herr2ck: The Ohio State University

Showing posts with label The Ohio State University. Show all posts

G.I. Joe

March 2026.

Buckeye Village was an affordable housing complex intended for older students and families at Ohio State. It has since been demolished and partially replaced with athletic buildings. This will be an unusual one, because it was an Ohio State-affiliated building but not located on campus.

Buckeye Village was located in the Olentangy West neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. It was bordered by Ackerman Road to the north, roughly the location of Irving Schottenstein Drive (formerly Hess Road) to the south, Olentangy River Road to the east, and Fred Taylor Drive to the west.

I guess this article will be my last Ohio State-related one. I hadn’t planned to cover Buckeye Village at first, but I later reconsidered, since it was ultimately pretty close to where I lived. Time to fire up the John Herrick Archives one last time.

Veterans Emergency Housing History

Annotated map of the Veterans Emergency Housing site. Defiance Drive is in the same position, but the other buildings were placed differently. (John Herrick Archives)

Buckeye Village’s history can be traced to the “Veterans Emergency Housing” built by the university after World War II for veterans returning to college. It was likely where the Buckeye Village name stemmed from, as along with that, other nicknames for the project included “G.I. Village”, “The Village”, and “River Road Dorms.” The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill) was passed in 1944 and helped returning veterans afford housing, education, and medical expenses. The stipend allowed in the bill resulted in many returning to college, but many veterans did not want to choose between finishing their education or returning home to start a family. This led to demand for housing other than the gender-specific dormitories for unmarried students on campus at the time.

Veterans Emergency Housing consisted of 75 buildings--eight one-story and 18 two-story barracks for single students, 47 two-story barracks for married students, a cafeteria, and a power plant (an existing farm building converted for this use). The barracks buildings that were used as housing were wood-frame buildings from various military bases deconstructed and rebuilt on campus. They were organized around ten streets named after Ohio counties--Clermont Court, Gallia Court, Hancock Court, Hardin Court, Holmes Court, Huron Court, Knox Court, Lorain Court, Putnam Court, and Trumbull Court.

Aerial view of the site in 1947. (University Photoarchives)

All of the buildings on-site were built by a federal government agency, though university architect Howard Dwight Smith prepared the plot plans, and the university installed the utilities and roads. Work was done in three sections--first ten dormitories and the cafeteria/power plant, then 16 more barrack dorms, and the third section completed the remaining buildings. The site plan for the first phase was approved in March 1946, and construction began that May. Parts two and three were approved shortly afterwards and began construction that year, and the buildings opened intermittently between 1947 and 1948. In all, the Veterans Emergency Housing project cost $400,000. Some of the single student housing was used for other purposes, such as research offices, storage, and the university architect’s construction office.

The first 152 veterans and their families moved into Veterans Emergency Housing in 1947. These families would not have been able to live together prior to its completion. At that time, rent varied from $25-43/mo, and each unit was fully furnished and included an icebox. However, an early battle in the project’s history was a letter from the resident council protesting a 21% rent increase in 1957. The university dismissed this, citing increased operation costs and assistance with future dormitory construction, and the students then mailed Ohio senators. “We maintain that we should not be compelled to provide for the housing of unmarried students when our own flimsy and inadequate dwellings are in far greater need for rehabilitation and replacement…[a] University policy that demands forced donations while neglecting the needs of the donors is practically and morally unsound.”

Veterans Emergency Housing closed after the end of the 1959 school year, and the demolition of the buildings was approved shortly after. They were razed intermittently between 1959 and 1965.

Buckeye Village History

Contrary to popular belief, Buckeye Village was never officially named by the Board of Trustees, and John Herrick labels it “Married Student Housing.” It consisted of 33 buildings of different sizes and apartment capacity, and two of those buildings were the laundry building and service building. The project was designed by Tully & Hobbs in the Mid-Century Modern style. They have a brick veneer on the exterior with bearing cinder-block walls, concrete floor slabs, cinder-block walls between apartment units, and within each apartment the partition walls are conventional wood framing.

A family in Buckeye Village. (University Archives)

The project was designed in two phases, both with 200 units. The first had its plans approved in October 1958, and construction began in 1959. The buildings were halfway completed by fall 1960 and were fully completed and occupied by winter 1961. The second phase had construction begin in July 1960, and those buildings were completed at different times between August and December 1961. In total, the project cost a little over $4 million.

Like the Veterans Emergency Housing, Buckeye Village was also laid out on streets named after counties in Ohio--Ashtabula Court, Cuyahoga Court, Defiance Drive, Lorain Court, Mahoning Court, Montgomery Court, Muskingum Court, Stark Court, Trumbull Court, and Tuscarawas Court. Of these, only Trumbull Court and Tuscarawas Court exist to some capacity, while Defiance Drive remains the main thoroughfare of the area.

Historic photo of apartments in Buckeye Village. (University Archives)

Buckeye Village was extremely popular with students. A 1971 Lantern article cited a 12-15 month wait for an apartment, and the waiting list consisted of some 800 families. Although the veteran requirement was dropped in the mid-1950s, residents had to either be married, have children, or both. A daycare for Buckeye Village was built on Fred Taylor Drive in 1972.

Interior of a Buckeye Village apartment in 1993. (University Archives)

By 1986, another Lantern article cited the problems that would soon become apparent with Buckeye Village’s future closure--that off-campus housing is more expensive, difficult for single parents to live in, and about half of the available apartments did not allow children. A law professor and the Single Parents on Campus organization’s faculty advisor, Nancy Erickson, even recommended the construction of additional housing in Buckeye Village. At that time, 80% of the residents were married international students, while the remainder were married students or single parents.

The only other new development that occurred at Buckeye Village over its lifetime besides the earlier daycare was the construction of a new community center. It opened in January 2005 and was designed by The Collaborative (possibly Acock Associates before their merger with the aforementioned firm). It includes a daycare, community center, and meeting space. The principal designer was Kay Bea Jones, then a professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture.

Plans to demolish Buckeye Village began in the early 2010s. A 2010 campus master plan stipulated graduate/professional housing near Lane and High, along with land between 10th and 11th Avenue. It also set aside land north of Ackerman Road for potential family housing. In 2013, the Athletics District Framework Plan Update stated that the university would consolidate the athletic district, which would result in relocation of Buckeye Village. However, the 2017 Framework 2.0 plan seems to have done away with family housing. This appears to be the case for the current university master plan as well, Framework 3.0.

Toys outside of several Buckeye Village apartments. (WOSU)

Ohio State closed applications to live in Buckeye Village in 2016 (aside from an informal process in 2019, accepting a “very limited number” of new applicants), and its demolition began in 2017 with 13 apartment buildings being replaced by the Covelli Center (not completed until 2019). They decided to expand the athletic complex northward to “consolidate athletic complexes and student-athlete services and create a community among student-athletes.” It was originally scheduled to fully close on May 15, 2021, but the date was pushed a year later due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The remaining families were not consolidated and rather left behind in increasingly empty buildings, resulting in cases such as a doctoral student having an entire 12-unit building only occupied by himself, his wife, and his child. This also resulted in issues such as squatting and break-ins. The residents were offered apartments at University Village for two years for the same rent as Buckeye Village, but utilities became more expensive with the move.

Frustratingly, a 2017 proposal for affordable family housing on campus also fell through. It would have been built on an empty lot at the northeast corner of Kenny Road and Woody Hayes Drive, which would have had 450 new units at a rate 25% below market. Its location was based on feedback from Buckeye Village residents. However, the university planned to use a private developer, which would have then had to pay property taxes on the site. This would have resulted in increased construction costs and therefore rents. Despite Senate Bill 120’s elimination of these taxes in 2020, the university still cited “[unknown] overall construction and management costs” as reason not to move forward that year.

Proposed reuse of Buckeye Village land (top). (Columbus Underground)

Buckeye Village was completely demolished by the end of 2022, and although the land was supposed to be reused with new athletic fields, it remains vacant as of 2026. Despite university claims to “investigate long-term solutions that support graduate student and family housing that is affordable,” there is currently no designated housing for graduate students and students with families, and rent is much more expensive in Columbus than Buckeye Village’s subsidized rates. In 2018, the average rent for an apartment in Buckeye Village was $535/mo, while off-campus it was $675/mo. I’m sure that this number has increased due to the insane rise of the cost of living lately. Additionally, most off-campus apartments that are one- or two-bedroom are not suitable for families of three or more. With Ohio’s political climate, it seems more than just a coincidence that the closure of Buckeye Village is disproportionately affecting poor and minority students.

Photos

I started at the north end of Buckeye Village, at Ackerman and Defiance, and proceeded southward from there. The site has been swept completely clean:

The demolition process left some telltale remnants behind, which allowed me to piece together the site plan a bit better. This curb and drive formerly led to Cuyahoga Court, but now all that can be seen is the 1972 daycare center:

This concrete pad on the east side of the street has a few bricks still lining it. I assumed that it used to be a bus stop, but it does not appear on Google Maps and apparently was demolished prior to 2015.

Hard to believe that this remaining sidewalk, now leading nowhere, once brought you to the central courtyard of an apartment building:

It’s always surreal to be in areas like these that were demolished at a large scale, as remnants are always left behind. My trip to Wonderland near the airport had similar “ghost streets” and sidewalks that likewise led to houses torn down 40 years ago.

These two turnoffs were for Mahoning Court and Stark Court:

It’s kind of fitting that the university picked certain street names here, such as Mahoning (Youngstown) and Montgomery (Dayton). When these apartments were built, those cities were humming industrial powerhouses fired by the might of the American middle class. After outsourcing gutted American industry and thrust those once-great cities into the ash heap of history, so too has the greed and prejudice of Ohio State deprived underprivileged students of an education they would otherwise be unable to afford. I am sure we will be reaping the benefits of those twisted seeds in the next generation or so.

Ohio State has consistently shown who they prioritize in their decisions regarding campus and University District development, and that is white, upper-class students. The same can be said for our presidential administration. America used to be a place that drew in foreign students for their (often graduate or professional) education, but they are now leaving in droves due to the insane, bigoted anti-immigration laws passed by our government. This is an effect known as “brain drain.” Of course, this is nothing new, given the current waves of anti-intellectualism globally.

Seems like I’ve reached the community center:

It’s nothing super interesting aesthetically, although the dematerialized facade and odd fenestration indicates it has some architect-stipulated sauce versus a more boring and functional building.

This nearby lacrosse field was another recipient of former Buckeye Village land:

A densely populated boon for graduate students, reduced to nothingness.

It’s even more frustrating, considering that the site of that giant 5-over-1 across Ackerman with two-bedroom rents starting at $2,000/mo was supposed to have a replacement for Buckeye Village. (Yes, I looked it up.)

This stub of pavement is still used for parking and is the largest remnant of any other street in the area. It was formerly Tuscarawas Court.

Here is the only remaining original building from the 1960s Buckeye Village--the housing office:

It has a number of original features still remaining, such as the aluminum windows. Nowadays, it is mostly used for storage and parking.

This stretch of Defiance Drive used to extend southwards towards where the Covelli Center is now, to Tuscarawas Court, Trumbull Court, and Ashtabula Court:

After that, it hooked eastward and ran where Irving Schottenstein Drive does now, providing access to Lorain Court and Muskingum Court.

I then took Fred Taylor Drive to the child care center, which is surrounded by a tall berm:

I didn’t want to linger and look like some creep taking pictures of a daycare, though.

I’m unsure what the future of Buckeye Village’s site will hold, but it sure as hell won’t be for grad student apartments. Very shameful how seemingly innocuous decisions such as this one have broad implications for underprivileged students.

Sources:

https://kb.osu.edu/items/529a2461-dfe9-5095-babe-72817e8dcd40

https://kb.osu.edu/items/e4bfc237-4134-574d-b98e-6084208862bb

https://www.thelantern.com/projects/2021/06/30/with-ohio-states-demolition-of-buckeye-village-comes-increased-rent-few-choices-for-students-with-children/

https://pare.osu.edu/framework

https://www.thelantern.com/2018/01/construction-of-covelli-arena-displaces-buckeye-village-residents/

https://library.osu.edu/site/archives/2014/04/11/buckeye-village-has-always-had-family-atmosphere-international-flair/

https://placesjournal.org/assets/legacy/pdfs/buckeye-village-community-center.pdf

https://tc.design/projects/buckeye-village

https://www.wosu.org/news/2019-10-29/with-buckeye-village-closing-ohio-state-graduate-students-in-limbo

https://columbusunderground.com/remaining-buckeye-village-buildings-to-be-demolished-soon-bw1/

https://kb.osu.edu/items/17cf4b0a-d9e2-53da-8bb2-036c5ff67f45

https://www.liveatthecity.com/floorplans

Mies Me When I’m Gone

Photos vary, from March 2024 to May 2026.

MacQuigg Lab, as it stood from its construction until very recently, was an orthodox Modern composition that was very Miesian with its expansive curtain wall and vertical beams. However, it was gutted and made up with a brand-new Contemporary face as part of the Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering Complex project. This is the latest example of the rapidly changing character of north campus, shifting from dated Modernist works to new, shiny glass boxes.

MacQuigg Lab is located on north campus. It is bordered by Woodruff Avenue and Haverfield House to the north, 19th Avenue to the south, the construction site that used to be Watts Hall to the east, and Fontana Labs to the west.

MacQuigg Lab History

MacQuigg Lab nearing completion, c. 1967. (Knowlton Archives)

MacQuigg Lab was built as the “Materials Engineering and Science Building” and was conceived as an addition to the Metallurgical Engineering Building (Fontana Labs). It was designed by university architect W. E. Linch in 1965, and its construction began that May by J. J. Barnes Construction Co. MacQuigg Lab was ready for use in December 1967. With a concrete frame and brick exterior, the building was designed in the Mid-Century Modern style.

More recent photo of the south facade. (Knowlton Archives)

MacQuigg Lab’s most striking feature was its large expanses of Miesian curtain walls, a move very typical of its time. The windows were separated by sea-green spandrels, and metal mullions lined the facade vertically, which provided vertical emphasis. These have since been removed, and they have been replaced by contemporary black windows that do not achieve the same effect. I don’t really like that the renovation is doing away with the little character and whimsy that Modernist architecture could provide.

View of the late 80s glass block walls. (Knowlton Archives)

Before the current modifications to MacQuigg Lab began, a few other alterations occurred. In 1987, the originally open base was enclosed with the glass block walls seen above, likely to expand study space within the building. Additionally, the original, wide cement walkway that spanned the width of the “walk-through space” to Woodruff Avenue was reduced in size between 2007 and 2012. A similar modification was made to the rear, but it occurred much later, between 2016 and 2020.

MacQuigg Lab is currently being renovated as part of the Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering Complex project. Like its original program, it is intended to be one of a set of buildings that serves the larger engineering school, as opposed to individual buildings that are more specialized. MacQuigg Lab specifically has been gutted and had much of its facade removed, and it will receive a glassy Contemporary face replacing the original windows and a new interior. This work is being done by DLR Group.

MacQuigg Lab is named after Charles MacQuigg. He was born in Ironton in 1885 and attended The Ohio State University, graduating with his degree in mechanical engineering in 1909. MacQuigg worked a few jobs after graduation, such as a civil engineer at the Santa Fe railroad, but he began teaching as head of the Metallurgy Department at Penn State between 1912 and 1917. He served in the Army afterwards, eventually earning the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Officers Reserve Corps. After his active service ended in 1919, he performed research at the Carbide and Carbon Co. until 1937, where he began his tenure as dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State. MacQuigg held this role until his death in 1952.

Watts Hall History

East of MacQuigg Lab, where the new addition is being constructed, used to lie an older Modernist building known as Watts Hall. It was designed as the “Chemical Abstracts Building” by Potter, Tyler, Martin, and Roth in 1954, intended for the Chemical Abstracts Service of the American Chemical Society, which provided some of the fees for its construction. The building’s construction began that October, and it was completed in 1955.

The Chemical Abstracts Building’s original appearance. (Knowlton Archives)

In 1959, the above architects designed an addition to Watts Hall that extended the building by one story. It was completed in 1961. By 1965, Chemical Abstracts moved off-campus and the building was transferred to the university. It was renovated for usage by Ceramics Engineering and to connect it to the newly constructed MacQuigg Lab.

Color photo of Watts Hall after its addition. (Knowlton Archives)

Watts Hall has its own Wikipedia article, which is unusual for a rather pedestrian building. However, it was likely due to a terrorist attack that occurred there in 2016. As students evacuated the building after a suspected fluorine leak, an attacker influenced by ISIS propaganda drove a car into the courtyard intending to strike students. He exited the vehicle and attempted to stab students. The attacker was shot and killed by police officers after refusing to drop his weapon.

Watts Hall was demolished in 2022 for the construction of the BMEC project.

Photos

Like Campbell Hall’s third installment, most of this post’s material is going to be older photos I had laying around, except for one I took today right before I left Columbus for good. As such, that makes that final picture the last one I will ever take on campus for this blog. The rest are construction progress, which is pretty unusual fare for this blog.

This view in March 2024 shows MacQuigg gutted, with its interior and Miesian windows missing:

Demolition ongoing on the east end:

A similar view in September 2024, with more of the interior exposed:

You can see the concrete floor slabs pretty well. On the east end, the elevator shafts of the addition were being poured:

This view from November 2024 shows progress on the concrete structure:

Another angle:

From the Arps Garage in January 2025 (this is when I was shooting Evans Lab):

Some steel framing for the brick veneer was up at this point.

By September 2025, the exterior was nearing completion. In the rear, all that’s missing is a few windows and some cladding:

Windows are in place:

Looks like the masons were laying brick that day:

Metal framing of the glass box thingy:

Windows on MacQuigg were mostly placed:

This building was completed in late April or early May of 2026, as I remember the south side of Woodruff being finally walkable around finals season. However, I don’t think the interior was ever open to students. I grabbed this photo literally right before I hit the road back to Illinois:

You know what? I don’t really like it. The addition doesn’t relate well to MacQuigg except through its massing, the glass box on the corner looks out of place, and MacQuigg has been stripped of whatever little character it once had.

Sources:

https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/24059

https://knowltondl.osu.edu/Browse/objects/facet/collection_facet/id/18

https://www.dlrgroup.com/firm-news/the-ohio-state-university-biomedical-materials-engineering-complex/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133531078/charles-ellison-macquigg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Ohio_State_University_attack

Campbell Hall, pt. 3 - “Home Ec”

September 2024.

Back to part 2

I never got around to finishing my coverage of Campbell Hall before graduating and leaving Columbus. (As of upload, I have left and will not be returning until I fully move out in June or July.) Despite the university saying that Campbell would be renovated and opened this May, that wasn't to be the case, and as of at least May 10, 2026, it was still surrounded by construction fencing and unopened. Indeed, a May 27 news article from OSU Facilities Design and Construction states that "[c]onstruction on Campbell Hall is nearing completion as crews focus on final details ahead of inspections and occupancy." Regrettably, this final installment will just be some random photos I had floating around from September 2024.

If you want to read this building’s history, go back to part 1.

Photos

East facade mostly covered by greenery:

These windows were gutted, but the surrounding framing and everything was still intact, which looked really uncanny:

Fun fact I learned--that metal ornamentation around the windows is actually not original and is a later alteration. This surprised me, since it is still pretty Beaux-Arts in style. The original detail between the windows is this stone spandrel with grill-like vertical carvings:

I remember being pretty angry at these gross black mullionless windows awaiting installation, thinking that they were destined to be another contextless renovation to a historic building. However, these were actually installed into the Mid-Century Modern addition, and the historic facade has more period-correct replacements.

Some of the windows were actively being removed:

Sources:

https://fdc.osu.edu/news/2026/05/27/slideshow-campbell-hall?sfmc_key=0032E00002zxMPhQAM

Weaver Hall

March 2026.

Bricker Hall was the original home of the university president’s office and the Faculty Club. I think the moving of both the president’s office and residence off campus reflects its changing of priorities--from what is best for the students to what is best for the people/corporations supporting the university (most blatantly, someone whose last name begins with W and ends with -exner). The sentiment of current students on our recently deposed president, Ted Carter, is that he seemed to be a cold and unfeeling plutocrat who doesn’t really care about what the students want. I’ll spare the rant, but a lot of people are upset about how his administration has handled the Palestine protests, myself included. I’m surprised they didn’t bring out the riot truck:

Seriously, in what world does campus police need an MRAP? (The Sundial)

This is also going to be a very nostalgic one. I wrote most of the body text of this article a year and a half ago, but as Bricker Hall just reopened after spring break ended, I went there pretty much at my earliest convenience to get my photos in. I spent a lot of time reflecting on my time at Ohio State (since I’m graduating soon) and how my blog’s scope and quality have changed over the years. I do plan on getting Campbell Hall and BMEC, but those have yet to reopen, and I am unsure if they will before I graduate in May.

I digress. Bricker Hall is located on the north side of the Oval, bordered by Annie and John Glenn Avenue and the green space that used to be Brown Hall to the north, the Oval’s green space to the south, Derby Hall to the east, and University Hall to the west.

History

The Administration Building in 1925. (University Archives)

Let’s do this one last time. Bricker Hall was first designed in 1922 by university architect Joseph N. Bradford in the Beaux-Arts style. These plans were rejected by the Board of Trustees, who “instructed [Bradford] to re-study the plans.” Ouch. His revised drawings were approved a year later in 1923, and construction began that March by D. W. McGrath & Sons. The building was completed by August 1924 at a cost of $456,370, as administrative offices began moving in from University Hall on August 18th of that year. Bricker Hall was built as the “Administration Building,” a name it retained for more than 60 years.

The Administration Building’s lobby, undated. (University Archives)

Since Bricker Hall housed administrative offices, Bradford probably had a lot of freedom to richly detail the building. It is one of the most elaborate buildings on campus. The Beaux-Arts details convey a great sense of power and grandeur. They’re still mostly intact, but the alterations to the building have weakened its expression.

The Faculty Club inside the Administration Building c. 1930. (University Archives)

Before it moved out to its own dedicated building in 1940, the university Faculty Club occupied the third floor of Bricker Hall. After its departure, the third floor was remodeled to house more administrative offices, which took place between July-November of 1940.

Herbert Atkinson in 1920. (University Archives)

Interestingly, in the 1950s, a person’s ashes were interred at Bricker Hall. The individual was alumnus Herbert Atkinson, who played on the basketball team and graduated with a law degree. He was appointed as State Highway Department secretary after graduation, and later was elected as the Franklin County representative in Ohio’s state legislature. Atkinson started his own company, Atkinson-Dauksch Insurance and Bonding Company, which became one of Ohio’s largest by the time he retired in 1944. At Ohio State, he was vice president of the alumni association and member of the athletic board for 13 years, and served on the Board of Trustees from 1925-1948. He died in 1952, and the Board of Trustees unanimously approved his internment in the walls of Bricker Hall.

The atrium between the second and third floors before its removal in the 1960 renovation. (University Archives)

As seems to be typical for Ohio State during the 1960s and 1970s, a renovation occurred, which closed the beautiful atrium in the above picture and replaced it with more offices. This took place in 1961. Is the extra space really that necessary? Systems like air ducts and pipes in the basement were likewise removed or relocated in 1964 so that space could be used as offices too. At that point, just build an addition or annex.

University president Harold Enarson in his office in 1979. (Buckeye Stroll)

The university president’s office used to be in Bricker Hall. It moved out very recently, between 2021 and 2022. A Lantern article from 2021 states the office was still there, but currently the Office of the President website says it is located in the new University Square development on High Street, which was built from 2020-2022. Other administrative uses that have since departed include the Entrance Examiner, Alumni Association, Board of Trustees, Bursar, and University Registrar, according to a plaque inside.

Bricker Hall was renovated between 2024 and 2026 to house the Department of Economics. This process appears to have involved some preservation work, but there are multiple modern updates that have obscured original features, such as painted friezes on the second floor. Still, the unsightly divisions and alterations from the 1960s have been mostly undone.

In 1983, the Administration Building was renamed to Bricker Hall, after John Bricker. Bricker was an alumnus who graduated from the law school in 1920, holding positions such as Ohio Attorney General, the governor of Ohio, and US Senator. He was also the nominee for vice president in 1944. After his time in government, he was on the Board of Trustees from 1948-1969, serving as chairman in his last year.

No official university source mentions this (surprising absolutely nobody), but Bricker played a part in the university’s role in institutional racism during the 1930s. If you’ve read my article on Fechko House, you may recall how Black student Doris Weaver was denied a spot in the house after the Department of Home Economics learned of her race. She took her case to court, which ultimately ruled against her. However, the court still required Ohio State to explain why Weaver wasn’t admitted. Bricker was the one who wrote their response, stating that it was not the university’s prerogative to require students of different races to room together (at the time, Black students were not allowed to live on campus). USG passed a resolution in 2021 that called for the renaming of Bricker Hall, but it seems to have stagnated. Ohio State says they are working to evaluate building names, but only one request is currently under review by the task force created to do so, and it is not Bricker Hall. (Considering the university will not remove the name of pedophile and Epstein associate Les Wexner from its hospitals or the art center, it is apparently too much of a stretch to ask them to do so for a segregationist, too.)

Photos

One thing I noticed when photographing Bricker Hall is that I have been taking more numerous and intentional photos of buildings as of late. A trend I noticed in my earlier articles, going back to my cellphone photos of the Drake, is that my coverage was much more cursory and seemed almost mindless. Lots of poorly framed and off-center photos. I also took much fewer exterior and detail photos, as my Pomerene Hall article has just seven exterior photos, while this one has over 30. Granted, photography was something that I learned by doing--my early campus photos were some of the first I ever took on my camera, and these Bricker Hall photos are #13,758 through #13,840. That’s almost 14,000 photos later! (Most of these are unseen to this website and are awaiting future articles.) I sometimes wish I could improve upon my earlier coverage and revisit these buildings, but I’ve decided to leave them how they are, as documentation of my progress as a photographer.

Here is the south facade from the Oval:

Bricker Hall has the very standard Beaux-Arts Renaissance expression of campus buildings from this era. Ashlar base, main building shaft with pilasters, and a cornice above. It has a strong horizontal emphasis.

A closer look at the windows and pilasters:

The cornice has triglyphs, which are centered over the pilasters and are meant to represent the wooden boards that Greek temples were once built of. Each triglyph also has a mutule above on the soffit, a less common Doric feature that tends to be omitted on more modern buildings.

The building has three entrance portals. I believe the two side entrances are not currently used, and they retain their original bronze doors. The middle entrance has received new doors.

A closer look at one of the original doorways:

I like the metal border around the transom window:

The eastern and western wings are simpler in design and lack pilasters:

The expression is the same, and the cornice courses its way across the whole building. There is also quoining on the corners, seen in the gray stone border.

An oblique view from the southeast corner:

You can see the typical “dog-bone” shape of this era of campus building better here. Unlike the contemporary buildings on campus today, they are organized across a long cross-axis (a central hallway, usually), and each corner has a slightly larger wing.

Another view of the quoins, which are the stone blocks on the corner:

I liked my Thompson Library corner shot so much that I had to do it again:

Soffit is looking a little sooty, though.

The east facade was nicely lit in the mid-morning sunlight.

What bothers me here, though, is that the triglyphs do not align with the center of the piers.

This is an oversight that separates good Beaux-Arts designs from great ones, as in antiquity, this would never happen. I think Bradford may have been trying to maintain the triglyphs’ spacing on the north and south facades, or he was unable to stretch/shrink the building’s plan enough for them to align.

The entrances on this side are rectangular and lack the arch:

The metal acroterion decoration is similar as well:

The north facade is similar to the south, but it has a different expression with the wings:

The eastern and western wings recess slightly, referring to their projection on the south side, while two bays on the end of the central module poke out a bit to emphasize the entrances there.

The north facade while the building was under construction:

The rear entrances lack the fancy arched window and just have a simpler stone tympanum:

Detail:

I think the base has been converted to mechanical use here, as the central doors lead to nowhere and the windows are instead large vents:

Ivy-covered entablature:

Out-of-focus view of the cornice as it courses around the wings:

The west facade is largely identical to the east, with the addition of small stone slabs beneath the windows:

The main entrance has probably been truncated, as I find it doubtful there would be a small hallway leading in instead of a larger vestibule.

At least the entrance is still on-axis with this fancy staircase:

The balusters and newel posts are pretty elaborate compared to others on campus. The only similar ones I’ve seen are in Sullivant Hall.

Its broad sweep downwards is also very grand.

I believe most of the doors are replacements, but they are nice wood designs that are similar to what would have been originally installed:

The east entrance is decidedly less grand than the south:

Looking down the lobby today, it’s clear that the leftmost bays have been walled off for usage as offices:

Bradford’s original design was three bays wide, with the central bay being the main axis across the building. Now, this open space is asymmetrical and makes less sense architecturally.

I was aiming for the painted coffers and pilasters here, not the lights (which are replacements but match the building’s character):

This paint must date to the current renovation, as it is clean and nicely applied.

I think this may be the only working payphone on campus at this point:

Pilaster and staircase:

More balusters and a vent below:

It’s interesting to me how the newel post wraps around this stone globe:

This seal atop the stairs is likely modern, as well as the pilasters surrounding it:

Although I think this space is inferior in that it still lacks the original atrium effect, its renovated appearance isn’t bad.

I still think it’s one of the better classically-influenced rooms on campus and still has its original grandeur.

Looking down the staircase aisle we just came up:

It's interesting to me that the columns here have a shaft that is only partially
fluted:

Detail of the Doric column capital with the indirect lighting surrounding:

These columns were not originally engaged with the wall, but they have been as part of the current renovation, and I bet that was the case in the 1960s, too.

They are Doric with an uncommon egg-and-dart band around the capital.

Looking north towards the staircase:

The marble bench is the only original piece of furniture here. Maybe it was too heavy to move? ;)

I think this conference room, with its fanciful wood wainscoting, was where the president’s office was. Unfortunately, the doors were locked.

The other aisle:

I thought this “door to nowhere” was weird.

The other staircases still have iron balusters and wood railings:

I LOVE this skylight on the third floor.

Remember, the space that is carpeted was once open to the floor below, and the columned space would have looked up to see this skylight. The effect is still there, but not quite how Bradford had designed it. Nonetheless, I’m glad it was restored as part of the renovation work.

Words escape me. I love the play of light and shadow here, as well as the classical mullion shapes: