Construction update

By Rachel Childress, Director of Development

On October 4, the university kicked off the public phase of its new $4.5 billion campaign, Time and Change, The Ohio State Campaign. The college is responsible for $15 million of the overall goal by 2024. Great news? We already have $5 million as the counting began in 2016, and the majority of the funds we’ve raised in the last year have come from those who have supported our new clinic building at 11+Neil.

The official ribbon cutting for the new building is November 6 and 7, 2020 (of course it’s 2020!), which means we have less than a year to complete this part of our campaign. Between general giving to the facility and those who have generously named spaces, we’ve raised just about $1.5 million toward our $2 million goal.

If you have been considering adding your name to a room, now is the time. In fact there are only a few Primary Vision Care and Advanced Ocular Care exam rooms remaining. Pediatrics, Contact Lens and Low Vision still have many prime spaces in high traffic areas of their sections. In addition, there are some meeting spaces and other non-exam room spaces available as well.

Students, faculty and patients will be using this new clinic for decades to come, and we hope that you’ll want to be part of that experience by making a gift to this important project. I would be happy to talk with you about how we can best structure a gift that would fit your philanthropic plans.

Please reach out to
Rachel Childress to learn more:
614-292-2100 or
childress.35@osu.edu

by Dean Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD

This is the season of construction and renovation at Ohio State Optometry! There is visible progress—weekly–on our new building on the southeast corner of 11th and Neil Avenues that will house our clinic and associated functions and personnel. At the Maryland game, I had occasion to be in President Drake’s box at Ohio Stadium. I looked to the southeast and wondered what the construction I could see was. And lo and behold, it was us!

We will occupy the bottom three floors of the building. The first floor will house the Hoya Eyewear Gallery, patient reception, billing and other key clinic administrative personnel, our Low Vision Clinic, and our Vision Rehabilitation Service. Advanced Ocular Care, the Binocular Vision/Pediatric and Vision Therapy Services will occupy the second floor. Our Contact Lens and Primary Vision Care Services will occupy the entire third floor. In addition to patient care facilities, the building will include clinical faculty offices and open workspaces, a shared student/staff/faculty lounge, various conference and meeting rooms, IT, and a shop to service equipment. The building will look traditionally academic from the outside and will have an open, welcoming interior with lots of nooks and crannies for informal interactions among students, staff, and faculty.

Renovations in the Fry Tower are proceeding rapidly. The former patient-oriented research waiting areas on the fourth and fifth floors have been converted to conference rooms. Room 33 was changed to accommodate student life space and the classroom. The anatomy and optics teaching labs are being created in the space at the north end of the Fry Tower basement. The sixth floor was gutted to allow for an internal remodel to include the dean’s suite along with student services, advancement, communication, and financial/human resources staff. I am delighted at the amount of light and space the new design netted us. We moved in midDecember, and we are “loving” being out of Starling Loving Hall.

Once the construction is complete in autumn 2020, our two main locations will be separated from each other. We walked it off; 500 steps will get us from one building to another. We’ll be the healthiest college on campus!

We can’t see the future without you!

 by Dean Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD

We are well out of the gates! Our new building on the southeast corner of 11th and Neil Avenues that will house our clinic and associated functions and personnel is underway. As of the third week of July, weekly—almost daily—evidence of progress can be seen as we walk or drive by that corner.

We will occupy the bottom three floors of the building. The first floor will house the Hoya Eyewear Gallery, patient reception, billing and other key clinic administrative personnel, and our Vision Rehabilitation Service. The Binocular Vision/Pediatric, Vision Therapy, and Advanced Ocular Services will occupy the second floor. Our Contact Lens and Primary Vision Care Services will occupy the entire third floor.

In addition to patient care facilities, the building will include clinical faculty offices and open workspaces, a shared student/staff/faculty lounge, various conference and meeting rooms, IT, and a shop to service equipment. The building will look traditionally academic from the outside and will have an open, welcoming interior with lots of nooks and crannies for informal interactions among students, staff, and faculty.

Meanwhile, renovations in the Fry Tower are proceeding rapidly. The former patient-oriented research waiting areas on the fourth and fifth floors are walled off. Behind them, those spaces are being converted to conference rooms. Room 33 is being altered to accommodate student life space with extra money from the university to subsidize that work. The anatomy and optics teaching labs are being created in the space at the north end of the Fry Tower basement (formerly “Multimedia” back in the day).

Through all this, the students, faculty, and staff are all good-naturedly occupying swing space. Four research study coordinators are cheerfully housed in one faculty office in Fry. Jeff Walline (OD, MS’98 PhD’02) welcomed Don Mutti, OD, PhD, to his office through autumn 2020.

The sixth floor will be internally remodeled to include the dean’s suite along with student services, advancement, communication, and financial/human resources staff.

We predict that all move-ins will be complete by autumn 2020.

We can’t see the future without you!

Want to keep an eye on our clinic construction progress? Take a look at the corner of 11th and Neil Avenues from our construction cam page.

By Dean Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD

Here’s the latest on the “bucking bronco” of our new building on the southeast corner of 11th and Neil Avenues that will house our clinic and associated functions and personnel. As of the first week of February, the building will no longer include a basement, will have a full second floor instead of a mezzanine, and will be six floors high overall.

The projects are moving along, but changes are constant and rapid, so please stay tuned to this station. The building will be unique in that the alleyway that services the retail businesses that front on the east side of Neil, south of our location, will remain a thoroughfare. We will have a part of our building, which

I’m affectionately calling “the wedge” between the main building and the 11th Avenue parking garage on floors one and two. The two parts of the building connect beginning on the third floor.

 

• The first floor will house the Hoya Eyewear Gallery, patient reception, billing and other key clinic administrative personnel, and our Vision Rehabilitation Service.

 

• The Binocular Vision/Pediatric and Vision Therapy Services will occupy the second floor.

 

• Our Contact Lens and Primary Vision Care Services will occupy the entire third floor.

 

• Floors 4-6 will house offices for faculty associated with the College of Medicine/Wexner Medical Center.

 

• The “wedge” will accommodate clinical faculty offices and open workspaces, a shared student/staff/faculty lounge, various conference and meeting rooms, IT, and a shop to service equipment.

 

• The building at 11+Neil will look traditionally academic from the outside and will have an open, welcoming interior with lots of nooks and crannies for informal interactions among students, staff, and faculty.

 

• Our expectation is that the A wing of Starling Loving and the Fry Bridge will be demolished soon after we move to 11+Neil, so we are planning accordingly with renovations later this year to the Fry Tower.

 

• We received a grant from the university to subsidize a student life space overhaul in the basement of the Fry Tower.

 

• We are actively working with architects and people from university real estate and planning to design the work that needs to be done in the Fry Tower. The sixth floor will be internally remodeled to include the dean’s suite along with student services, advancement, communication, and financial/human resources staff. The large waiting areas on the fourth and fifth floors of the Fry Tower will become conference rooms. The anatomy and optics teaching labs will be relocated to the north end of the Fry Tower basement. We have a swing space classroom identified in the M wing of Starling Loving for the foreseeable future.

 

Next steps are to finalize the plans for the design/build architect and construct specific timelines for both 11+Neil and the Fry Tower. The current timeline would let us move in sometime in 2020. We can’t see the future without you!

 

Beginning as early as Monday (3/25), construction fencing will be installed around the southeast corner of Neil Avenue and 11th Avenue to accommodate construction of the new Optometry Clinic and Health Sciences Faculty Office Building. Sidewalk closures will occur adjacent to the construction site.

A lane closure will occur on Neil Avenue to accommodate a covered walkway for detoured pedestrian traffic. On 11th Avenue, a temporary crosswalk will be added between the Fechko Alumnae Scholarship House and the 11th Avenue Garage.  Pedestrians will be directed to use the north sidewalk on 11th Avenue. Pedestrian access on the west side of the 11th Avenue Garage will be maintained. Detour signage will be posted. Traffic delays and additional construction traffic are anticipated.

Project fencing and associated impacts will be in place through summer 2020.

By Dean Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD

In late November 2018, The Ohio State University Board of Trustees approved a building at the southeast corner of 11th and Neil Avenues that will house our clinic and associated functions and personnel. They also approved the necessary Fry Tower renovations that will facilitate moving the non-clinical administrative and some teaching functions to the sixth floor of that building. The projects are moving along, so I know more every day.

• A basement and sixth floor have been added to the building to maximize the available space on that corner. Our Binocular Vision and Pediatric, Vision Therapy, and Vision Rehabilitation services will occupy the basement. Floors four through six will house offices for faculty associated with the College of Medicine.
• The building at 11th and Neil will likely look traditionally academic from the outside and will have an open, welcoming interior with lots of nooks and crannies for informal interactions among students, staff, and faculty.
• Our expectation is that the A wing of Starling Loving and the Fry Bridge will be demolished soon after we move to 11th and Neil, so we are planning accordingly. This demolition is to allow for the remodeling of Hamilton Hall and construction of a four-story (plus basement) building that will stretch from Hamilton to Fry. Ultimately, we will have two 80-student and one 40-student classrooms in the new Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Learning Center. Our teaching labs will ultimately be located there too, but that will likely be the last phase of work in Hamilton. In fact, I think those labs will overlook Adriatico’s Pizza, which has happily moved to the northeast corner of 10th and Neil.
• We received a grant from the university to subsidize a student life space overhaul in the basement of the Fry Tower.
• We are actively working with architects and people from university real estate and planning to design the work that needs to be done in the Fry Tower. The sixth floor will be internally remodeled to accommodate the dean’s suite along with student services, advancement, communication, and financial/human resources staff. The large waiting areas on the fourth and fifth floors of the Fry Tower will become conference rooms. The anatomy, optics, and visual function teaching labs will be relocated to the north end of the Fry Tower basement. We have a swing space classroom identified in the M wing of Starling Loving for the foreseeable future.

Next steps are the hiring of a design/build architect and finalization of the funding and construction timelines.

The current timeline would let us move in sometime in 2020. We can’t see the future without you.

by Dean Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD

Dr. Greg Nixon, Associate Dean for Clinical Services; Jim Woods, Chief Administrative Officer; Mat Johnson, Building Manager; and I are logging many fascinating hours with local architects designing both construction projects. To quote Oprah Winfrey, “these things I know” (at least until they change in design!):

• There will be a retail presence in the building on the first floor that will enhance the neighborhood.
• You’ll be able to drive your car through the east and west wings of the building!
• There is a university parking garage just east on 11th Avenue that will have designated optometry patient parking spots.
• The first floor clinic will house an expanded Hoya Eyewear Gallery, front desk, waiting area, billing services, and medical records.
• Our part of the building will comprise three stories plus the basement, one of which will be the mezzanine above the first floor, creating 21-foot ceilings for the more public parts of the first floor.
• All on-campus clinics will be housed there: Primary Vision Care; Contact Lenses; Binocular Vision and Pediatrics; Vision Training; Vision Rehabilitation; and Advanced Ocular Care.
• Clinical and associated faculty offices of people who primarily teach in the clinics will be located at 11th and Neil.
• Our administrative services—the dean’s office, student services, development and alumni relations, and the business office—will move to the sixth floor of the Fry Tower.

Our next milestone will be construction approval at the August 2018 Board of Trustees meeting, and then we will be off to the races! The current timeline would let us move in during late summer 2020. Stay avidly tuned to this station for updates as they become available.