Photos from November 2024.
Hagerty Hall’s true age is obscured by the new windows that were recently installed--they cheapen the look of the building and take away from its historic appearance. Still, I think this building is one of Joseph N. Bradford’s weakest entries, and I’ll explain more when I get to my contemporary coverage. Hagerty Hall is located on the south side of the Oval, bordered by the green space of the Oval to the north, the South Oval to the south, Page Hall to the east, and Mendenhall Laboratory to the west.
Biological Hall History
Biological Hall in 1910. (University Archives)
Before Hagerty Hall was built, the site was occupied by Biological Hall. This beautiful Renaissance Revival building was designed by Yost & Packard in 1896. It was built starting that September by Columbus Construction Co., but apparently the Board of Trustees had to take over and complete the construction. It was completed by June 1898 at a cost of $55,000, with a steel frame and a salmon-colored brick exterior.
Detail of Biological Hall’s entrance c. 1910. The ornamental panels on the second floor have the skulls of animals in the middle, a very interesting detail. The things I would do to bring this building back… (University Archives)
On May 25, 1921, the Board of Trustees ordered Biological Hall to be razed as soon as possible for the construction of Hagerty Hall. Its demolition was finished in 1923.
One more…here’s the museum inside as it appeared in 1899. (University Archives)
Hagerty Hall History
The Commerce Building viewed from the Oval, undated. (University Archives)
Hagerty Hall was designed in 1922 by university architect Joseph N. Bradford in the Neoclassical style, most obviously seen in the cornice and Ionic pilasters. Originally, it was known as the Commerce Building. It has a concrete frame clad in brick. Construction began in October 1922, executed by E. H. Latham, and the building was first occupied in autumn 1924. It originally held the College of Commerce and Journalism (now the Fisher College of Business), and was also known as the “College of Commerce and Journalism Building.”
The Commerce Building’s original footprint.
An aerial view of Hagerty Hall showing its addition. (University Archives)
In 1948, an addition for Hagerty Hall was designed by Bellman, Gillett, and Richards, a Toledo architecture firm that designed several buildings on the Ohio State campus, as well as others at Bowling Green State and University of Toledo. While this addition obeys the proportions and scale of the original building, it is in a bare Mid-Century Modern style. Construction took place starting November 5, 1948, built by Haig M. Boyajohn, and the addition was ready for students in autumn 1950. This addition brought the building to 74,849 net assignable square feet.
Hagerty Hall’s footprint after its first addition.
An auditorium inside Hagerty Hall, undated, 1950s? (University Archives)
The College of Business expanded to adjacent Page Hall in 1960. It occupied both buildings until c. 2000, roughly when the new Fisher campus was completed.
In 2005, Hagerty Hall was again renovated into its current state. This remodeling added the current shiny metal lecture hall to the west side of the building, removed a section of the original building in favor of a central green space, and added the World Media Center and Crane Cafe. It strived to allow Ohio State to become an “international portal” which would become the United States’ top site for language and culture studies. Currently, Hagerty Hall houses many of the language departments and part of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Hagerty Hall’s current footprint.
The Commerce Building was renamed “Hagerty Hall” in 1947 by the Board of Trustees, after Dr. James Hagerty. While at Ohio State, he was the first dean of the College of Commerce and Journalism, the first chair of the Department of Sociology, the first director of the School of Social Administration, and the first professor to teach a marketing course at any university.
Photos
Hagerty Hall has always felt kind of bland to me, even as a building decorated more elaborately than many others on campus. I think that idea proliferates through a few specific design choices. Let’s start with the north facade:
Although the tan brick is a departure from the typical red, the walls just feel flat to me. Additionally, the modern windows take away from the historic architecture and cheapen its appearance. The Ionic pilasters seem like an afterthought and almost unnecessary. I don’t like the cornice’s placement between the third and fourth floors. Before researching the building, I thought the fourth floor was a later addition, since it defeats the idea of a cornice in the first place.
I also despise the contextless shiny trapezoid added onto the west side of the building. It doesn’t work for Jennings Hall, and it doesn’t work here. The girl’s expression in this photo sums up how I feel about it:
Right click → “Open image in new tab” → zoom in
The east facade of the original building:
Looking southwest at Bellman, Gillett, and Richards’ addition:
I respect the original materials being carried over in the stone base and brick facade, as well as the proportions and courses…it’s just a little too bare for my liking. The way the two are connected is also kind of janky:
Detail of the College Road entrance:
The rear of the addition, as viewed from across the South Oval:
Moving back towards the entrance, I got some more detail shots of the ornamental features. First are the portals, which I do find to be aesthetically pleasing.
An Ionic pilaster capital:
The dentils of the cornice:
The roofline’s ornament:
One last thing before heading inside…the odd half-capital that happens at the corners:
The first thing I noticed inside was the light wood paneling and the artwork framed on them:
I think most of it is international literature from foreign authors. Right by the entrance is the “Humanities Institute.”
The space between the two phases of the building is used as a courtyard. I think it was closed off because of the chilly weather, but it seems like it would be a cool place to study when it’s nice out.
The big wall of sheet metal from the newest addition:
Inside is a huge lecture hall. I had my physics final there as a sophomore. Back to the courtyard, the cornice is still there but simplified:
The ground floor doesn’t really have much there, most of it is public space like the cafe inside and lobby. It seems like most of the classrooms are in the basement level:
An empty classroom:
Climbing the stairs to the second floor, it mostly consists of language faculty offices. The central rooms of the northern section have department headquarters in them, usually specific languages. (German, Spanish, Slavic, etc.)
I like this original staircase hardware:
On either the second or third floor, I got thirsty, but my water bottle was empty. There was a water fountain by the stairs, and after I finished drinking the button stayed depressed and the water kept flowing. I tried pushing the dang thing back into place, but I apparently got it stuck or broke it. Oops. I wonder how long it ultimately ran for.
Another view of the courtyard and addition from the third floor:
The third and fourth floor are more of the same, just faculty offices and that central department headquarters space. The fourth also houses more of the Humanities Institute. I found it weird how the roof access is located in this random office, as opposed to one of the stairwells:
The courtyard cutout from the fourth floor:
Since Hagerty was renovated so recently, it’s probably good to go for a while. I think it’ll take another decade or two for these 2000s campus remodelings to start looking dated.
Sources:
https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/24059
https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/37314
https://library.osu.edu/site/buckeyestroll/
https://library.osu.edu/site/archives/university-archives/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills,_Rhines,_Bellman_%26_Nordhoff
https://www.thelantern.com/2005/01/hagerty-hall-haggard-no-longer/
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