City, campus meet at the wrecking ball

Photos by Kevin Fitzsimons The wrecking ball strikes its target on a building near the corner of 11th Avenue and High Street, where Columbus and Ohio State officials joined forces on May 1 to ceremoniously begin demolition of the site that will house the University Gateway Center. The complex, developed under the leadership of Campus Partners, will combine entertainment, retail and office space with rental housing and parking to serve one of the country's largest collegiate markets.

At left, President Brit Kirwan and Mayor Michael Coleman survey the demolition.

Launch of demolition at Campus Partners site signals that Gateway Project's time has come

President Brit Kirwan and Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman released a wrecking ball May 1 to begin demolition along two blocks of North High Street to make way for construction of the University Gateway Center.

The Gateway Center, which will be built on 7.4 acres in the area of 11th Avenue and High Street adjacent to Ohio State's Columbus campus, will be a dynamic blend of entertainment, retail, office space, rental housing and parking to serve one of the nation's largest collegiate markets. The total investment in the project is likely to be more than $100 million.

"The Gateway Project represents the University's and the city's critical long-term commitment to revitalizing this area," Kirwan said. "We believe that Gateway will better serve the market of students and other area residents, energizing the entire High Street corridor and serving as a significant stimulus to further private investments."

Coleman agreed. "Gateway represents the type of high-quality, urban mixed-use development I believe is so critical for both our urban neighborhoods and for our downtown. We are at this point in the project because the city, the University and various neighborhood groups have collaborated toward this common goal," he said.

King Wrecking Co. Inc., of Cincinnati, is conducting the demolition, scheduled to be completed in mid-July.

Undergraduate Student Government President Eddie Pauline, who also participated in the May 1 events, said revitalizing High Street will offer new entertainment venues for students, as well as opportunities for employment and educational services.

"Making the entrance to campus more attractive and appealing will help attract students to the University," he said.

Campus Partners, the non-profit redevelopment corporation established by Ohio State, proposed the Gateway project to better serve the market of students and other residents. The Gateway Center is one of the largest mixed-use, urban redevelopment projects ever attempted in central Ohio and represents one of the largest projects in the city's federally designated Empowerment Zone.

Campus Partners President Terry D. Foegler said the first-phase public improvements, such as burial of overhead utility lines, the installation of various storm and sanitary sewers, and a variety of roadway improvements, may begin near the end of 2002.

Once those public improvements are largely completed, he said, construction of the new buildings could begin in the latter part of 2003. The second-phase public improvements, such as the installation of brick sidewalks and decorative pedestrian lighting, will take place in the final stages of project development. Under this schedule, the project would be complete by the summer of 2005.

The Gateway project will total approximately 450,000 square feet of leaseable space for housing, retail and office uses and will include a 1,200-space parking garage. An estimated 450 to 700 new jobs will be created adjacent to the Weinland Park neighborhood, which has a high rate of unemployment.

A major proposal to redevelop the area of 11th Avenue and High Street emerged from extensive community-based planning the University District conducted in 1995 and 1996. Columbus City Council adopted and the University's Board of Trustees approved the project in 1997.

Campus Partners purchased its first property in the Gateway area in 1997. Subsequently, Columbus City Council in late 1999 approved an economic development agreement for property acquisition and construction of the Gateway project, including a commitment of $5 million for capital improvements in the area. By early 2002, Campus Partners had acquired or contracted for all of the land in the Gateway redevelopment area and had successfully relocated all of the remaining businesses.

Kirwan, who will leave the University June 30 to become chancellor of the University of Maryland System, said he is proud that a more visible aspect of the project is finally under way. "With this demolition today, people can start to visualize how Gateway will transform the University and neighborhood around it."

Kirwan named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

President Brit Kirwan has been elected to join the nation's preeminent learned society and research institution.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences recently announced Kirwan is one of 177 Fellows and 30 Foreign Honorary Members named as the class of 2002. Kirwan is joined this year by one current and one former U.S. senator, three other college presidents, three Nobel Prize winners, six Pulitzer Prize winners, three MacArthur Fellows and six Guggenheim Fellows.

"I am deeply honored and completely surprised to be recognized in this way by the Academy," Kirwan said. "I was unaware that I had even been nominated. In fact, I learned this news from an e-mail message sent by an Academy member late (on the night of April 29). Needless to say, I was too excited to get much sleep."

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., violinist Itzhak Perlman, Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston, author and physician Oliver Sacks, National Medal Of Science For Research On Mental Illness recipient Nancy C. Andreasen, and Nobel Prize- winning chemist George Olah are among this year's new Fellows. This year's election maintains the Academy's practice of honoring intellectual achievement, leadership and creativity in all fields. A full list of new members is available on the Academy Web site at www.amacad.org/members/new2002list.htm.

The Academy has elected as Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members the finest minds and most influential leaders from each generation, including George Washington and Ben Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th.

The current membership includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners. Drawing on the wide-ranging expertise of its membership, the American Academy conducts nonpartisan studies on international security, social policy, education and the humanities.

"Election to the American Academy is the result of a highly competitive process that recognizes those who have made preeminent contributions to all scholarly fields and professions," said Patricia Meyer Spacks, Academy president. "The Academy is pleased to welcome these outstanding and influential individuals to the nation's most illustrious learned society."

The Academy will welcome this year's new Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members at the annual Induction Ceremony at the Academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., on Oct. 5.

New Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members are nominated and elected by current members of the Academy. Members are divided into five classes: I) mathematics and physics; II) biological sciences; III) social sciences; IV) humanities and arts; and V) public affairs and business. The unique structure of the American Academy allows members to conduct interdisciplinary studies that draw on the range of academic and intellectual disciplines.

The Academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."

Patterson elected chair of trustees; board members join committees

James F. Patterson, a fifth-generation family farmer from Chesterland, was named chair of the University Board of Trustees on May 3. He succeeds David L. Brennan, whose one-year term as chair and nine-year term as trustee ends on May 13.

As chair, Patterson will lead the board of a university with more than 55,000 students on six campuses throughout Ohio and an annual budget exceeding $2.3 billion.

Patterson, owner of Patterson Fruit Farm in Chesterland, is a 1964 graduate of Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. He served as a Geauga County commissioner from 1969 to1982 and as president of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation from 1985 to 1989. He joined Ohio State's Board of Trustees in 1994.

James Patterson	Zuheir Sofia

He is a past president of the Ohio Fruit Growers Society, former chair of the Farm Credit Bank of Louisville's board and a former member of the Cleveland Foundation Lake-Geauga advisory committee. He is a member of both the Nationwide Insurance Enterprise and the Nationwide Financial Services boards of directors and serves on both the Geauga Regional Hospital and the University Hospital Health System of Cleveland boards of trustees.

He has held several other leadership roles at Ohio State, including chair of the Ohio State Alumni Advisory Committee and service on the councils of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center and OSU Extension.

Zuheir Sofia, a trustee since 1995, was elected vice chair. He is chairman of Sofia & Co. Inc., a private investment banking company that provides financial and investment services to a broad spectrum of businesses.

Trustees reelected William J. Napier as secretary and James L. Nichols as treasurer.

The board also approved the following appointments of board members to board committees and as representatives to other University-affiliated boards:

• Academic Affairs Committee: Daniel M. Slane, chair; Robert M. Duncan, vice chair; Dimon R. McFerson; new trustee (to be appointed), and Joseph A. Shultz

• Fiscal Affairs Committee: Zuheir Sofia, chair; Tami Longaberger, vice chair; Karen L. Hendricks; Jo Ann Davidson; new student trustee (to be appointed)

• Investments Committee: McFerson, chair; Hendricks, vice chair; Sofia; John Gerlach Jr.; William Ingram III

• Agricultural Affairs Committee: new trustee, chair; Fred L. Daily, vice chair; Davidson; Shultz; new student trustee

• Academic Medical Center Strategic Oversight Committee: Slane, chair; Duncan; Sofia; McFerson

• Student Leadership Committee: James F. Patterson, chair; Sofia, vice chair; Longaberger; Shultz; new student trustee; four students (three student government leaders and chair of the Council on Student Affairs)

• Government Relations Committee: Davidson, chair; Longaberger, vice chair; McFerson; new trustee; Shultz; David L. Brennan; Michael F. Colley; William Blair; Stan Aronoff

• Facilities Planning Committee: Duncan, chair; Davidson, vice chair; Sofia; Hendricks; new student trustee

• Outreach and Engagement Committee: Hendricks, chair; McFerson, vice chair; Slane; new trustee; new student trustee

• Personnel Committee: Patterson, chair; Sofia, vice chair; Longaberger

• Athletics Committee: Longaberger, chair; Duncan, vice chair; McFerson; new trustee; Shultz; faculty representative; Athletic Council chair

• Research Committee: Longaberger, chair; Duncan, vice chair; Hendricks; new trustee; new student trustee

• Regional Campus Committee: Hendricks, chair, Mansfield Campus Board; Slane, Newark Campus Board; McFerson, Marion Campus Board; Davidson, Lima Campus Board; Shultz

• Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute Board: Sofia, chair (2003); Slane

• University Hospitals Board: Sofia, Slane

• University Managed Health Care System, Board of Directors: Duncan (two-year term exp. 2003)

• Campus Partners Board: Davidson (two-year term exp. 2003)

• Ohio State University Affiliates Inc.: Patterson (one year), Sofia (two years), Longaberger (three years)

• Research Foundation Board of Directors: Hendricks (two-year term exp. 2003)

• Science and Technology Campus Board of Directors: Duncan (two-year term exp. 2003)

• University Foundation Ex Officio Class of Directors: Sofia (one year), Longaberger (two years), Slane (three years)

• Wexner Center Foundation Board: Leslie H. Wexner (exp. 2005), Davidson (exp. 2003)

The board chair is an ex-officio member of all board committees.