Knowlton Hall, pt. 2 - “Concrete Jungle”

Photos vary widely, but many date to October 2025.

Back to part 1 

 

This successor explores Knowlton Hall’s interior, since the previous post was massive as it is. We’ll take the ramps, since I think those provide the most unique procession through the building. I also documented the 20th anniversary Banvard exhibition, which is included at the end.

Photos

I’m starting with the east entrance, since that is the one I and most other students use to get inside Knowlton.

This is just such an unusual entrance compared to conventional campus architecture. It feels like I’m in the sewers in Mirror’s Edge:

The interior space is wide open, aside from the various piers. There is a clear axis up the ramp to the west end of the building.

We’ll have to explore some other areas and go down before we go up. This is the front desk area, with the school’s various services:

Various drawings by well-known architects:

Apparently, these are not covered by UV glass and have suffered sun damage over the years.

Here’s another west view towards the gallery space and ramp:

The “big stairs,” which are a common study space:

This gallery space is commonly used for pin-ups, reviews, and presentations.

KSA Cafe:

The window at the end almost extends the ramp out of the building:

These steel mullions might look rusty--but that’s on purpose. They are Cor-Ten steel, which intentionally oxidizes to create a protective coating.

Also note the little vents below, which help counter the temperature issues caused by massive expanses of windows.

Looking out the windows at the columns outside:

Looking back at where we came, towards the east entrance:

Again, each door is perfectly aligned with the two ramps.

Looking down towards the basement:

The basement holds some very unique rooms that aren’t accessible to Knowlton students. However, I worked in the Knowlton Archives, and I had access to that area. I’ll detail that later. One space that I guarantee nobody else knows about is the “gravel pit” behind a locked door. It’s where the school dumps all its broken junk and ripped furniture:

I was in there to store some old Baumer lecture posters and jumped at the chance to get these, since students are never allowed back here.

Let’s skip backwards to where we were on the first upward ramp. This gallery is known as the “carpeted space,” and it is another common location for reviews. The rooms with glass walls are classrooms.

Looking back east at the large curtain wall:

The ramp continues upward to the auditorium:

One of the off-limits balconies is up here, too. This is another irritating part of Knowlton’s design being altered by the leadership (like the graffiti).

The ramp reaches a landing and starts heading up in the opposite direction to the second floor:

The second floor is mostly staff offices, but there are a few classrooms as well. Here is one of the office hallways:

There is a slight landing at the end of this ramp that overlooks the various spaces above and below. Note the landscape architecture exhibit--this is highly unusual, as I have never seen any installations that use spaces besides the Banvard Gallery or review spaces.

Big stairs and offices:

Steel beams supporting the track lights:

The ramp diverges in two directions here. One way goes up to the undergrad architecture and LARCH studios:

The other goes to the graduate architecture studios:

Heading up that way, we’ve reached what’s considered the third floor (even though it shifts considerably in section) and the G2 (second year graduate) studios. 

This area is known as the “student lounge.” Like Knowlton’s various other designer furniture pieces, these are done by either Frank Gehry or Peter Eisenman, if I recall correctly, and they were specifically purchased to handle abuse by students:

Not too bad a view, but the parking garages sure are eyesores.

UG4 and G3 (undergraduate and graduate senior) studio--my desk is here somewhere:

Each studio has clerestories to let natural light in. Here’s the one above UG4:

These ones by UG2 LARCH have the same unusual grid system as the larger windows:

Looking west from the cutout there:

The ramp continues from the freshman studio space immediately west of UG4/G3:

Now we’re overlooking one of the landscape studios, possibly grad:

The end and landing get unusually compressed, compared to the openness of the ramp up until now.

This ramp will take us to the fourth floor:

One of the computer labs, which hangs over the UG2 ARCH studio:

Can you guess which desk is mine?

CRP studios at the west end:

One of the now-bare stairwells:

 

We’ve reached the last bit of ramp, which leads to the library and roof garden.

The library also hangs over the studios, but it has fully glass walls:

East study area inside:

The west side has carrels:

Bookshelves:

The sides that face the open spaces have smaller bookshelves with metal tops:

This is the Digital Library, another part of the Knowlton Archives:

The roof garden is one of Knowlton’s underappreciated areas. It used to be pretty decrepit because of deferred maintenance, but a student org called Knowlton Conservation Corps has restored it.

I think the only other place plants and buildings meet like this are in the greenhouses on a parking garage by med campus.

The concrete oculus has been taken over by vines and moss:

Believe it or not, these seats are designer furniture, too:

Orthogonal glass building vs. chaos of nature:

The oculus has a nice hole that I could peek my camera through. Looking down at the ground:

Back up at the sky:

Every wall is overtaken by vines and ivies:

It’s easy to forget you’re not on some isolated plane of existence up here, but at certain angles other buildings will pop up, like Fisher Hall here:

Banvard Gallery

I documented the Banvard Gallery during the Knowlton Stories exhibit, which showed the history of the building on its 20th anniversary. There were lots of interesting things on display. This is a large ⅛” model of Knowlton Hall:

Certain parts of the exterior could be removed to study the interior. It’s largely the same as what was built, but the columns were placed differently and the exterior cladding was slate at that time.

This larger model explores the site’s context, such as Ohio Stadium, the business school, and the parking garages:

The large pin-up board was covered with various prints of computer models, drawings, and quotes from the architects and engineers.

For context, Dave Schoeff was my architectural structures professor, as well as the structural engineer for this building. Painfully boring class, as it’s not something I’m really interested in, but he was a really smart guy.

Could you imagine if Knowlton had a terra-cotta or glass exterior?

More interesting details on the organization and green space:

Last one:

Various study models:

You can see how the project’s scope pivoted from an addition to Ives Hall…

…to an individual building:

Roof garden model:

Last thing…marble tile samples:

Knowlton Archives

Behind a bare door that was unmarked until very recently lies the Knowlton Archives. I’ll finish up this post with a look at some of the physical artifacts there. This is a lion from a Louis Sullivan building, likely a “jewel box” bank. Why this is here is beyond me, because all of those banks are still standing, unless it is an extra.

Note the missing chunks on the nose and shield, which are the result of vandalism after a football game.

A lot of the inventory includes ornamentation. I’m not sure if any of it is from campus architecture, though. Note the old “scarlet signs” from Brown Hall:

I know this one and its prequel were quite a mouthful. Thanks for reading!