herr2ck: RAMassacre

Photos from November 2024.

As of the time of writing, the Timashev Family Music Building and the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts Building are the two newest buildings on Ohio State’s campus. They’re not RAMSA’s best work, in my opinion, a bit of a…massacre. (I’m reaching a bit to make a pun on their name) These names are a bit of a mouthful, so I’ll refer to them as Timashev and the Theatre Building for brevity. Since they are so new, the history section of this article will be pretty much nonexistent.

As in other articles where I’m covering a series of buildings that are effectively identical, I split this article into sections about each individual structure.

Timashev Family Music Building History

Timashev is the southernmost of the two buildings. It is sandwiched between the Wexner Center to the east and Weigel Hall to the south, and is bordered by the Theatre Building to the north and Hughes Hall to the west. The project is known as the “Arts District,” and the building was designed by RAMSA (Robert A.M. Stern Architects) and DLR Group from 2018-2019. I had no idea such a big architecture firm was involved, especially the Classical Revivalist firm RAMSA, but something tells me Ohio State shot down any plans that weren’t the sterile contemporary result. Construction on Timashev began in June 2019 and finished in January 2022, which included removing the front facade of Weigel Hall to accommodate the new construction. With 96,000 square feet of space, it was first used and dedicated the following autumn (October 23, 2022), which I was present for.

The Timashev Family Music Building is named after alumnus Ratmir Timashev, who made the single largest donation to Ohio State in its history ($17 million). He owns some cloud data management company based in Columbus.

My first semester at OSU happened to be autumn 2022, right when Timashev opened. I was a member of the Symphonic Band, which had quite the eccentric director. He liked to make comments about the new building, and apparently I was one of the first to play inside the rehearsal hall, a member of the first ensemble to rehearse inside the same room, and probably the first to make a sketch of the building, since I needed something not out of my way to fill my sketchbook. (For freshman studio, we were graded on having a completed sketchbook.) We had an open rehearsal at the dedication ceremony on October 23, which I don’t remember well, but I recall finding it boring.

Timashev Family Music Building Photos

I hate how oppressive the facades of these buildings are. I took these photos on a cloudy, rainy day, so their dark and orthogonal nature is emphasized. Here’s my take on that crappy render of them that I see everywhere:

Doesn’t this just spark joy?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I hate the ongoing trend of spurning any sort of organization in facades nowadays. Everything must be chaotic and unrigid. This is a pretty tame example, but the result is still confusing:

Between Timashev and the Theatre Building, there’s a brick courtyard that opens up to the pathway towards High Street. I'm sure 17th Avenue ran this way at one point, but it was a sidewalk by 2012.

The benches have musical notation and lyrics written on them:

Heading inside, you can see the axis that defines the organization of the interior. I will give RAMSA this--the lobby is very airy and open, and the expanses of glass bring much natural light inside.

Looking into the rehearsal hall, aka “the fishbowl:”

I’ve never seen a plaque this massive honoring a donor before.

Heading up to the second floor, I began to hear the sound of music that permeated the building. It added interest to the otherwise bland interior. This is what pretty much all the interior spaces look like:

This looks climbable.

On the fifth floor, the windows actually extended to the hallways instead of being attached to faculty offices/classrooms. Here’s the view looking west:

Hughes Hall dominates most of that view, but I can also see Denney Hall, Mathematics Tower, Lincoln and Morrill Tower, University Hall’s clock tower, Thompson Library, and the massive new hospital building.

Looking northwest, you can also see Stillman Hall, McPherson Lab, Smith Lab, 18th Avenue Library, and Dreese Labs’ tower.

Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts Building History

The Theatre Building is the northernmost of the two, standing north of Timashev, south of the Arps Garage and Ramseyer Hall, east of Stillman Hall, and west of Arps Hall. It is part of the same Arts District project and was likewise designed by RAMSA and DLR Group in an identical contemporary style. However, it was built and occupied a bit later--construction took place from November 2020 - June 2023, and the building opened for the autumn 2023 semester.

Presently, the Theatre Building is named after its tenants. If its name changes, I will update this article.

Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts Building Photos

The Theatre Building is roughly half the size of Timashev in plan, so it’s a little cuter-looking. The glass facade works out to be symmetrical, which I think looks better than the asymmetrical one on Timashev.

The interior is largely the same:

The building holds two theaters on the ground floor: the Proscenium and Blackbox. The Proscenium Theatre has double the capacity of the Blackbox.

Both were locked. In between the ground and first floors, there was an inaccessible mezzanine level. On the next floor I heard drilling and sawing. I think this is where the sets are assembled:

I rounded the corner of the stairwell onto the second floor and saw…costumes!

These are crazy detailed and super high quality. The rest of the second floor is classrooms:

The third floor, which I didn’t photograph, has video/editing studios and the film supplies rental. The fourth has faculty offices, and apparently they have a kitchen: