The plan addresses issues such as flooding, increased pedestrian access and the potential renovation and construction of buildings.
A draft of Ohio University's plan for the next 10 years will be presented to the Board of Trustees on Thursday and Friday to receive feedback and make adjustments.
OU must finalize its Comprehensive Master Plan by the next Board of Trustees meeting in March.
The Comprehensive Master Plan was formed around five core ideas including stewardship of access, preserving green space, connecting and integrating, a distinctive setting and a welcoming environment.
From those ideas, the university has worked with an architectural consulting firm based in Baltimore called Ayers Saint Gross to come up with specific changes to the campus in the upcoming years.
“I think the challenge of the university is its old, historical campus,” Kevin Petersen, a principal for Ayers Saint Gross, who has assisted with the plan, said. “There is the need for lots of renewal of existing facilities.”
“We are looking at the need to replace space that is currently within our floodplain, and that issue that we are dealing with on our campus which is unique to Ohio University,” Shawna Bolin director of University Planning and Space Management, said.
Some buildings that are located in the floodplain, such as Clippinger Laboratories, would likely have to be raised once they were renovated in order to avoid flooding in the basements, Petersen said.
The renovation of The Ridges, academic halls, possible additions to the Ping Center in order to house all athletic facilities and additions to North Green in order to give it a similar identity to the other greens are some of the main options, according to the Board of Trustees Jan. 22 agenda.
Some other potential changes the university is considering in the board agenda include:
Re-purposing Grosvenor Hall and potentially relocating the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine
Enhancing the West Union Street area with the possible addition of new facilities
Providing more major vehicle areas
Creating more accessible bike paths
Renovating part of West Green so class buildings will be transformed back into dorms
Adding more dorms to South Green
•Balancing the amount of students living on each green
Renovating 480 beds and adding 680 beds to residence halls
- Renovating the West Union Street Office Center
Keeping the President Street Academic Center listed as an academic building to be used by the College of Business while the building's fate is still undetermined
Enhancing the North Green space and making it into a green more similar to the other three
- An addition to Alden Library outside the main entrance
A transit center that connects to city routes
- An energy plant site
“We have a very strong campus of green(space) and some of the greens are very established and need to simply continue to be rehabilitated and preserved, and others need a lot of work," Bolin said. “We are in the process of developing the booklet and all of the elements that go along with the Master Plan and depend upon their response to the team. Next week, we’ll gauge our desire to go to the board in March to gain its approval."
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