By Jeffrey Leopold
The 18th Avenue Library was designed by Phillip Johnson in 1991 and opened in 1993. The building’s front façade takes precedent from Roman arches and uses them at the entrance way made of brick. The library is located on North Campus off of 18th avenue and on the axis of Magruder Avenue.
It is in a prime location being in the center of where majority of the science and engineering academic buildings are located. Previously, the building was actually named the Science and Engineering Library, the new name was given as to not restrict the library to only certain subjects, but to allow room for growth of the library. The Ohio State’s 18thAvenue Library recently had renovations done to its ground floor in 2013 and is currently undergoing renovations to the third floor.
The ground floor renovation, designed by Acock and Associates Architects, added a new entrance along the 18thavenue side of the library due to the large number of students that come to this library and to help foot traffic move smoothly. This is not the first time that Acock and Associates Architects has renovated a library on campus, they also designed the new modern additions to the William Oxley Thompson library located on the Oval. The Lantern says the renovation to the first floor includes, “increased seating in the Terra Byte Cafe, two areas with computer workstations, new furniture and lighting, a centralized printing station and a lounge alcove with an electric fireplace”. As seen in the floor plan, one of the most important changes was the addition of the curved wall that separates the café from the study spaces. This wall also serves as a computer station and allows for more space in the main lobby compared to its previous location in the center of the floor plan. Students are especially fond of the new entrance on the north side of the building, which was previously one of the arched windows that are repeated along this façade, due to its purpose of thinning out traffic. The renovation of the third floor is still underway and is a complete transformation of the third floor into the new home of the Research Commons Workshop Series and will simply be called Research Commons. This new third floor will be the center of research activity on campus and will be a place where students and faculty can go to solve their problems and connect with other people. Research Commons, “will allow researchers to attend workshops, present research in the showcasing area, conduct research in private study rooms, study in the small computer lab and use software that might not be as readily accessible on other areas of campus”, according to The Lantern. This new space will be extremely useful to graduate students who are looking to research more in depth their field of study possibly connect and work with other students who have the same questions.
The design was drawn up by BHDP architecture and mostly has small rooms for meetings and discussions but also one main gathering area that could host speakers or workshops. The new renovation is planned to be completed and ready for use by the beginning of the spring semester.
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