TRUSTEES: Master Plan for Academic Core Area

OHIO STATE ADOPTS MASTER PLAN FOR ACADEMIC CORE AREA

COLUMBUS -- In 2025, Ohio State will have a whole new 
face, but university planners already are starting to draw 
what that face will look like.

The university's Board of Trustees on Friday (2/2) 
approved the third volume of the university's Campus Master 
Plan, this one detailing guidelines for the area the 
university calls the Academic Core North district.  The 
area, bounded by High Street, Ohio 315 and Lane and West 
12th avenues, contains the bulk of the university's 
academic, academic support and student service facilities.

Recommendations of the plan already have been put into 
use, said Jill Morelli, assistant vice president and 
university architect.  Planners recently were able to use 
the siting recommendations from a draft of the district plan 
when they looked at locations for two buildings (the Austin 
E. Knowlton School of Architecture and a physical sciences 
research building) and proposed projects (an arts complex 
and mechanical engineering building).

Based on the guidelines, planners offered several 
scenarios for the four sites, and the university now will 
decide which scenarios it wants to advance, Morelli said. 
Locating the buildings in the academic core continues to 
reverse the trend of past campus planning, when most 
buildings were sited in outlying areas such as West Campus. 
The new proposed sites continue the trend set by the 
Woodruff Avenue location selected for the Max M. Fisher 
College of Business.

Notable features in the plan for the new face of the 
Columbus campus include priorities for keeping academic 
functions near each other to reinforce the pedestrian 
environment on campus.  When physically and financially 
possible, the plan urges placing research facilities 
adjacent to their related academic disciplines.

Four Columbus campus face-lifts will result from future 
redevelopment of sites occupied by existing buildings that 
are no longer adaptable to continued use as academic 
facilities.  They are: Lord Hall, Robinson Laboratory, the 
Welding Engineering Building and Neil and 17th Building.

The plan also shapes improvements to open green spaces, 
such as the Oval, Mirror Lake Hollow, the banks of the 
Olentangy River and, eventually, the Ohio Stadium area and 
neighboring recreation fields.  Planners would like to cover 
the parking lot surrounding the stadium with grass and trees 
to enhance the structure as a campus icon.

The plan identifies campus entries and gateways from 
the primary approaches of High Street and Lane and Neil 
avenues and recommends improvements to Fyffe Road and Tuttle 
Park Place to make them public entries to the district.  At 
the Lane intersections with Fyffe and Tuttle Park, planners 
suggest gateways with walls and trees.  They also recommend 
new building sites along a realigned Tuttle Park.  Planners 
suggest a gateway plaza at the intersection of Neil and West 
12th avenues.

In addition, the plan also addresses parking problems 
by replacing some large surface lots with garages.  Of the 
more than 6.3 million gross square feet of development 
potential in the district, nearly one-third would be used by 
the planners for structured parking.

Other changes to the face of the district will take 
place during the next 30 to 50 years.

"The district plan is an early application of what we 
hope will happen for many years to come," said Jean 
Hansford, senior campus planner in the Office of the 
University Architect and Physical Planning.

The plan approved by trustees is the first in a series 
of detailed district plans. It amplifies the themes of the 
Long Range Concept Plan, Volume II of the Master Plan 
series, putting to practical use principles on land use, 
architecture and landscape, density and development sites, 
traffic circulation and parking, utilities and sanitary and 
storm sewer systems, and site improvement priorities.

Because of the vast size of the Columbus campus, the 
district planning process provides an opportunity for the 
university to address planning and design issues in a 
manageable context. The guidelines are the standards by 
which the university's Design Review Board will evaluate 
project proposals.

The district plan was drawn up by the university's 
Interim Master Planning Advisory Committee with planning 
consultants Sasaki Associates Inc., Michael Dennis 
Associates and Moody/Nolan Ltd. Inc.

The three volumes of the Master Plan to date are 
available on the World Wide Web at http://www.apo.ohio-
state.edu.
                            #
Contact:  Jill Morelli, (614) 292-4458, or Jean Hansford, 
(614) 292-5974.
Written by David Bhaerman.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Mon, 5 Feb 1996 09:13:21 -0500]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.