One of a kind

Courtesy of the Knowlton School of Architecture An artist's rendering of the front entrance to Knowlton Hall.

Building will be role model for architecture students

The five solitary white pillars at the corner of Woodruff Avenue and Tuttle Park Place that mark the site for the new Knowlton School of Architecture building will soon be joined by heavy construction equipment. A groundbreaking ceremony was held April 5, with construction expected to be completed by spring 2004.

Knowlton Hall will be constructed on the site of Ives Hall, which contains University classrooms, a lecture hall, the architecture studios, a central review space for design juries and a model shop. All those facilities, except the review space, will move to Vivian Hall for two years, after the July demolition of Ives Hall, said Robert Livesey, director of the Knowlton School of Architecture.

Housed near the College of Engineering, the Fisher College of Business complex and historic Ohio Stadium, the location for Knowlton Hall is ideal, according to Livesey. The new facility will help anchor a major entrance to the Ohio State campus once the widening of and beautification along Lane Avenue is complete.

The $32 million price tag for Knowlton Hall will be covered by a combination of $10 million in state funds, $16 million in gifts from Austin E. Knowlton and $6 million in additional fund-raising. The groundbreaking ceremony also marked the beginning of a $20 million campaign to raise funds for the school's new building and endowment, Livesey said.

Once completed, an impressively designed and technologically advanced Knowlton Hall will pack a big punch.

"The new building will be an incredible recruiting tool," Livesey said. "There is no other architecture school in the country like it."

One of the major advantages of the new building is that it will consolidate the school into one location, which will allow for interdisciplinary collaboration between the school's architecture, landscaping architecture, and city and regional planning programs. Currently, the school's facilities are divided among three buildings. The architecture design studios and model shop are in Ives Hall, faculty and administrative offices are in Brown Hall, and the library is housed in the Science and Engineering Building. When the building is completed, it will be the first time since 1970 that the school and its library will be housed in the same building.

"We believe that education is about discourse, so the new building will play an active role in encouraging interaction between students and students, students and faculty, and people from other disciplines on campus," Livesey said.

The building's design theme can be summed up in one word: discovery. This theme is addressed throughout with different types and sizes of spaces and landscapes, and special spaces to meet. As people pass through the building, there will be one surprise after another: the administrative area, the gallery, review spaces, the cafe, the model shop, the south-facing garden, classrooms with glass walls, the "flexible" auditorium that can expand to accommodate 350 people for special events, the faculty offices, the studios, the computer labs, the library and, finally, the roof garden.

"By looking at this building and the landscape surrounding it, we hope that people will gain some sense of the potential of the design and planning disciplines as a positive influence on education, or indeed on a quality of life," Livesey said.

Starting with an enormous front porch and concluding with the roof garden, the new building has also been designed to create an atmosphere that is inviting.

It also will serve as a life-size model for students.

"The building will be loaded with examples of spatial and programmatic elements that the students might be considering including in their designs," Livesey said. "The ceilings will vary from 8 feet to 60 feet, but more importantly, the building will allow for lots of interaction as most of the spaces are connected. As people walk in the front door, they will have a glimpse of the library four floors away," Livesey said.

Key features include state-of-the-art design studios wired for the latest technology; a model shop with computer numerically controlled machines for model fabrication; and a 30,000-volume library.

The architectural firm is Wandel and Schnell Inc., the design architectural firm is Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, and the landscape architectural firm is Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates.

Fawcett Center reconfiguration increases conference space

In a process similar to musical chairs, the three tenants of Ohio State's Fawcett Center are about to begin swapping spaces. Left standing in the end will be the center's hotel operation, which will be closed so that the rooms can be converted into office spaces. That will trigger a series of moves that will leave the units -- Student Affairs' Conference and Hospitality Services, the Office of University Development, and the WOSU television and radio stations -- with space that better meets their current needs.

The process will begin in September. Seventy guest rooms on floors 6-10 will be converted to office space. University Development offices now located on the ground floor will move to floors 6-9, joining those already in use on floors 3-5, giving Development seven contiguous floors of space for its administrative and central support staff.

Conference and Hospitality Services will vacate its basement administrative and meeting rooms, which will be taken by WOSU (see story, this page).

Conference and Hospitality Services will claim the ground floor space currently occupied by Development, as well as the former Alumni Association spaces in the east wing, adding a number of new meeting spaces on the floor to those already in place. The 500-seat auditorium, ballrooms and restaurant located on the ground level will remain and, together with the current and new meeting rooms, will enhance the Fawcett Center's ability to serve University and community clients.

"There is great demand for meeting space of all sizes," said Diane Whitbeck, assistant vice president for conference and hospitality services. "By consolidating meeting rooms on one floor and expanding the square footage available for conferences, we expect to be able to accommodate a larger number and range of meetings, seminars, conferences and special events."

The decision to close the hotel was made for financial reasons as well, Whitbeck said. "With only 70 rooms, it is not possible to generate enough income over the long run to support debt service and renovation. And having an on-site hotel is not a high priority for the majority of our conference clients. For those who do need overnight accommodation, we will be able to offer rooms at the new Blackwell Inn on campus or at several nearby commercial hotels."

The new meeting spaces will be equipped for videoconferencing, high-speed Internet connections and other state-of-the-art technology. Whitbeck said there also will be several "board room" style meeting spaces for groups of 15 to 25.

Oxley's restaurant and the catering operation will continue, providing a full range of food service options for meetings and special events, such as wedding receptions and awards banquets. The restaurant is popular with University faculty and staff, neighborhood businesspeople and retirees, as well as those attending events at the Fawcett Center or nearby Longaberger Alumni House.

Hotel operations will cease Sept. 9. Guests with reservations beyond that date are being notified of the closure and offered special rates at The Blackwell or assistance in making reservations at nearby hotels. It is likely that some jobs will be eliminated, but it is expected that most staff displaced by the elimination of hotel service will be offered other positions within the University.

Despite the many good reasons for closing the hotel, the decision was hard to make, Whitbeck said. "The staff has worked diligently to upgrade services and increase occupancy rates, and had succeeded -- having gone from a 38 percent rate in 1993 to 70 percent today."

But economic realities, coupled with an honest assessment of what was needed to keep the building's actual use aligned with its mission, made the choice obvious, she said.

"The mission of this building has always been to support the University's role as a facilitator of lifelong learning," Whitbeck said. "These changes will enhance our ability to continue to fulfill that vision, which was so dear to the heart of our namesake, former President Novice Fawcett."

WOSU gains breathing room with expansion opportunity

At a time when space is worth its weight in gold for the WOSU Stations, the television and radio stations stand to gain an additional 15,000 to 20,000 square feet as the Fawcett Center closes its hotel operation (see accompanying story).

This, in effect, ends WOSU's search for accommodations big enough to house 110 employees, 2,000 volunteers and a significant amount of new equipment necessary to meet a Federal Communications Commission mandate for public stations to offer digital television signals by May 2003, said General Manager Dale Ouzts.

The newly acquired space at the Fawcett Center gives WOSU a more convenient and less expensive option than others being explored. The cost to remodel the new space will be around $1 million. That compares quite favorably to estimates ranging from $6 million to $8 million to move into other existing facilities off campus, Ouzts said, or $4 million to $5 million to build an addition to the current facilities.

WOSU is currently seeking an architect to help design a plan for the additional space, which will include renovation of the technology areas, changes in the HVAC, and expansion and consolidation of the television and radio departments on the ground floor. Additionally, administration personnel currently housed on the ground floor will move to offices on the 10th floor.

"It allows us the space to accommodate for the equipment needed to get on the air with digital television and gives us a little bit of space for correcting 30-year-old problems with radio," Ouzts said, referring to the fact that WOSU has been housed in Fawcett Center since 1972.

While WOSU technology has kept up with the times, its accommodations have not. Besides cramped office quarters, the radio recording studios and news staff are located on the opposite end of the building -- or more than 100 yards apart -- from the producers, program directors and on-air personalities. Another factor weighing into the mix is the possible acquisition of WCBE radio, which would bring an additional 12 staff on board.

"It would be physically impossible in our current space," Ouzts said.

While much shuffling of office and studio space will take place, three rooms will consume the bulk of the new space: a teleconference and conference room, a radio room and a master control studio.

"For teleconferences right now, if we get more than 20 participating, and a television studio is not available, we have to rent a room," Ouzts said. "With the new (teleconference) room we can accommodate up to 60 people easily, maybe as many as 100."

Ouzts said that the beauty of expanding within the current walls of the Fawcett Center is that most of the technological equipment can remain in place. He estimates that there are more than 75 miles of wiring buried within the building that is required for analog broadcasting, with a considerable percentage of that to be added to include satellite feeds for digital television.

After guiding WOSU since the late 1970s, Ouzts takes the latest transitions in stride, and is planning yet another -- his retirement in December 2003. He plans to relinquish his title as soon as his replacement is found, yet will stay active on the WOSU fund-raising trail.

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