Ohio State University took the first concrete steps this week toward the realization of its grand vision for a west campus “innovation district.”
Materials presented to the Board of Trustees Master Planning and Facilities Committee on Thursday show preliminary designs for two new buildings that would sit near the southwest corner of Lane Avenue and Kenny Road – one to hold an Energy Advancement and Innovation Center and the other an Interdisciplinary Research Facility.
The materials also show more details of the large mixed-use district that is planned for the surrounding land; an area bounded roughly by Lane Avenue, Kenny Road, Kinnear Road and North Star Road. That area could eventually be filled in with a new street grid, dozens of new mid-rise buildings, and apartments for as many as 4,000 residents.
Building out the whole thing would take “multiple decades,” according to OSU, and each new phase would be required to go before the Board of Trustees for approval.
The overall concept for the campus was first laid out in the university’s Framework 2.0 plan, but some changes have been made since that time as the plan has been tweaked and refined.
For instance, the Interdisciplinary Research Facility was originally planned for the area being called midwest campus, located between SR 315 and Olentangy River Road.
That specific piece of land – at the corner of Woody Hayes Drive and Coffey Road – is now slated to remain undeveloped as part of a larger reshuffling of recreation facilities meant to cluster them more closely along the Olentangy River Corridor.
In addition to the Energy Advancement and Innovation Center and the Interdisciplinary Research Facility, a third building is planned for the corner of Lane Avenue and Kenny Road. That building, according to Vice President of Planning and Real Estate Keith Myers, is further behind the other two but is slated to hold offices focused on “innovation and incubation.”
And just to the south, on the other side of Carmack Road but still west of Kenny Road, plans are moving forward for a West Campus Ambulatory Center Facility, a Wexner Medical Center building that is currently being designed. The new center will be contain about 400,000 square feet of space and will hold the first proton therapy treatment facility in the region.
Additional Reading: OSU’s West Campus Plans Inspire New Look at Olentangy Corridor Ideas