Posted 5/27/10
By the end of its 56-year run, the old Ohio Union had come to feel more like a prison than a hive of student activity.
Dim hallways led to dead ends. Natural light was almost nonexistent. Around some corners you half expected to find a light bulb dangling from a frayed cord and some poor soul beneath it being grilled about where he had been on the night of the 16th.
Well, the Ohio Union has seen the light.
On Mar. 29, Ohio State unveiled its $118 million student union on the North High Street site occupied by the previous union until it was demolished in 2007. Moody-Nolan was the executive architect for the project.
“The old Ohio Union wasn’t particularly well-lit,” said Curt Moody, the firm’s president and CEO, in a recent interview. “There were whole sections of the building with no windows, no natural light, not even enough artificial light. Folks who worked in the student organization [offices] would complain that they didn’t know whether it was day or night outside once they’d come into the building.”
At one point during the interview, Moody referred to the “bowels” of the old union—a term that seemed particularly apt.
Now, many of the rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, and those that don’t still offer breathtaking views of campus and High Street.
“‘Bright’ and ‘airy’ are the two words that first come to mind with this new building,” Moody said.
Places to explore
No one is likely to describe the lower level of the new Ohio Union as the bowels of the building, featuring as it does a gleaming instructional kitchen and lively rooms for the soon-to-be-revived Creative Activities Program.
Gone, too, are the fast food chains that gave the old union the feel of a shopping mall food court, only gloomier. The first floor includes Woody’s Tavern, the Union Market, and Sloopy’s Diner. The eateries are clustered on the Oval side of the union so they don’t compete directly with those along High Street, said Kellie Uhrig, director of marketing communications in the Office of Student Life.
Visitors may notice another change: every space flows naturally into adjacent areas. The design encourages wandering and rewards curiosity.
“That’s exactly what we hoped for—that students and alumni will come and want to explore the building,” Uhrig said in an interview conducted shortly before the opening. “I’ve been inside dozens of times, and I’m still finding new things about it and about the university with every visit.”
The building is loaded with unexpected features, such as the doors saved from Ohio State’s previous unions that open to reveal accounts of the buildings’ histories and the student union movement in the United States. Or the artwork—some of it specially commissioned—that’s exhibited throughout the building rather than being concentrated in a single space.
Bigger is better
Tracy Stuck is assistant vice president for student life and director of the Ohio Union. She was instrumental in passing along ideas for the building from students, staff, and faculty to the architects at Moody-Nolan.
“We toured 43 different unions. I took my camera to every one and was ready to start clicking as soon as we landed on campus,” Stuck said. “I’m sure I drove the architects crazy.”
During the process, she said, her cadre of advisers perhaps learned more about what they didn’t want in a union than what they would eventually include.
“Penn State added on to their old union, and we knew right away we didn’t want to do that,” she said.
Because of the openness of the design and the abundance of natural light, the new union feels much larger than the previous one.
“The old building was 225,000 square feet and the new union is 318,000 square feet, so it’s about 50 percent bigger,” Stuck said.
“I was amazed at the size of it,” said sophomore Jessica Crofford. “I expected it to be really big—but inside, it is seriously crazy that it is our union.
“I’ve been in other colleges’ unions, and they are nothing compared to this.
It makes you proud to know you have such nice facilities, and that such a good university is still trying to improve,” she said.
There are no dead ends, as there were in the old union, Stuck pointed out. “But there are interesting niches and nooks.”
One niche is at the southeast corner on the third floor, where a study lounge is circled by windows overlooking High Street. Uhrig said rocking chairs may be added to the furniture already in the room.
You reach the lounge by walking (quietly, please) past the Interfaith Prayer and Reflection Room, with its soothing design and peaceful colors.
The new union gets down to business with more than 30 meeting, performing, and event spaces, including a series of rooms made possible by donations from alumni under the age of 25.
Suzanne M. Scharer, a 2006 graduate, said working with the designers on her room was especially rewarding when she was able to add two personal touches: “a small sphinx that represents the Sphinx Honor Society and a bronze lyre donated by my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, that used to be housed at the University of Cincinnati.”
The Ohio Union was eight years in the planning and implementation. During the process, an interesting historical fact came to light: the building stands on ground that used to house a stop on the Underground Railroad.
“To honor this finding, I worked with Curt Moody—who is an Ohio State alum—to create an architectural feature that would be a standing statement that all are welcome,” Stuck said.
“The southeast corner of the union is designed in the shape of a lantern. It spans three floors, and the top will be lit at all times to remind everyone passing by that the Ohio Union, and the university in general, is a place of inclusion and acceptance.”
Read more about the new Union: