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This stretch of High Street is a mix of restaurants, small commercial buildings, and apartments that lacks personality and a cohesive identity from building to building. These buildings are new, but because they are very segmented in design from store to store they will not age well and their appeal as new in appearance right now will fade away over time. Public art could have a significant impact on this stretch of development by providing a unified personality, a more inviting atmosphere for pedestrians, and a greater living space for apartment residents.

The other side of the street (that is physically on campus) has a very bland, “cookie cutter” look. This sidewalk and the buildings it connects lack personality and while they have a beautiful, new look, they will not age well, similar to the buildings across the street. Pedestrians may also feel unsafe walking so close to the street, so public art could not only improve the vibrance and sense of place of this area, but also make people on the sidewalk feel more comfortable. This art could also be a source of shade on a very hot day that Columbus often experiences.

For the commercial side of High Street, we believed that integrating some more “natural” ideas of public art would bring a personal element to the otherwise impersonal business fronts. A rooftop garden would help make the entire stretch of storefronts more appealing while masking the setback top of the new apartment building. The art could also have elements that were not living, such as a vine or plant sculpture, so that the unity between the rooftop garden and the storefronts was even more complete.

On the university side of High Street, we believed that the public art should create a more inviting, homely aspect for students and for casual pedestrians on the sidewalk. The arches would also serve as a physical barrier, causing the people walking on this sidewalk to be less worried about being so close to the traffic on High Street. The sidewalk design would be a cool meeting place for students, and it would provide an incentive to come to this part of campus and interact with the businesses across the street.

Our first step in implementing our ideas would be holding a community meeting and inviting members of the dorms, apartment complex, and businesses these ideas would affect. The discussion would bring concerns to our attention that we would need to address, and would ensure our plan was considerate of the members of the community. For funding, we would first approach the businesses across from campus on this stretch of High Street, as public art would increase foot traffic to their locations. We could also ask the university to support this project, as it would improve student experience and wellness. Setback and safety policy could help provide support to our project, as we would be masking the apartment complex’s extension above the businesses and helping the city provide a safer walking space for pedestrians.

The area between Woodruff and Lane is relatively plain in terms of design. For example, The Ohio State Inn is an entirely beige building with no extra decoration, and other buildings like Donato’s pose no artistic element with entirely plain walls that could easily support public art. Additionally, there is no indication that you are approaching the university. Granted, there are dorms and other academic buildings along the road that would indicate to observant travelers that they are in the university district, but there is no true gateway to introduce the area.

As one travels along High Street, one of the most easily identifiable aspects of the drive is the black archways with gold writing that introduce the different neighborhoods/districts like the Short North and Old North. One of these archways can be seen right outside the Buffalo Wild Wings on High Street, yet it does not announce the arrival of the University District. Due to this fact, we believe that it would be a good idea to add multiple archways along the stretch of High Street between Lane Avenue and Woodruff Avenue (Photo #1). Currently, these structures are all essentially the same, with just the neighborhood names differentiating them. Following our concept drawing (Photo #2), the ones in the University District will be enhanced with additional features such as lights underneath and Block-O’s on the side-posts. The addition of such features will enhance the commute through the University District and infuse life into an otherwise dull portion of High Street.

Photo #1

Photo #2

Streetlamps are a necessary aspect to have along the roads whether they are wanted or not. However, the posts lining High Street are quite bland and lack personality (Photo #3). In order to give the University District a stronger sense of place, we devised a plan to add banners to the lampposts. Implementing this plan would be relatively easy, as the lampposts already have fixtures in place to hang murals (Photo #3). On such banners would hang various pieces of art representing iconic locations throughout campus (Photo #4). Such images would exemplify campus pride and give the area an increased sense of place. Implementing a Block O border around the murals would create a clean/cohesive look, while the designs in the center would make them all individual.

Photo #3

Photo #4

Without funding, all of these concepts cannot be put into action. Thankfully, the ideas presented are simple and would likely not cost vary much money to implement. In regards to the archway, as it is a commonality along High Street, it may be possible to convince the City of Columbus to support a furthering of the theme. The banners would likely have to receive funding from the Ohio State due to the fact that they would likely be seen as an advertisement for the university. Even if this happens, funding for such projects already exists in the form of private donors and student due. In order to allocate this money, a pitch must be made to either the university or to private donors (alumni) that such a project is affordable and necessary for the betterment of the campus environment. By convincing these entities to follow through, High Street could receive a major face-lift that will greatly improve its overall appearance and add a greater sense of personality to the University.

Sidewalks– Cannon Drive has pretty narrow sidewalks for being so close to the stadium, the street however is wide so the cars don’t feel too close to you as you walk on the sidewalk. feels safe. Then the sidewalk on cannon drive just ends, and you have to walk through the parking lot. there is dead grass paths where you can tell people have made their own paths where there should be a sidewalk.

Accessibility– After the short period on Cannon Dr. where there is no sidewalk, it picks back up but is in poor shape. The sidewalk is crumbling asphalt which is rough, narrow, close to the street, and definitely not suitable for people with disabilities. There would be no room for anyone with a wheelchair to fit on the poor excuse of a sidewalk, not to mention any motorized scooters.

Traffic Flow– after turning into John Herrick Dr., traffic is stopped in the right turn lane. Mass amounts of people are wanting to turn right to get onto 315, but the one right turn lane does not move quick enough to accommodate this. Also, pedestrians are forced to cross John Herrick Dr. when the sidewalk ends on one side. This further holds up traffic in the right lane, especially as many students cross here.

Setbacks– Walking along John Herrick Dr., the hospital buildings are extremely close to the street. At one point the building was no more than a foot away from the sidewalk. The buildings which are close to the sidewalk are not very tall, but have taller ones behind it. The feeling created by these squat buildings is not as imposing as if the taller, larger buildings were so close to the street.

Street Safety– While we were walking on the sidewalk along Cannon Dr., it abruptly ended and led straight into the bus lane. We did not notice, and half of us began walking straight into the bus lane as a bus was approaching.

We thought that this area on campus more south was a great representation of the ramp use on campus and was great for people with wheelchairs. One thing that I thought was great was there would be a set of stairs and on the other side there would be a ramp that was not too steep as to make it hard for a person in a wheelchair. One way that I think that would be more inclusive for people with disabilities would be to properly think of what a disability is. In reality, a disability is not just a leg disability but could be a number of things that could range from mental to sight and the way people see things that does not match up to the flow of the natural order.

At least at this point on the street the street feels like a good width for cars to come and go at a comfortable pace without a congested feeling. Generally when the street is skinnier, the road feels tight and traffic is often times pretty bad because people generally go slower when there is less space to work with. The wider the street is generally makes for good flow of the traffic and creates more room for parking on the side of the road as well.

The building use of this white stone really makes it unique in comparison to the other buildings and their style, and theme. The buildings on either side of this building are brown and reddish brick which really makes this building stand out in a bold way. Not only is the color bold, but also is the style this building is. It seems like this building is ornamented with some designs along the white stone. None of the other buildings contain these designs on them. Our conclusion is that this building is not in sync with the buildings around it.

We would say that the setback for this building is not appropriate with the overall theme of the neighborhood. The modern look to the building indeed speaks a newer more progressive theme and the building behind it speaks an older and more traditional look. This can be shown by the use of brick as opposed to this building displaying large see through glass which usually is used in newer more modern styles. Usually a neighborhood has a certain feel and style to it and when there are a bunch of buildings with brick and then a large building with large glass panels it makes it seem out of sync in comparison to the other buildings in the neighborhood.

The sidewalks in this area feel natural and free and give plenty of space to pedestrians.  The sidewalks in this area feel very new and are almost giving off an artistic feel to them because they really open up to the academic part of campus or they kind of open up to the commercial part of the campus. There is not many bad things about this section of sidewalk on campus. It seems very open and makes for good circulation through this part of the campus. Some ways that the sidewalks could be improved might be to have a lot of the sidewalks on high street on the opposite part of the street to be this wide so that there can be better circulation especially at night.

Sidewalks
This is a two-way street, but the pedestrian is only on one side. I think the good thing is that the sidewalk is separated from road by grassland. Therefore, people can walk in a safer way. However, I think it’s better to add a sidewalk, so people can walk on both sides of the street.

Street Safety
This bridge passes over a roadway to connect OSU’s campus to the Olentangy Trail. This is a great way to keep both runners and drivers safe. Runners can pass easily without having to worry about stopping their run to wait for cars or getting hit, while cars don’t have to worry about runners jumping out in front of them. It also helps to keep traffic moving; traffic frequently stalls when classes end at OSU because students keep using “yield to pedestrian” crosswalks. This prevents stopping of that sort while simultaneously making everyone safer.

Street Width
The street width plays an important role in how pedestrians and drivers feel when going gown High Street. Wider streets are more conducive to cars, making drivers more comfortable with driving faster and faster. However, pedestrians can feel unsafe with cars zipping by, feeling especially vulnerable when having to cross an intersection. Since High Street sees a lot of people walking on its sidewalks, it makes more sense to cater High towards pedestrians and not drivers by the street narrower.

Traffic Flow
Measures like the usage of one way streets and terminating roads before intersections help improve traffic flow in the campus area and relieve some of the traffic volume from High Street to help it serve more efficiently as a major artery of Columbus.

Parking
While most professors, staff, and other employees of the university of drive to work, many of the students do not, so the existing parking is definitely enough to accommodate the mass of people at Ohio State. The current layout of parking is definitely functional, but I believe it could be even more functional and offer greater campus traffic safety if there were less parking spaces on the interior of campus. The large parking garages are located on the edges of campus, but more central campus parking should be removed. I think that more bike racks would also be a great improvement, as this would encourage bike usage and a smaller reliance on cars to get around.\

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19th Avenue and Street Safety

This road is one of the most unsafe roads on North Campus. Between Woodruff and 18th, 19th Ave separates chemistry lab and classroom buildings. Compared to it’s neighboring streets, 19th lacks pedestrian pathways with either a light or sign. The traffic flow can get pretty congested, mainly because of inadequate parking or pick-up spaces, traffic lights, and accessibility for students. The use of buildings on this road is really good for chemistry students because their labs and classrooms usually agglomerate in this area

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The Oval and Accessibility Issues

Due to construction of the Oval, some paths are blocked by fences. The main row attaches many smaller pathways to each other. The Oval is like the crossroads campus, so many students walk through this area everyday. It is important to keep areas like this accessible to accommodate for pedestrian transportation.

John H. Herrick Drive and Accessibility/Sidewalk use

The walking path that snakes along John H. Herrick in the eastern direction just suddenly stops. If continued down the road, it could connect to bus stop, but the park takes out that space. You have to cross a busy road two times to get to a major bus stop. This creates a accessibility issue and poor sidewalk planning.

John H. Herrick Drive and Traffic Flow issues

While there was an issue with accessibility in the previous example, there is also traffic issues. The EMS entrance to the hospital is located right next to a bus stop AND a major parking garage. This creates a lot of traffic, whether that be emergency vehicles, normal pedestrian cars, pedestrians crossings, and buses.

Woody Hayes Drive and Accessibility Issues

The use of stairs here is great for pedestrians to access the top of this gradual incline. Although, if you are handicapped, there is no other way for you to access this higher point and reach the sidewalk if need be. There are no ramps or smooth surfaces to allow for wheelchairs or anything of the like.

Blog Post Three: 

SIDEWALKS:

The first area of this field assessment that jumped out at our group was the sidewalks — this is the very nature of walking any route. Sidewalks are key to a pedestrian friendly areas, and make up for a large part of the routes at Ohio State. For the most part, Ohio state is fully interconnected by sidewalks. From the network of paths across the Oval, to the linear yet efficient stretch up Canon Drive.

The center of campus had the best sidewalks by far. In general, the sidewalks around the Oval were wide enough to accommodate the large amount of daily foot traffic and were in good condition. However, there were some places, notably on the north side of the Oval where the sidewalks were heavily damaged. Also, near Page Hall, the sidewalk was too narrow for more than two people to walk side-by-side.

<- the narrow pathway near page.

<- ample room for many pedestrians on The Oval.

The other stretches of campus also had fairly good sidewalk accessibility – with the acception of some areas near the shoe such as the one pictured below:

This sidewalk pictured is certainly not Accessible to those who may not be prepared to deal with harder terrain.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Over all, when it comes to accessibility, Ohio State did very well. Notable example of accessibility come in the form of the ramp and stair choices at the Billy Ireland Cartoon museum that blend flawlessly (pictured below).

Most of Ohio State’s campus was accessible, featuring gradually sloping sidewalks for easy access to intersections, along with handrails, and much more. Another example of seamless design is in front of the College of Business with this well placed ramp:

Another great accessibility feature that OSU has focused on is handicap parking — which can be found near almost every building.

PARKING

Parking as a whole is often joked about by students and staff alike. Taking this bias we noticed several trends in campus parking — firstly was parking garages. There certainly was an abundance of them across campus, which are more efficient and can offer much more to the campus than a normal surface parking lot. Pictured below is one of campus’ smaller surface lots, which clearly does not hold many vehicles.

Another surface lot that took up lots of space was the one around the shoe, pictured below. This lot is often used by visiting bands for festivals, and various tailgating — making it a unique instance of a mixed use parking lot.

Meanwhile, High street is more characterized by its 2 hour metered parking spots along the side of the road.

STREET SAFETY

As for street safety, campus can be something of a mixed bag. Some areas, such as woodruff, offer pedestrian lights and sounds that allow everyone to know who’s turn it is to use the intersection. The image of the business school from earlier has one of said crosswalks in it. Sadly, not all crosswalks on and around campus are as safe.

Pictured above is a crosswalk that relies on drivers seeing the yellow signs and halting for pedestrians. Even though the crosswalk here is ‘closed’ it is still clearly in use, and this is the same case for non-street light monitored crosswalks all over High Street — this can be incredibly detrimental as High Street is one of the highest traffic areas in all of Columbus.

This similar style crosswalk is far more appropriate on a smaller campus road such as the one shown below.

STREET WIDTH

Our final area of discussion is street width. High Street is the widest of the Streets on campus, but much of it is taken up by parking. As can be seen below it is not wide enough to accomodate the bike lane it claims to have.

The next image is very typical of a campus street, featuring 2 lanes and allowing for traffic to flow in both directions. Only a few streets on campus were one way.

These streets are acceptable for most general use, but can easily become congested during busy times such as rush hour or game day. They also can be unsafe if cars attempt to pass bikes that have not claimed the entire lane.

Overall, however, Ohio State has done an excellent job of using it’s land to create an interconnected, safe, and accessible campus with a pedestrian focus.

~Back Corner Design Team

Sidewalks

While walking around campus, it seemed at first to be that all of the sidewalks were in decent condition. They were level and nonhazardous throughout, but upon entering near the Oval and near South Campus, the sidewalks became extremely uneven, and any pedestrian could easily trip if they are not cautious. The sidewalk was not super cracked or full of gaps. A biker or skateboarder could have trouble riding through these areas though if a tire gets caught on the sidewalk at the wrong angle. In order to improve upon this, OSU could repave the sidewalk to avoid any injuries.

Street width

Due to the use of scooters and bikes on campus, it becomes an issue that the streets on campus do not have separate bike/scooter lanes. If these uses of transportation weren’t so popular, this would not be an issue. Many students tend to ride their bikes and scooters on the sidewalks rather than the road, which adds traffic to sidewalks, as well as lowers the safety of pedestrians. While some bikers and scooter riders do ride in the road, this can cause car traffic to slow. In order to improve upon this, smaller bike/scooter lanes could be implemented. This would relieve traffic on sidewalks as well as streets.

Street safety

OSU has many street lights placed along its roads and sidewalks to provide light for anyone walking on campus at night. There also is a fence and grass median along the sidewalk on Woodruff to provide a space between pedestrians and street traffic. There also are crosswalks at every intersection, as well as many placed along roads to allow for students to cross the streets safely. Some of the intersections even have a speaker by the crosswalks to provide audio to let pedestrians know when it is their turn to cross the street. OSU has done an impeccable job with its street safety.

Traffic flow

Traffic lights allow for traffic on campus to stop and go as pedestrians need to cross, and to keep traffic moving. The bus stops on campus have sidewalks separate from the main sidewalks to allow for those waiting for buses to stay out of walking traffic. OSU has many different traffic flow patterns. There are one-ways as well as two-ways. In some areas, such as behind the Gateway on High St, one-ways can be confusing and can cause a driver to have to go farther away from their destination before they can reach it. The overall speed of the traffic is safe, and the frequent crosswalks keep drivers from speeding too much.

Setbacks

The place in front of the Department of Physics building is underutilized and wasted space. It serves no purpose and adds a large slab of concrete to what could be a useful space. As an alternative, OSU could turn the plaza into a smaller walkway and plant flowers and other vegetation to the surrounding area to enlarge green space. Areas near the Wexner Center are set up in this way as well. There are other areas though where the setbacks are appropriate. Near residential buildings, there are courtyards and green space.

Building Use

OSU does a very good job with its building use. For the most part, the buildings seem to flow from academic use, to residential, to commerce. The dining halls are placed closed to the residential buildings, and the fitness centers are also placed near the dorms. None of the buildings seem to really be out of place, as they all have their own purpose and use on campus for various reasons.

Parking-

Along Tuttle Park Place, there are multiple parking lots and garages that provide adequate parking. On the opposite side of campus though, on the far side of south campus near high, parking is no longer as available. There are less garages, and even less surface parking. This can cause trouble for students, especially those with surface passes, because they cannot park on south campus, and instead have to park on north or west. The surface lots on south are also not entirely paved and many are made of just gravel. This causes there to not be any lines on the ground to form separate parking spaces, and some cars will then make their own spot, taking up two spots instead of one. This further lowers the availability of parking. If more garages are built, students would be able to park closer to their final destinations.

Accessibility

Due to the construction on Cannon Drive, south of John Herrick Drive, the intersection pictured above is not very accessible for pedestrians. This intersection is used heavily by students getting to the med campus, west campus and to the RPAC. Making the walkways more clear, it can be made safer for pedestrians until construction is completed and the sidewalks are open and complete. On Tuttle Park Place as well, there is limited accessibility. The street lights are placed very close to each other that wheelchairs cannot pass by or through them easily. Due to construction along this street as well, warning signs have been placed on sidewalks, increasing the inaccessibility.

Christian Harris, Cole Bretl, Jacob Stevens, Arick Smith, Joey Warnkin

Building and land use

OSU has very good building use for the most part but the land use around Lincoln and Morrill Tower is sub-par given that the towers were built on pieces of land higher than the land surrounding them which makes it hard to use that land effectively and they only built a parking lot in between the towers. Building on sloped ground limits the possibilities and they did not plant a lot of trees to make it look aesthetically pleasing to my eye either. Land being used in a more efficient and beneficial way is the land use by Mirror Lake which is used for beautification while also offering a nice lace to walk around and sit down. Overall the building and land use we encountered was very good and was very pertinent to the use fo students and faculty. I do think more complex green spaces could be implemented in the campus, instead of just square or rectangle green spaces. Putting grass and foliage in places like parking garages and parking lots would increase the beauty and use of the space.

Sidewalks

Starting from the Knowlton front doors the sidewalks are in great condition. They continue in great condition thought the St. John Arena and stadium area. I believe they are in great condition in these places because they are always being walked on and there is always heavy foot traffic in that region. However, once we got past the stadium and behind the towers, the sidewalks became terrible. They are almost unwalkable for a stretch. It is probably this way because they is kind of a neglected area, from the towers to the medical buildings there isn’t that much going on. Heading back east towards the oval the sidewalks became well paved again, not quite as good as north campus but still walkable. Once we were on high street the sidewalks were okay, they are in pretty good condition but not perfect because it is such a busy street. Through the whole trip there weren’t any major sidewalk gaps.

Traffic

As we traveled along the route around campus, we couldn’t help but to observe the traffic.  Just about everywhere there are two lane roads on campus.  This is a good thing in some areas and not such a good thing in some areas.  For the most part traffic generally flowed pretty well in all areas of campus.  One can attribute this to the fact that there are not too many roads on campus that are welcoming for a lot of traffic.  This was a smart design, given that there will be thousands of students walking around all day.  An area of interest that sparked some negative review was the hospital area and surrounding parts (see below).  Here there are still only two lane roads, but the traffic is much busier.  The issue is that the main academic core is blended with the university hospital.  This results in students walking everywhere and there being traffic everywhere because patients for the hospital and students are both in this area.  This area did not seem to flow very well at all and the traffic lights don’t appear to be on good timers.  There is also a no right turn on red sign that some people didn’t follow at the light.  Another area of interest was high street.  This is a busy road because it handles the bulk of the traffic because it is right on the edge of campus.  For Ohio State this is great, all of the traffic is on the edges of campus and not going through the center of things.  For everyone else trying to get away from campus or maneuver along high street, thisis not so great.  The main issue here is the bulk of pedestrians crossing high street.  There are cars constantly having to stop for crossers and the flow of traffic is always interrupted.  There are lots of safety concerns for students crossing high street and for drivers looking out for students.  For many of the issues with traffic on campus it could all be solved by implementing better pedestrian walkways.  This may include bridges and better crossing areas.  This would improve the flow of traffic and alleviate any safety concerns.

Parking

According to the picture and walking directly through the parking lot, it seems that parking around campus and near the stadium is sufficient yet it creates a problem of distance needed to travel by foot once the vehicle is parked. Though it seems to be functional and working well regarding parking space and room. Creating more parking garages instead of large lots could help reduce space while creating space vertically. Thus it could help better the usage of land to increase parking and decrease area used for parking purposes.  But consideration for the increased volume of cars should be taken into account.

Safety

Walking around campus, discrepancies in street safety became evident in different areas.

Here, West of Ohio Stadium on Cannon Drive, the sidewalk feels very close to oncoming traffic. There is no safety precaution to keep the pedestrians from falling onto the street or warning them that they are too close.

On the other hand, this bridge allows for pedestrians to safely cross Cannon drive without a crosswalk from a parking lot near the Drake Performance Center.

This sidewalk on John H Herrick Drive gives pedestrians an approximate six foot grass buffer from the oncoming traffic.

Crossing John H Herrick Drive, this sidewalk is very wide (approximately 15 feet) and lets pedestrians cross easily and safely. One drawback to the location is that this intersection is very busy and pedestrians may end up cutting off traffic.