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OSU Dorms Downtown Proposal

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Started 2 years ago by KyleB
Latest reply from Tenzo

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jpizzow
580 N. Park St.
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LBOWACC wrote >>
Why would an osu student want to live downtown? What is the point? Downtown has nothing, and campus has bars, frats, football, food, live music venues, etc. Who on earth would rather be at OSU and live downtown vs. living in a dorm on campus. Worst idea ever.

Not every OSU student is a partier. The location in question is next to the Gay St. corridor, a short walk from the riverfront, Arena District and Short North, near the OSU arts space and soon the Columbus Commons, summer festivals and various events, theatres, not to mention the #2 bus line. So I could maybe see it working. My only question is whether or not a large number of students would want to live so far from campus. It's a little less convenient. I don't know, i'd have to think about it a little more. Solid idea though.

How about conducting a survey. Ask grad students, junior and seniors, whether or not they would be interested in living down there. It's the easiest way. Just ask.

Posted 2 years ago #
LBOWACC

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You sure about that jpizzow? When I went to OSU even the kids who probably never fucked nothing until they turned 18 were out having sex and getting drunk. Regardless, I understand you are trying to show what there is to do downtown, but come on things to do on campus vs things to do downtown? The only way this would ever work is if OSU located one of its schools downtown. For instance, while Depaul university is located in Lincoln Park Chicago their business school is located downtown in the loop. Because of this many juniors and seniors in the biz school, and almost all grad students live in the loop or gold coast, etc.

Posted 2 years ago #
LBOWACC

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What osu needs more than naything are quality apartments on campus. The campus gateway filled this void somewhat, but there needs to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy more higher end apartments on campus. The reason i never lived on campus was because the quality of the apartments was shit. A few more gateway style complex and osu would be good.

Posted 2 years ago #
Wickham
German Village
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KyleB wrote >>

Wickham wrote >>
I like the idea but think the costs for OSU would turn them off. Not only the initial costs but also the property costs along with having student housing for far from the main campus. I may be mistaken but aren't most of the students in dorms 18 to 19 year olds? If the dorms were for graduate students I think might work better (if those exist?), but I am not convinced parents of 18 19 year olds paying for their kids tuition would want their kid living so far from the university environment and safety net. If the university could make it work though you wouldn't hear any complaints from me!

These dorms would be developed for Juniors/Seniors and Graduate students who have a professional or academic interest in living at the city center. Also, the costs of this development would be heavily subsidized through the mayor's Mile on High Program
offering 100% tax abatement on residential development for 15 years. This is an ideal time for the University to plant their feet downtown, instead of waiting around until its 2020 and wishing they would made their move while opportunity for ideal locations were still available. This program would be beneficial to the University and its students if developed in a successful area of downtown. This may not be the case if they wait and build housing somewhere relatively non-connected to the thriving corridors of downtown.

Yea I could agree with this then. Not sure why I automatically assumed dorms meant undergraduates. Count me on board.

Posted 2 years ago #
byJody
Rural NW Columbus
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jpizzow wrote >>
They have a plan to revamp those towers on the interior and exterior with plans for a student center and additional dorms in the middle parking lot. I saw the rendering. It looks pretty cool.

Glad to hear it, improvements welcome. When the towers were built, they had plans to build a dozen or so along the river. I guess its good they stopped at 2. I just think they are an ugly use of riverfront property and are not a compliment to the historic horseshoe. The towers are so far from the energy area of campus, I've never met a student who was happy to be assigned to the towers. But I am sure they exist somewhere.

alove wrote >>

byJody wrote >>
They will need dorm space to replace the twin towers. My prediction is they will come down in the next 5-10 years. What an eyesore.

Can't we learn from the past and not tear down any old buildings? We may think they look like shit, but the generations ahead of us may cherish them... like we would've with (any of) the Union Station(s)

I completely agree with you that Union Station was a shame to be torn down, but that doesn't mean never tear down another building. The towers have been criticized for years. I guess you'd say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think they are butt ugly.

Posted 2 years ago #
jpizzow
580 N. Park St.
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LBOWACC wrote >>
You sure about that jpizzow? When I went to OSU even the kids who probably never fucked nothing until they turned 18 were out having sex and getting drunk. Regardless, I understand you are trying to show what there is to do downtown, but come on things to do on campus vs things to do downtown? The only way this would ever work is if OSU located one of its schools downtown. For instance, while Depaul university is located in Lincoln Park Chicago their business school is located downtown in the loop. Because of this many juniors and seniors in the biz school, and almost all grad students live in the loop or gold coast, etc.

Contrary to what you might believe, not every college student gets drunk and laid all the time. And I'm not saying there are better things to do downtown, there are just different options. Some students can party it up there first 2 or 3 years then get more serious there last 2 or 3 years. I'm sure some students would appreciate some of our top cultural institutions to the stinkin beer soaked meat markets on campus. I prefered the latter when I lived on campus, but I'm just saying, not everyone likes the same things.

Posted 2 years ago #
ja

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The fact that we are having this discussion about Downtown Columbus shows that we have real issues that go well beyond marketing and political cheerleading.

Posted 2 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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I'm still not convinced, even after hearing that these dorms are intended to be graduate student dorms. Graduate students seldom need dorms at all; there's only one on Main Campus, AFAIK, and that's the lowly Jones Tower on North Campus. Obviously, OSU has far more graduate students than that. Graduate students are less likely to go for dormitory-style living than undergraduates, and many of the former have the means (including through their graduate stipends, but also sometimes through savings accumulated through work between undergrad and grad school) to afford better.

In other words, it would be more effective to put in a middle-class midrise apartment complex in the Gay & High dead space and let grad students (and anyone else) live there if they choose. The dormitory idea is only a good idea for downtown if students somehow bring more to the area than a mixed student/non-student complex, which I would find difficult to believe. A 200-bed dormitory also requires 200 students to fill it, whereas a 200-bed apartment complex has a much larger potential market and therefore a higher chance of actually filling. The university might have some extra clout in filling the proposed dormitory by forcing grad students to live there, but I think that would go over extremely poorly.

In practice, it's usually--not always, but usually--perfectly fine to treat graduate students as just regular members of the adult population. They don't need special amenities and they're not looking for a particular scene in the way many undergraduates often are.

Posted 2 years ago #
Tenzo
Chicago Lakeshore
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That a student would leave home to go to school and then live away from school is ridiculous. Just as valuable as the accademic education is the social one. Interacting with others, trading ideas, learning to work as a team, sports and entertainment.

Holing up in a half abandoned downtown goes counter to the college experience that forms young adults into people with the ability to socialize and work together.

From the city's side, having dorms in the city is a non revenue non tax producing venture that would tax the city's resources. (there is a reason OSU has campus police.)

From a revitalizing aspect you would have people that are interested in inexpensive places that would not work in the city (more revenue lost) and who really wants to live next to, or in the same building as a college dorm?

Loss for the student
Loss for the city
Loss for the neighborhood
Loss for the economy

Posted 2 years ago #