in Columbus - known as "the Holiday Inn on the Lane" - closed Monday and will be converted to a student dormitory in time for the fall.  The university's real estate affiliate recently announced it was buying the 36-year-old hotel for $19 million.  Renovations are expected to cost up to $6 million and will turn the 243-room hotel into a dorm for 480 Ohio State students.

 

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/03/31/aholiday.html?sid=101

Price tag of Holiday Inn conversion rises to $8.5M

Business First of Columbus - by Brian R. Ball

Friday, April 10, 2009

 

Holiday Inn on the Lane could have 458 student tenants as early as this fall if Ohio State University can get through its $8.5 million renovation plan this summer.  OSU trustees April 3 approved the renovations and acquisition of the property from Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment. Campus Partners paid $19 million for the 11-story building at 328 W. Lane Ave. March 31.

 

The cost of renovating the building has risen from an estimate of $6 million made in December, when Campus Partners signed its deal with Harper Hotels Inc. and OSU took a look at what it would take to convert guest rooms into apartments.

 

Read more at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/04/13/newscolumn1.html

Ohio State’s Cartoon Library and Museum in line for new home

Monday, April 13, 2009, 8:00am EDT

Business First of Columbus - by Carrie Ghose

 

Galleries for Hagar, Calvin and the Yellow Kid, plus a bigger stage for dance performances, are part of the vision for a public arts corridor heading into the heart of the Ohio State University campus.  The school’s Cartoon Library and Museum, which claims to have the world’s largest collection of comics art, in late March landed $10.5 million toward a new home that will get it out of a warren so cramped that boxes of new acquisitions block access to drawers of archived material.

 

University Libraries and the school’s dance department plan to seek trustee approval in June for designing an estimated $22 million renovation of Sullivant Hall.  Under preliminary plans, dance would vacate the ground floor for the cartoon collection and move to the upper two floors.

 

The rehab could remove exterior staircases and create ground-level entrances to the nearly century-old building at North High Street and 15th Avenue.  It also would give the Cartoon Library a higher profile.

 

 

Ohio State University’s Cartoon Library and Museum and dance department are asking the school for a $22 million renovation of Sullivant Hall at North High Street and 15th Avenue.

 

Read more at

http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/04/13/story8.html?b=1239595200^1809467

Incoming class won't strain OSU housing

Holiday Inn's speedy conversion to 430-bed residence hall helps

Sunday,  July 12, 2009 - 3:29 AM

By Encarnacion Pyle, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Ohio State University's freshman class is expected to be as much as 500 students larger this fall than last, but the college isn't sweating about having enough housing even though one dorm will be closed this year.  "Even if we get 50 to 100 more students than we are projecting, we'll still be fine," said Molly Ranz, director of facilities management and logistics for Student Life.

 

Ohio State has set a goal of 6,300 first-year students -- 269 more than attended last year.  But 7,226 students have paid a $100 acceptance fee to save a spot, and the school expects that about 6,550 will show up for classes in the fall.  That would be the largest freshman class in 10 years, said Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions and first-year experience.

 

 

Read more at

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/07/12/OSU_housing.ART_ART_07-12-09_B1_SNEETJ6.html?sid=101

OSU drawing back curtain on land-use master plan

 

Ohio State University officials are kicking off a series of community meetings on its master plan Tuesday with a special meeting of the University Area Commission.

 

Boston-based Sasaki Associates has been working on the plan since February, and the university hopes to have it ready sometime this winter, said Jeff Kaplan, OSU senior vice president for administration and planning.  Until now, the work has been discussed in closed trustee sessions.  In this second phase, the school is seeking input from the University District, Battelle and other neighbors along the way.

 

More here --> http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/09/14/daily18.html

 

Master plan will set stage for true One University

Posted on | August 12, 2009 | 1,528 views |

 

by Jeff McCallister

 

Ohio State looks much different today than it did 50 years ago, and will look much different 50 years from now than it does today.

 

After all, change is one of the constants of a university’s existence.

 

More here --> http://oncampus.osu.edu/2009/08/master-plan-will-set-stage-for-true-%E2%80%98one-university%E2%80%99/

50-YEAR PLANNING

OSU must be magnet for all, say designers

Wednesday,  September 16, 2009

By Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch

 

Ohio State University will have to attract more people to live, work and play around campus if it truly wants to become one of the top schools nationwide, according to a firm helping OSU create a master plan for the next half-century.  That means persuading more students, professors and staff members to stick around after work hours and luring other Columbus residents to the University District, says Sasaki Associates, a Boston-based design firm hired by OSU.  The effort will need to include business, civic and community groups, Sasaki officials said last night as they began publicly collecting ideas for the residential life and neighborhood portions of the long-range plan.  A plan is due by spring 2010.

 

Full story: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/09/16/OSU_mtg.ART_ART_09-16-09_B1_O6F3CKE.html?sid=101

Johio, you were asking about OSU master plans?  Apparently there have been a ton of them.  Facilities Operations and Development is the group at Ohio State that manages planning and construction for the university.  At their master plan page they have their most recent campus master plan from 1995.  At http://fod.osu.edu/masterplans/ there are eight volumes and a capital master plan update to the 1995 plan in pdf form.  Additionally, I counted nine subdistrict plans for various areas in the main campus and 29 feasibility studies for individual buildings, issues etc. 

 

Sasaki Associates looks to be OSU's planning firm of choice.  Sasaki did the 1995 plan and are doing this latest plan.  The Sasaki website contains three examples of their work for OSU, which are linked below.  I also included two images from their website.

 

1) Ohio State University Master Plan

2) Ohio State University Residential Towers Renovation

3) Ohio State University River of Trees

 

 

 

 

The reports on this new long-range plan seem to frame it as an expansion of the 1995 campus master plan.  It appears that the new plan would examine a much broader area than the OSU campus itself.  So you could look at this new plan as an expansion of the 1995 plan or possibly an update to the 1995 plan.  Either way, it should be interesting to follow the process.

Library at OSU due for upgrade

 

The world's largest collection of cartoon art, squirreled away in the basement of Ohio State University's Mershon Auditorium, is gearing up for a coming-out party.  Thanks largely to a $7 million donation from a foundation associated with a former Dispatch cartoonist, OSU's newly named Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum will be moving aboveground and into renovated gallery and office space in nearby Sullivant Hall.  The $21 million project is expected to be completed in 2013.

 

Yesterday was the first day of OSU's fall quarter.  From Walker at Columbus Underground, here is a rundown of some recently completed University area projects and some soon to be completed projects.

 

From: http://www.columbusunderground.com/back-to-school-at-osu-whats-new-this-year

 

"One of the largest new facilities on campus this fall is the newly renovated Thompson Library, which includes a vast array of study and research spaces.  Another big renovation project includes the former Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue, which just reopened as a new dormitory building.  The Ohio Union building still has another 8 months until completion though." 

 

"Some of the off-campus additions include the new art spaces taking shape at the South Campus Gateway, that will offer students a chance to easily connected with the local art scene in Columbus.  The new #21 COTA Bus Route is also a new addition that will help students to access late night weekend dining and entertainment options in the Short North, Arena District, and Clintonville neighborhoods."

 

OSU looks to expand dorm complex

Business First of Columbus - by Carrie Ghose

 

A $172 million dormitory renovation and expansion is set to keep the construction boom going on Ohio State University’s campus.  Trustees on Friday OK’d changing the project to renovate five south campus towers by adding two 11-story connectors.  The towers were to hold 2,000 beds after the renovation, and the expansion tacks on another 380. 

 

OSU President Gordon Gee eventually wants to require sophomores to live on campus along with freshmen.  That would require about 6,600 more beds, and various projects recently completed or on tap add 2,000.  That includes the 450-bed Lane Avenue residence hall that opens this fall in a converted Holiday Inn.

 

Full story at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/09/14/daily47.html

^I hope they aren't going to get rid of the courtyards between the first year experience dorms...  Not sure where else they would build the "connectors."  I like those courtyards...

From http://fod.osu.edu/projects/index.htm and http://www.ruscilli.com/subexperience03.asp?name=42.  An academic services building and new parking garage is being built on a previous surface parking lot at the southeast corner of Lane Avenue and Tuttle Park Place.  This site is immediately north of the Fisher College of Business.

 

OSU Student Academic Services Building and Lane Avenue Parking Garage

Architect: Acock & Associates

Owner: The Ohio State University

Description:  This project includes a new Student Academic Services Building and a 1500-space parking garage.  The Student Academic Services Building will relocate core student services functions from Lincoln Tower into a new facility consisting of approximately 71,000 square feet.  The services housed in this building will include Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid, Enrollment Services, Fees and Deposits, and Student Loan Disbursements.  The project site is bounded by Neil Avenue, Tuttle Park Place, and Lane Avenue. 

 

PROJECT SITE PLAN (PDF)

 

LANE AVENUE ELEVATION

 

TUTTLE PARK ELEVATION

 

NEIL AVENUE ELEVATIONS

 

Way to go green. Tear down buildings instead of restoring them and encourage auto dependency. Can't say I'm surprised these matters go right over the heads of OSU leadership.

Nothing like a thinly disguised garage at one of the most important gateways to campus... :(

Hotel hot spot

Several inns being built or planned amid steady business in OSU area

Thursday,  December 3, 2009

By Marla Matzer Rose

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The hotel industry hasn't exactly been in growth mode recently.  Occupancy rates have fallen, and room prices have dropped at existing properties.  Construction has slowed to a trickle.  But that's not the case in areas adjacent to Ohio State University, where several hotels are planned or under construction.  Industry executives say the university -- combined with nearby institutions including Battelle, Chemical Abstracts and Riverside Methodist and OSU hospitals -- provides a steady stream of business that is less exposed to the vagaries of the economy than in other areas.

 

"You have 52,000 students living right there and events going on at OSU.  You have Battelle, which does almost $600,000 a year in sleeping rooms.  Plus, you're only 3 miles from Downtown," said JD Singh, president and CEO of Columbus-based Sintel Properties.  Sintel is putting the finishing touches on a new 107-room Holiday Inn Express on Olentangy River Road.

 

LOCATION MAP OF EXISTING, UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND PLANNED HOTELS IN THE UNIVERSITY AREA

 

PHOTO OF THE HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS SCHEDULED TO OPEN JANUARY 2010

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2009/12/03/university_hotels.ART_ART_12-03-09_A12_7HFSC0Q.html

 

Two recent articles about two mega-projects on The Ohio State University campus.  The first article is about the five year old Recreation and Physical Activity Center or RPAC. 

 

• Sweatin' in style: The $140 million OSU rec center, now almost 5 years old, is a palace for physical fitness

 

The second article is about the new Ohio Union.  The new Ohio Union, scheduled to open next April, is a $118 million replacement for the previous Ohio Union. 

 

• New Ohio Union to be campus' giant 'living room'

 

New OSU parking garage opens

Business First of Columbus - by Matt Burns

Monday, January 4, 2010, 5:11pm EST

 

Ohio State University is ringing in the start of winter quarter this week with 1,400 additional parking spaces.  The school opened a nine-floor, $28 million garage at 2105 Neil Ave., off Lane Avenue.  The new garage is across from Fisher Hall, home of the school’s business college, and near St. John Arena and the Jesse Owens Recreation Center North.

 

Directly connected to the garage is an under-construction student academic services building that will consolidate registrar, financial aid and other key offices under one roof.  Some offices could begin moving into the new facility as early as next month, a spokeswoman said.

 

Full story at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/01/04/daily8.html?surround=lfn

From http://fod.osu.edu/projects/index.htm and http://www.ruscilli.com/subexperience03.asp?name=42.  An academic services building and new parking garage is being built on a previous surface parking lot at the southeast corner of Lane Avenue and Tuttle Park Place.  This site is immediately north of the Fisher College of Business.

 

OSU Student Academic Services Building and Lane Avenue Parking Garage

Architect: Acock & Associates

Owner: The Ohio State University

Description:  This project includes a new Student Academic Services Building and a 1500-space parking garage.  The Student Academic Services Building will relocate core student services functions from Lincoln Tower into a new facility consisting of approximately 71,000 square feet.  The services housed in this building will include Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid, Enrollment Services, Fees and Deposits, and Student Loan Disbursements.  The project site is bounded by Neil Avenue, Tuttle Park Place, and Lane Avenue. 

 

PROJECT SITE PLAN (PDF)

 

LANE AVENUE ELEVATION

 

TUTTLE PARK ELEVATION

 

NEIL AVENUE ELEVATIONS

 

 

Update to the above project...

 

 

OSU’s student services building opens

Thursday, April 15, 2010, 1:32pm EDT

Business First of Columbus

 

Ohio State University on Thursday opened the doors of a new student academic services building that’s billed as a one-stop shop for financial aid and other administrative offices.

 

The $32 million project, which broke ground in 2008, sits at 281 W. Lane Avenue and has offices for financial aid, the university bursar, registrar and minority affairs.  Shifting those offices from space in Lincoln Tower is allowing Ohio State to bring hundreds of additional beds online.

 

The new building is connected to a $30 million, 1,400-space parking garage at Neil Avenue and Tuttle Park Place that opened in January.

 

Full article: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/04/12/daily29.html?surround=lfn

 

And some more about the same project from The Dispatch...

 

 

One stop takes care of business for OSU students

They can register, pay bills, check on their aid at center

Thursday,  April 15, 2010 - 2:53 AM

By Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch

 

Ohio State University students no longer have to run all over campus to register for classes, pay their bills and get information about scholarships and loans.  OSU has opened a new Student Academic Services Building, a one-stop shop where students can get all of their business questions answered.

 

The $31.6 million, six-story building at Lane Avenue and Tuttle Park Place will be formally unveiled today.  The building is connected to the new Lane Avenue Parking Garage, which can accommodate up to 1,400 student, campus-employee and visitor vehicles.

 

Full article: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/04/15/test-right-rail.html?sid=101

Consultant's long-range plan for Ohio State calls for more housing, greener campus

Business First of Columbus - by Carrie Ghose

Friday, June 18, 2010

 

Ohio State University is planning to gauge the interest of developers in building or operating student housing.  Clarity on housing plans is one of many points arising from a broad guide to 50-year planning principles that trustees were expected to review June 18.  Planning principles Sasaki Associates helped Ohio State devise are intentionally broad, with little prescriptive detail except for a few surprises on infrastructure:

 

■ Improve traffic flow and open up green space along the Olentangy River by straightening and moving Route 315 slightly westward and Cannon Drive slightly eastward, and bridging the river at Kinnear Road.

 

■ Organize the campus around themes, concentrating technology and health science research on the west campus and academics along both Neil Avenue and the Oval.

 

■ Add no net academic space, but improve and adapt space and use it more efficiently.

 

■ Place new dorms only in existing housing areas or in off-campus areas such as High and 15th.  Consider both university building and partnerships with private developers.

 

■ Emphasize pedestrian-friendly places by narrowing streets and moving surface parking to remote lots in about 10 to 12 years, with shuttle and bus service running frequently through campus.

 

MORE: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/06/21/story2.html

Trustees OK big-picture plan for OSU

50-year wish list includes Rt. 315 moved west

Saturday, June 19, 2010 - 2:50 AM

By Encarnacion Pyle, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Ohio State trustees unanimously approved a set of guiding principles yesterday for a plan that creates a vision of what OSU's Columbus campus and surrounding neighborhoods should look like over the next half-century.  The plan spells out more conceptual ideas than details.  Those ideas range from the practical desire to eventually add up to 6,000 new student beds so sophomores and more upperclassmen can live on campus, to the granddaddy of all dreams: getting Rt. 315 straightened and moved westward.  The plan also recommends:

 

• Making Neil Avenue the campus' primary academic core, and creating a science and technology gateway that stretches down Lane Avenue.

 

• Extending Kinnear Road across the river as a research and health-sciences hub.

 

• Helping N. High Street become a cultural corridor with three concentrated areas of activity: South Campus Gateway, which could add more housing and perhaps office space; Lane Avenue and High, which could add more large-scale commercial and retail space and become a more visible entry to the campus; and 15th and High Street, which already is geared to the arts.

 

• Moving the 7,000 parking spaces along the Olentangy River and creating a recreational swath along both shores.  To improve traffic flow and open up more green space along the river, it is recommended that Rt. 315 be straightened and moved slightly west.

 

• Developing a pedestrian corridor on 17th, 18th and 19th streets.

 

Full article: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/06/19/trustees-ok-big-picture-plan-for-osu.html?sid=101

Very nice overview of OSU's newly released master plan over at Columbus Underground.  Good sampling of plans and renderings from OSU's "One Ohio State Framework", aka The Master Plan. 

 

 

OSU Master Plan: Next 50 Years of Development

 

This past Thursday, the Columbus Chapter of the Urban Land Institute presented the new “One Ohio State Framework”, which outlines a plan for redeveloping The Ohio State University campus over the next half-century.

 

MORE FROM COLUMBUS UNDERGROUND: http://www.columbusunderground.com/osu-master-plan-next-50-years-of-development

 

MORE MASTER PLAN INFORMATION FROM OHIO STATE: http://fod.osu.edu/afp/

 

Edwards eyes OSU-area housing plan

Business First of Columbus - by Brian R. Ball

Friday, August 20, 2010

 

Edwards Communities Development Co. has tentative plans to build a 469-bed student housing project near the North High Street commercial strip that fronts Ohio State University.  The Columbus developer this month delivered a conceptual plan for the complex on 2.6 acres off Pearl Street between East 15th and 16th avenues to the University Area Commission’s zoning committee. 

 

The company hasn’t made a zoning and development application with the city but hopes to in time to get the project introduced at the zoning committee’s September meeting.  The project could cost more than $20 million.  An Edwards Communities representative said the developer plans three levels of apartments above a garage with 223 parking spaces.  Apartments would house from one to four undergraduate students apiece, with the majority expected to be occupied by three or four residents.

 

Full article: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/08/23/story1.html?b=1282536000^3830931

From the Ohio State Facilities Operations and Development website.  An update on planning for a new Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building:

 

 

The new 225,000 gross sq.ft. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry (CBEC) Building will be located in the Academic Core North at the current locations of Boyd, Haskett, Johnston, and Aviation, which will be demolished.  This location is in the heart of science and engineering neighborhood and will create laboratory space with the proper floor-to-floor height, structural dimensions, and environmental stability to support intensive research.  The total project budget is $126 million.  The building also will adopt the sustainable design practices by Labs 21 in addition to a LEED Silver minimum.

 

MORE: http://fod.osu.edu/projects/cbec/2010_7-26.htm

From the Ohio State Facilities Operations and Development projects website.  An update on the Cunz Hall Renovation project:

 

The Cunz Hall Renovation Project is planned to be the first "LEED Renovation Project" at Ohio State with the goal of Silver certification when construction is complete in the fall of 2011.  The demolition and abatement work has been completed, and FOD is poised to engage the contractors for this total building renovation project.  This project will renovate all floors of Cunz Hall to create offices and labs for the College of Public Health and several pool classrooms.

 

 

 

MORE: http://fod.osu.edu/projects/cunz/2010_7-26.htm

From the Ohio State Facilities Operations and Development projects website.  Updates on three projects in the South Residential District of the Main Campus.  The three projects are the South High Rise Renovation and Additions, the Hall Complex Expansion, and the Kennedy Commons Renovation.  All projects begin some phase of construction in Summer 2010:

 

South High Rise renovation and expansion

This project involves the renovation and expansion of five student housing facilities in the south campus area – Siebert, Stradley, Park, Smith, and Steeb Halls.  Two additions along with extensive renovations to the existing buildings will include 2,483 beds.  The additions will connect Stradley/Park Halls and Smith/Steeb Halls, creating two buildings from four.  In addition, a chilled water plant will be constructed that will supply chilled water to the existing five buildings and two new connector buildings to allow the addition of air conditioning.

 

 

 

 

Hall Complex expansion

This project will construct a new housing facility as an extension of the William H. Hall housing complex.  The new housing will be suite-style and will provide approximately 537 additional student beds.  The facility will be located across from the existing Hall Complex on 10th Avenue, at the location of the current parking lot at the corner.

 

 

 

Kennedy Commons renovation

This project is the first phase of the Food Service Masterplan to renovate traditional dining commons to better accommodate the demands of students, faculty, staff, and visitors to campus.  The primary focus of the project is the interior organization of the campus dining operations.

 

 

MORE: http://fod.osu.edu/projects/s_res/2010_7-26.htm

No!  They're changing the commie-block housing I lived in my first 2 years!  Yay for Kennedy Commons getting renovated though.

looks like they're tearing down Hale Hall to make way for more green space.  Goodbye! 

So green of them.

South Campus high-rise renovation to cost $171M

By Dylan Tussel, The Lantern

Updated: Monday, October 4, 2010

 

Ohio State is in the middle of what officials call a $171.6 million shortcut to make room for more students on South Campus.  The project - dubbed the South Campus High Rise Renovation and Addition Project - will connect Park to Stradley, and Steeb to Smith, creating rooms for 360 more students by August 2013.  "It's basically building another building in between these two buildings," said Scott Conlon, director of projects for Facilities Design and Construction.

 

One such building will serve as a central lobby for Park and Stradley, and a similar building will provide a lobby to Steeb and Smith.  Besides the new lobby and extra residence rooms in the existing towers, the project will add lounges and study rooms to the dormitories.

 

The project will also add cooling systems to the high-rise buildings, because students will move into the halls earlier in the summer - when it's typically hotter - once the university switches to semesters in summer 2012, Conlon said.  Geothermal wells will power the new heating and cooling systems in the buildings, said Cihangir Calis, senior project manager for Facilities Operations and Development.

 

For full article and larger rendering: http://www.thelantern.com/campus/south-campus-high-rise-renovation-to-cost-171m-1.1662398

 

Oh wow.  I was in Park my freshman year.

Edwards eyes OSU-area housing plan

Business First of Columbus - by Brian R. Ball

Friday, August 20, 2010

 

Edwards Communities Development Co. has tentative plans to build a 469-bed student housing project near the North High Street commercial strip that fronts Ohio State University.  The Columbus developer this month delivered a conceptual plan for the complex on 2.6 acres off Pearl Street between East 15th and 16th avenues to the University Area Commission’s zoning committee. 

 

The company hasn’t made a zoning and development application with the city but hopes to in time to get the project introduced at the zoning committee’s September meeting.  The project could cost more than $20 million.  An Edwards Communities representative said the developer plans three levels of apartments above a garage with 223 parking spaces.  Apartments would house from one to four undergraduate students apiece, with the majority expected to be occupied by three or four residents.

 

Full article: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/08/23/story1.html?b=1282536000^3830931

 

FYI, five or six homes were demolished on 15th and 16th already. You can compare the highlighted area on the map to Google Maps and what is currently (not) there. I'm all for more density, but there are plenty of empty lots in the area such as that large unsightly gravel lot on 10th and Worthington linked above.

 

Critical mass has already been reached on High St., tearing down old but non-descript housing doesn't seem too bad for the campus in that area - plus OSU is moving ahead with extending Hall House on the SE corner of Neil & 10th across the street to the NE corner where the parking lot currently is. I don't remember the timeline but I believe prelim construction is already underway.

I'm all for more density, but there are plenty of empty lots in the area such as that large unsightly gravel lot on 10th and Worthington linked above.

 

That approach only works in SimCity.

 

Edwards can't build on land they don't own, silly.

Unveiled: OSU Chiller Plant

Ross Barney Architects wrap Ohio State University's ten-story plant with a high-polish finish

 

Architect: Ross Barney Architects

Client: Ohio State University

Location: Columbus, Ohio

Completion: 2012

 

In recent years, some architects have been wrapping new chiller plants in eye-catching skins.  Often these structures are glass boxes within metal scrims, which allow the mechanicals to be visible on the exterior.  “Putting a chiller in a glass box means you have to chill the chiller plant,” said Carol Ross Barney, principal of Ross Barney Architects in Chicago.

 

For Ohio State University’s new ten-story plant, Ross Barney instead designed a precast concrete box, which will be given a high-polish finish.  Fins of diachronic glass will cast colored rays across the reflective surface of the concrete, and a series of openings will offer glimpses into the mechanicals inside.

 

 

MORE: http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4822

I'm all for more density, but there are plenty of empty lots in the area such as that large unsightly gravel lot on 10th and Worthington linked above.

 

That approach only works in SimCity.

 

Edwards can't build on land they don't own, silly.

 

God forbid OSU be progressive and let them build there. I don´t bother you on CU and I´d appreciate it if you´d return the favor.

^OSU has identified the site you mentioned as a future "residential partnership" per their new master plan, which I would assume means dorm-like housing.  If i read the article correctly, the Edwards thing is more like traditional apartments.

 

http://oneframework.osu.edu/map/preloader.html

 

God forbid OSU be progressive and let them build there. I don´t bother you on CU and I´d appreciate it if you´d return the favor.

 

Oh, come now. I'm not trying to "bother" you. Just responding to a silly original statement with a silly response. :P Lighten up.

South Campus high-rise renovation to cost $171M

By Dylan Tussel, The Lantern

Updated: Monday, October 4, 2010

 

Ohio State is in the middle of what officials call a $171.6 million shortcut to make room for more students on South Campus. The project - dubbed the South Campus High Rise Renovation and Addition Project - will connect Park to Stradley, and Steeb to Smith, creating rooms for 360 more students by August 2013.

 

SCHRRAP?  Seriously? :-P

An update from OSU's Facilities Operations and Development website on the Kennedy Commons renovation in the South Residential District:

 

Kennedy Commons renovation

 

Kennedy Commons currently houses three traditional dining halls with seating capabilities of up to 600 people, a main kitchen, serving lines, food storage, dishwashing, and staff support facilities.  The renovation will update the interior of all three dining halls converting one into a grab-and-go deli style food service venue.

 

The main dishwashing area which was located in the basement will be relocated to the first floor.  A new entrance and connector between Bradley Hall and Kennedy will be incorporated into the renovation.  The new entrance will provide public access to the quad and the Kennedy study mezzanine and will be the main entrance into the dining hall.  Construction has begun, and the project is scheduled to open September 2011.

 

MORE: http://fod.osu.edu/projects/s_res/2010_10-28.htm

 

450 geothermal wells to heat, cool 5 OSU dorms

Thursday, December 23, 2010 

By Regina Garcia Cano

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Ohio State University plans to drill 550 feet beneath campus to tap Earth's temperature to heat and cool five dormitories.  The university will drill 450 geothermal wells in the South Oval and the parking lot next to Hale Hall.  The system will regulate the temperatures in Park, Siebert, Smith, Steeb and Stradley halls, all located between 11th and 12th avenues, as well as two new 11-story buildings that also will have dorm rooms.

 

"It will be one big system," said Scott Conlon, director of projects for Facilities Design and Construction.

 

The five dormitories, built in the 1950s, do not have air conditioning.  Providing them with a cooling system has become a priority as the switch from quarters to semesters approaches in 2012, Conlon said.

 

GRAPHIC OF THE GEOTHERMAL WELL SYSTEM

 

MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/12/23/450-geothermal-wells-to-heat-cool-5-osu-dorms.html

OSU-area developer challenges building codes

Proposed apartments taller, with fraction of required parking

Sunday, January 30, 2011

By Jim Weiker, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

As apartment complexes go, the 141-unit Province isn't huge.  But its proposed location, a stone's throw from N. High Street across from Ohio State University, has made it the center of attention for developers, neighbors and planners.  In the eyes of the developer, the Edwards Cos., the $25 million complex is a way to finally bring large-scale modern housing to the University District.  For detractors, the project is too big and would aggravate already bad campus-area traffic.  And for OSU planners and other developers, the complex illustrates the need to rethink building codes around campus.

 

The town house-style Province is designed to stretch along 15th and 16th avenues immediately east of Pearl Street, in the heart of fraternity and sorority country.  The complex would stand three to five stories and require the demolition of a dozen buildings, including the Westminster Hall rooming house and a handful of older apartment buildings.  The Province's three buildings would include 445 bedrooms in furnished apartments ranging from one to five bedrooms each.  Tenants would lease a bedroom instead of the entire apartment, a method Edwards has used in about 10,000 bedroom units it has developed near other campuses.

 

As designed, the project violates several provisions of what is called the "university overlay," a set of rules adopted in the early 1990s that govern campus-area buildings, including their size, height and parking. Edwards has asked the city to grant exceptions to those rules, including:

 

• Allowing 197,608 square feet in the two main buildings instead of 68,214 square feet.

• Allowing the buildings to be up to 50 feet high instead of 35 feet.

• Allowing buildings to be built to the sidewalk instead of 25 feet back.

• But perhaps the most significant request is to drop the number of required parking spots from 588 to 238, slightly more than one space for every two bedrooms.

 

MORE: http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/01/30/copy/developer-challenges-building-codes.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

^Interesting and informative article about this Edwards Companies project that could reshape OSU's off-campus landscape.  Although, I do need to take issue with the headline writer. 

 

The headline said that the developer was challenging the building codes.  Many people use the terms "building codes" and "zoning codes" interchangably.  But they aren't the same thing.  The building codes are not being challenged here.  The zoning codes are.

 

• Zoning codes regulate land use, building size, building setback from property lines and parking requirements, etc.  Basically, how a building is arranged on the property.  And that's what is being challenged here.

 

• Building codes regulate the method of construction, structural safety issues, fire safety issues, etc.  Basically, how a building is built.  And typically, this is examined once the zoning issues have been resolved.

 

There's also a discussion of this project here at Columbus Underground.  In that discussion this link to the developer's application to the City of Columbus' Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) was posted.  (Note: The interesting info starts on page 12)  The application gives a reasonably detailed site plan, floor plans and project information.  The floor plans also show how the lower of the two parking levels within the proposed buildings would span under an existing alley to form one larger linked parking level.  Unfortunately, no building elevations or renderings were included with the application.

 

The city's Board of Zoning Adjustment was scheduled to vote on the project this week but tabled the topic at the request of the developer, Edwards Communities.  The city's zoning staff has recommended that the project be approved.  The project failed to win approval from the University Area Review Board or the University Area Commission.  Stay tuned for more on this project.

Umm, with a project like this the developer should remind them that this isn't Clintonville.

The String Shoppe building was demoed and construction of a new brick building started a little while ago. So far you can only see a side wall, while the front is covered in scaffolding.

The recently opened Student Academic Services Building was profiled by ArchDaily:

 

Ohio State University – Student Academic Services / Acock Associates Architects

 

A main gateway to The Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Ohio, the once 400-car surface parking lot has been transformed into the Student Academic Services building with a connected nine deck parking garage.  The new Student Academic Services building houses the following:  Student Financial Aid, Testing Center, Office of Minority Affairs, Registrar’s Office, Bursar’s Office and other admission services.

 

MORE: http://www.archdaily.com/88231/ohio-state-university-student-academic-services-acock-associates-architects/