Photos from December 2024.
The 1930s-vintage Cockins Hall stands out (in a good way!) from the otherwise Modernist engineering campus. I’m surprised the rooftop ornament wasn’t knocked off during the 1950s or 60s. Cockins is one of three unfortunately named academic buildings in the same vicinity, and its signage is frequently altered into various profane corruptions.
Cockins Hall is located on north campus, bordered by 18th Avenue and the Journalism Building to the north, Annie and John Glenn Avenue and University Hall to the south, Dulles Hall to the east, and Neil Avenue and the vacant lot that used to be the Neil-17th Building to the west. The Mathematics Building is also attached to its northeast end.
History
A rendering of the Pharmacy and Bacteriology Building’s main facade. (University Archives)
Cockins Hall was designed in 1929 by university architect Joseph N. Bradford as the “Pharmacy and Bacteriology Building.” It is in the Beaux-Arts style, with a reinforced concrete frame and brick exterior. Construction began in the summer of 1929 and concluded around August 1930. Overall, the building has 37,951 square feet of space.
The Pharmacy and Bacteriology Building in 1935. (Buckeye Stroll)
In 1971, Cockins Hall was renovated in order to accommodate the departments of Mathematics and Geodesic Science. This thankfully kept many of the historic features intact, and they still remain today.
Edith Cockins in 1910. (Buckeye Stroll)
The Pharmacy and Bacteriology Building was renamed to “Cockins Hall” in 1967, after Edith Daisy Cockins. Cockins was involved with Ohio State throughout her entire life, starting when she was 15 in 1888 as a preparatory student. She enrolled as a freshman in 1890, contributing to the Lantern and Makio (Ohio State’s old yearbook, now discontinued), and graduated in 1894 with a bachelor’s degree in arts.
After a year of graduate school, Cockins became a record clerk for the university in 1896 and was then appointed to the new University Registrar position a year later. She held that role for the next 47 years until her retirement in 1944. During her tenure, she reorganized the Alumni Association, published the “Who’s Who” list of notable alumni, and held the positions of secretary of the faculty and university editor.
Cockins retired in 1944 and was named registrar emeritus, though she still remained active at the university. This included overseeing the publication of a biography on her colleague Ralph Mershon and continuing to participate in the Alumni Association. Ohio State awarded her an honorary doctorate in administration for her commitment to the university. She died in 1963 at the age of 89.
Currently, Cockins Hall houses the Department of Statistics.
Photos
I had a really pretty picture of Cockins Hall in the fall when the leaves had turned, but I accidentally deleted it off of my memory card. That was one of my favorite campus photos, too, and I’m still a little salty about it. Anyways…here is the main facade:
It was really bright that day--the brick had a nice gleam in the sun.
North facade:
South facade…such beautiful lighting:
The back of Cockins Hall:
It’s interesting to me how the roof peaks like that. Detail of the eave:
Can’t get enough of that lighting…this photo is unedited. You won’t catch me doing any of that heavy HDR nonsense.
Detail of the entrance:
The Neoclassical era of campus architecture is the last time any applied ornament is ever present. Cockins Hall has some nice-looking gingerbread atop its cornice, and zooming in, it is very Art Deco-reminiscent:
A similarly snazzy spandrel:
These exterior sconces are cool-looking too, appearing as an abstraction of Gothic tracery:
These carved panels are indicative of applied ornament’s last hurrah--here, they have geometric patterns, again similar to that last breath of Art Deco.
The central portion is a little more anachronistic, since the negative space in between the hexagons becomes an almost floral pattern:
I have never seen one of these signs say the building’s FULL name…it’s like your mom calling you by your first and middle name when you’re in trouble.
One more before we head inside:
Heading inside, the interior is super anachronistic. Beyond the white paint, it felt like taking a step back in time:
Original doors and light fixtures, terrazzo flooring, and unmolested crown molding…nice! The rug and wet floor sign are a bit ugly, though. I also dig this cool wrought-iron grate:
I wonder what this used to be…a display case, maybe? It looks original to the building:
Cockins is pretty small in plan, and it’s a skinny I-shape. The ground floor holds classrooms:
I’m always a sucker for some nice, dark wood:
The second floor holds offices. It is definitely more spartan up here:
The third floor looks like more offices, but it was under renovation when I visited.
The fourth floor is super modernized and has a drop ceiling. Here, you can see the gap between the original ceiling and the dropped part:
The north stairway is connected to the Math Building, and there are doors to its hallways by the landings.
90 years of footsteps can really wear down the stairs:
The basement is extremely tight…judging by the door, I’m guessing the ceilings are only 7 feet tall. It feels like when you build a house only 2 blocks high in Minecraft, and your character can’t jump when you’re inside. The basement has the tutoring rooms for the Department of Statistics.
A tunnel to the basement of the Math Building:
Cockins Hall will be renovated in the near future, according to Framework 3.0. I wonder if that work has already begun, judging by the fourth floor being modernized and ongoing work on the third.
Sources:
https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/24059
https://library.osu.edu/site/buckeyestroll/
https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/37314
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