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According to an article on 610 WTVN’s website, a new plan for renovations to the campus area around Lane Avenue do not include a future for the St. John Arena. According to OSU officials, The 54-year-old multi-purpose athletic building has outlived its usefulness and a renovation wouldn’t be worth the cost.
The full article on 610′s website can be read here: “As OSU campus evolves, can St. John Arena survive?“
I loved St. Johns but keeping up such a massive building must be expensive and not environmentally sound (ie wasteful) since it is so redundant to the Shot.
As nice as St. Johns is, the space is defiantly under utilized. The only thing that comes to mind for events would be the Band’s Skull Sessions or the occasional event during the Unions construction. I wonder if this means they will get rid of the french field house too?
I feel really sad about this, but it does make some sense. And it might be nice to have a land use on Lane Avenue that isn’t surrounded by surface parking.
It was a great arena to watch a basketball game. You were right on top of the action. There’s really nothing historical to preserve though. I wonder if the master plan for the site involves a 5-7,000 seat hockey only facility along with spaces for wrestling and volleyball.
And in it’s place will go another OSU parking garage.
I think I posted this link in another thread.
http://fod.osu.edu/masterplans/index.htm
This will take you to all the master plas for OSU, including the one that incldues a “sports complex” around the Schott, and redeveloping the area where St Johns and the FF are.
http://fod.osu.edu/masterplans/subdistrict/Athletics_10_08.pdf
>lifeontwowheels Says:
>May 12th, 2010 at 7:39 am
>And in it’s place will go another OSU parking garage.
True and unfortunate, but given that Columbus can’t get its act together with mass transit, OSU kinda has no choice.
It has nothing to do with Columbus. A fairly substantial portion of the student population lives within 5 miles of the university, OSU has it’s own bus service and sits right on the most frequently used bike path in Columbus. OSU could promote other methods and help reduce congestion, reducing the need for more parking structures.
Almost there; here’s the deal. Parking garages are very expensive to build (10K/parking space the last time I looked into it) mainly b/c of all the engineering and support it takes to hold all the weight. Your generally looking at a 10-12 year ROI. Once its paid for it is a HUGE cash cow. 2-5% operating cost, the rest drops right to the bottom line. Gee is smart and he realizes that building these will bring much needed cash to the university for a long time to come.
Had the pleasure of judging the science fair there last week.
It’s old, but functional. Unfortunatly it’s redundant to better facilities.
BTW as silly as a state science fair sounds, it was really really really really good!
Parking garages sound awesome. Why is OSU in the education business instead of the parking business?
Does that include the French Field House too or just St. Johns?
I have a feeling it’s going to turn into dorms assuming they take out the French Field house and maybe the ice rink as well. Perhaps a parking garage as well to make up for the loss of surface spots.
Anyone know what the spots are around St Johns? A, B, or C? If C I could see OSU not particularly caring and putting up a garage that was A or visitors allowed.
I’ve never been inside it, but from the outside it looks like a soviet era structure so I don’t have a problem with being torn down.
“It has nothing to do with Columbus. A fairly substantial portion of the student population lives within 5 miles of the university, OSU has it’s own bus service and sits right on the most frequently used bike path in Columbus. OSU could promote other methods and help reduce congestion, reducing the need for more parking structures.”
The students that live that close aren’t the ones driving. Employees (28,000), guests, visitors, commuters (even a minority chunk of 45,000 is huge), game day out-of-towners, and more all mean that they just need a lot of parking. PLUS, they’re building a new $1b medical facility. It’s just reality. OSU needs a lot of parking, and garages are better than surface lots. Students can’t even park in most of the garages–they’re relegated to the stadium and Kenny Road, from where they take busses. You say they could do more to reduce congestion–like what? I know they’re getting more students to live in campus, which helps. But for transportation infrastructure, there’s only so much the University can do. Columbus/Central Ohio needs to pick it up. We can’t even get a mini-streetcar line going.
^I can definitely a need for a parking garage here and I’m okay with it in exchange for denser land use. 1000 spaces (according to the plan) seems big though.
In reference to what OSU/Columbus could do to reduce congestion and the need for huge parking garages, I’m going to suggest this again:
http://xingcolumbus.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/a-concept-for-more-suburban-express-service-to-osu/
johnwirtz – That’d be great.
1,000 space may very well be big. I’d be lying if I said I had a good concept of how big a parking garage that is. That said, it’s for future use, so maybe their overestimating (which is probably preferable to underestimating), and hopefully the idea would be to supplant some surface lots with those spaces. Still, you could easily be right.
FYI, here is a short list of newish garages and # of spots on OSU main campus -
Neil Ave (RPAC) – 950 Spaces (key card and Visitors)
Safe Auto (Med Center, Guests) – 820 Spaces (Visitors Only)
Lane Ave (Opened 2010?) – 1400 Spaces (Key Card and Visitors)
Tuttle Garage – 958 Spaces (Key Card and Visitors)
Old Holiday Inn – 272 Spaces (Key Card and Visitors)
9th Ave East (Opened 2009) – 900? (Unknown) (Key Card and maybe Visitors?)
So OSU has built roughly 5,300 NEW parking spaces in garages on Main Campus! Most of the garages mentioned were built or acquired within the last ~ 1-5 years.
This doesn’t even include the “old” garages. Probably could add another 4000-5000 spaces onto the 5300 to give you an overall idea for total garage spots on main campus.
By comparison City Center garage (including above ground and underground) has 4,600 spots.
From Traffic and Parking -
http://tp.osu.edu/visitorsmain/parking/garageinfo.shtml (for Visitors)
http://tp.osu.edu/facstaff/parking/garageinfo.shtml (for Employees)
If you are going to do a garage, at least make it “right”. Tie it into dorm/student living. Maybe include a transit center for CABS and COTA, bike parking facilities. OSU can afford to be a lot more innovative, especially if they tie it into research amongst the various departments.
Are there any studies that support a need for more/less parking?
Jefe Says: 1,000 space may very well be big. I’d be lying if I said I had a good concept of how big a parking garage that is.
The two new parking garages Downtown are 680-spaces at Fourth & Elm and 773-spaces at RiverSouth. Just for comparison.
The Tuttle garage at least has some retail on the first floor, the others however having nothing.
All these garages on main campus are pretty much only for Faculty/Staff, unless a student wants to pay too much to park hourly (A pass or B pass in certain garages).