herr2ck: God of War

September 2025.

The existing Fontana Labs is a recent merging and renovation of the older Metallurgical and Chemical Engineering Buildings. It is part of the “Biomedical and Materials Engineering Complex,” which currently includes Fontana and Koffolt Labs, as well as the ongoing renovation of MacQuigg Lab.

Fontana Labs is located on north campus, bordered by Woodruff Avenue and Blackburn House to the north, McPherson and Celeste Lab to the south, MacQuigg Lab and the construction site that used to be Watts Hall to the east, and the CBEC Building to the west.

Chemical Engineering Building/Old Koffolt Labs History

The Chemical Engineering Building under construction. (Knowlton Archives)

The Chemical Engineering Building was designed in 1957 by Small, Smith, Reeb, and Draz. Its construction began in November 1957, the general contractor being Baker and Coombs, Inc., and the building was released for use on January 2, 1960. With a reinforced concrete frame and brick curtain walls, the Chemical Engineering Building was an orthodox Mid-Century Modern composition. It had 60,236 square feet of space.

The Chemical Engineering Building’s footprint.

A rendering of the Chemical Engineering Building. There were some differences between this drawing and the completed building. (Knowlton Archives)

The Board of Trustees renamed the Chemical Engineering Building to “Koffolt Laboratories” on October 1, 1976, after Joseph Koffolt. Koffolt was born in Cleveland in 1902, graduating from Ohio State with his degree in chemical engineering in 1924. He began teaching at Ohio State in 1929, eventually becoming chairman of the department of chemical engineering in 1948, serving until 1968. He died in 1977. The department’s website has a longer interview with him, which I found pretty interesting. (He was apparently quite the character.)

Metallurgical Engineering Building/Fontana Laboratories History

South facade of the Metallurgical Engineering Building. (Knowlton Archives)

The original Fontana Labs was built as the Metallurgical Engineering Building and was intended to be an addition to the Chemical Engineering Building. It was designed by university architect W. E. Linch in 1963 in the Mid-Century Modern style. Construction started that June, executed by James I. Barnes Construction Co., and the building was released for occupancy in October-November 1964. Fontana Labs was dedicated on May 12, 1967. With a concrete frame clad in brick, the building had 20,690 square feet of space. It was attached to the Chemical Engineering Building to the east.

The footprint of the complex with the addition of the Metallurgical Engineering Building.

MacQuigg Lab, attached to the Metallurgical Engineering Building to the north, was built as a third building in the complex in 1967. I understand the area is in this weird transitional state currently in that it will eventually become one large building, but when I attended OSU Fontana Labs and MacQuigg/Watts were different things, so that’s how I’m treating them here.

Detail of the entrance portal. (Knowlton Archives)

Mars Fontana. (OSU Department of Materials Science and Engineering)

The Metallurgical Engineering Building was renamed “Fontana Laboratories” in 1981 by the Board of Trustees, after Mars Fontana. Fontana was apparently notable enough to have his own Wikipedia page, but Ohio State websites have more information on him. He was born in Michigan in 1910, earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and PhD from that state’s university which will not be named. Fontana was well-known for his contribution to the engineering field as it related to corrosion, writing a textbook on the subject. He joined Ohio State’s faculty in 1945 and became the department chair and director of the Corrosion Center in 1948. Fontana died in 1988.

The current structure that is known as Fontana Laboratories is the former Fontana Labs and Koffolt Labs, as well as a new addition to the north. The two original buildings were extensively renovated, mainly on the interior, but the original Miesian windows were replaced by more contemporary expanses of glass. The project was designed by Moody Nolan and Perkins + Will in 2017, and its construction took place between May 2018 and July 2020. The building opened in August 2020.

Fontana Labs’ current layout. Note that this is an extrapolation and not traced from existing drawings.

Photos

We’ll start with the south facade here:

Note that the original windows and spandrels have been replaced by more contemporary stretches of glass.

Hey!

I’m surprised how elaborate the carved stone entrance is:

This is honestly very out of character for an otherwise orthodox Modern design, and I would say it is out of place. Even though the portal is elaborated and far from a typical classical portico, it attains the same visual effect.

Each corner is decorated with carved reliefs:

Serif font on a Modernist building?! How dare you!

(Funnily enough, I think that font is Garamond, which this blog uses.)

West facade:

The regular brick and glass facade yields to a pure expanse of glass on the north side.

Like the CBEC Building across the way, part of Fontana cantilevers out, but it isn’t supported by piloti.

The north facade is entirely glass:

The mullions create a subtle grid and hierarchy, and the operable windows stick out with their bright metal frames.

Let’s head inside. The main study areas were too busy to comfortably take a photo of, so I just wandered around the hallways. Alison and Peter Smithson would love these exposed systems: