herr2ck: Funky Extruded Shape

September 2025.

The current Ohio Union is Ohio State’s third “main” student union, after the first (Hale Hall) and the second (Old Ohio Union, which stood on the site of the existing building). Additionally, the university built the Women’s Union (Pomerene Hall) and Drake Union (The Drake, an auxiliary union on west campus). I think the extant Union is an improvement over the mid-century one, at least on the exterior, but neither is an architectural masterpiece.

The Ohio Union is located on south campus, bordered by its parking garages to the north, Drinko Hall to the south, High Street and the south campus bars to the east, and the South Oval to the west. Prior to the construction of the existing building, an older union occupied the site.

Old Ohio Union History

The Old Ohio Union in 1950. (Buckeye Stroll)

The oldest Ohio Union (now Hale Hall) became too small for Ohio State after World War II ended, which caused a spike in enrollment. Students agreed to pay $5 per quarter in 1947 (so $20 per academic year, which is about $285 today) for the construction of a new student union.

The Old Ohio Union was designed in 1949 by Bellman, Gillett, and Richards. Designed in the Mid-Century Modern style, the building had a steel frame and brick exterior. Its construction began in June 1949, the general contractor being Struck Construction Co., and the Union opened on November 1, 1951.

The Union’s original footprint.

John Herrick counts the addition of a trash room as the building’s first addition, but I’ll start with the addition of a terrace on the south side. This portion was designed by Benham, Richards, and Armstrong in 1961. Its construction began in May 1962 and concluded that October.

The Union after its first addition.

The Old Ohio Union c. 2000s, soon before its demolition. (Knowlton Archives)

The second addition, which enclosed a previously open balcony in the middle of the building, was intended to expand the “terrace dining room.” This portion was designed by George Clark in 1965, and its construction began that July. The expanded dining room opened in January 1966.

The Union’s footprint after its second addition.

The third addition added a floor to the north end of the union. It was designed in 1966 by Richards, Bauer, and Moorehead, and its construction took place between July and September of that year.

The Union’s footprint as it appeared until its demolition.

The Union’s lobby c. 1950-1970. (CML)

While the exterior of the old union was rather pedestrian beyond its carved reliefs, the interior was a pretty cool exercise in mid-century decor. It featured several ballrooms and study spaces, not unlike the union today, but it also had unique spaces like a bowling alley and pool tables. The dining room on the top floor was known as the “Tip Top Terrace” and overlooked Mirror Lake.

The old Ohio Union faithfully served Ohio State for the next few decades. Its program changed over the years--a micro-computer lab was opened in 1985 to accommodate the increasing interest in that technology. However, by that time the union’s age was becoming apparent. According to a 1986 study, the university would have to spend $10 million by 1994 to maintain the plumbing, heating systems, and roof. In 1994, plans to renovate the union were submitted, but students rejected them via a referendum.

During the 2003-2004 school year, the student government voted to construct a new Ohio Union. Plans were approved to demolish the 1951 union in June 2004. Its demolition concluded in 2007.

Ohio Union History

The current Ohio Union. (Knowlton Archives)

The current Ohio Union’s design is interesting because it was again highly influenced by student opinion. Students visited different unions across the country to select features they found interesting, and they approved aspects like the color scheme, furniture, and aesthetics. The Ohio Union was designed by Moody Nolan in the Contemporary style, and its construction took place between 2007 and 2010. The building is certified LEED Silver.

The union’s design is controversial, at least within the Ohio State architecture community. One of my professors disliked the odd shape of the building in plan and described it as a “funky extruded shape.” It seems like students protested when it opened and wrote opinion pieces in Knowlton’s student magazine One:Twelve. The gist is that the building has the same kind of gentrification-special strip mall architecture that can be seen in every middle-class suburb across America, and it doesn’t really embody the values of a progressive university like Ohio State. You can read the two articles here:

"There's more to it: 1 year's reflection of architecture students' Ohio Union protest"

"Architecture is war."

The news articles in question that the first writer criticizes seem like they boil down to architecture majors being perceived as snobbish and nitpicky, that “nothing is ever good enough,” and that ultimately their expensive/elitist taste is out of touch with the remainder of the community. Normally, I generally side with public opinion on these kinds of things, since many starchitects do have this tendency to design buildings that are difficult for laypeople to comprehend or even are outright ridiculous in their design. Here, though, I have to disagree.

The issue with this kind of design in architecture is that it tries to be complex in a nearsighted manner, yet it is still generic and cheap-looking. Contextualism in design has left the building about 70 years ago, and only now is it starting to make a return. (It still isn’t popular, though.) As a result, you get a union that could go on just about any college campus across the United States. I disliked the old Union, but it incorporated features like its relief tablets that were unique touches. Here, there are nonsensical towers, odd and uneven fenestration, projections, columns, and vaulting everywhere. It somehow is a return to the perceived unclear nature of Victorian architecture that the Modernists despised, yet at the same time it lacks the finesse that properly articulated architecture of that time had. It is as if you gave a toddler building blocks and asked them to design something. Is it visually interesting? Yeah, if you don’t think about it. Does it make sense literally anywhere else? No. The Union is essentially a McMansion blown up for use by college students.

The Union also typifies the gentrification occurring on High Street that began about 2010. You had human-scaled, older buildings that housed beloved small businesses that occupied the spaces since the turn of the 20th century. As OSU’s demographics have shifted towards a more upper-class white student population, it led to tearing down older buildings and building new crap that caters to them. High Street near campus is now filled with out-of-scale apartments that nobody can afford, and the urban landscape that respected the pedestrian scale has been irrevocably shattered. The old Union, with all its faults, was mostly one story in height and three max, which was similar to its surroundings. The existing one is both larger and taller, which makes it out of scale.

Photos

We’ll start by looking southwest at the principal, east facade:

Gigantically out-of-scale bay window:

Gigantic vaulted entrance:

Why is every window a different width and height? Why does the facade suddenly jog east a bit for no discernable reason? I don’t understand it.

These flags are the same ones that the stadium has and have all the Big 10 members on there, but now that the conference has grown so large, some of the poles have to share.

Another look at the main facade from the southeast corner now:

Corner turret:

The south side has this big plaza and sitting area, which is kind of funny because I never see it used that much:

A look down the colonnade on the east side:

God, those OHIO door handles are atrocious. They’re so gaudy and cumbersome to use.

The south side also has the reliefs from the demolished Union:

They’re cool, but they definitely take a whitewashed approach to Ohio and university history.

I think these two located east of the original carvings are new:

Here we go again with the nonsensical fenestration.

This photo of the west facade was from the day I visited. There’s always some ridiculous brand promotion going on on that porch area:

Again, the organization of this section bugs me. Oddly angled areas in plan, out-of-scale turrets, off-center entrance area, and so on.

I also have this wider view from March 2024, when the Palestine protests were happening. No snipers on that roof yet, but there would be later.

Probably the only place I can use this photo of the cops mobilizing.

Free Palestine.

This unusual columned portion reminds me of the one on Gerlach Hall in the business school:

One of the poorly proportioned turrets:

Central bay window:

Much of the Union’s interior is organized around the gigantic central atrium. Normally I would just visit right when it opened or closed to avoid people, but I don’t think the architecture is really worth it here.

A view from the opposite end with the stupid bronze Brutus statue:

The little bookstore inside, which mostly sells merch at this point:

“Buckeye Commons” (formerly the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, before being more equitable to minorities and underprivileged students was outlawed):

Each balcony has a lyric from Carmen Ohio engraved into it.

First floor west study area:

Woody’s Tavern, probably my favorite Union restaurant:

It’s ridiculous that they jacked up the pizza prices, though. Here is Union Market’s dining area, the restaurant with the best selection:

Sloopy’s Diner, a 1950s-themed diner restaurant:

One of my friends works as a server here, and she tells me they are losing money and will likely close soon. Wild how dining has raised prices so much but still can’t even break even.

Second floor study area with fireplace:

Even the fireplace’s stonework is plagiarized from the mid-century Ohio Union.

Here’s another look at the atrium and its huge trusses:

I do like the exposed structure and vaulting from the inside, it reminds me of Victorian-era architecture in a better way than the rest of the building.

The second floor houses the massive Archie Griffin Ballroom: