The Lantern

Issue date: 1/30/08 Section: Campus

Sean Spitzer/The Lantern Constructions workers wrap up their day's work on the construction of the new Ohio Union late Tuesday.

The Ohio Union is just a giant hole on the corner of High Street and 12th Avenue, but in just two years it will be a bustling lounge where Ohio State students can hang out.

"If you think of the word 'union,' it's the coming together of people," said Tracy Stuck, the director of the Ohio Union. "It's the living room of the college campus. It's the place where we can come together and talk about anything."

Construction has begun on the new steel structure and, as long as the weather stays warm, it will be done in 2010.

The idea first started as a feasibility plan to see if the university could repair the damage to the old building. But after many surveys and focus groups, they decided to tear it down and bring in a new one.

"The old union was basically falling apart," said Kerry Hodak, a graduate student on the Ohio Union Planning Team and the Ohio Union Council. "It had the original chiller, which was the air conditioning unit from 1950. And the Carrier company actually wanted it for their museum."

OSU's Board of Trustees approved the $115 million project. However, there will be a student fee tacked on to tuition. The university has not decided how much it will be, but it will range from $35 to $65, Stuck said.

Not only will the new union have a new air conditioner, but it will have technology the old union could not provide.

"Now they're going to have smart rooms," Hodak said. "You'll be able to use PowerPoint, laptops, Internet and video in each room rather than rent things or have them sent from Central Classroom."

However, the problem was not just bad technology and old air conditioners; the incoming freshmen were not impressed with the student union.

"I wouldn't think that it was Ohio State's union," said Zach Eppert, a sophomore in agricultural business. "If that's your meeting point or where you bring people into, I would expect it to be newer or cleaner."

With the new technology, comes the idea of "going green." Students told Stuck to make sure the new union was environmentally friendly.

"Students for Recycling - they were the group that really pushed that," Stuck said. They told her, "If we as students are going to pay for it, then we want an energy efficient building."

In fact, Stuck said OSU was first to be on Leadership in Environment and Energy Design's Web site. The Ohio Union credits LEED with the new green design of the union.

Not only did the Ohio Union take the students' recommendation of "going green," but they also asked the students what they wanted their Ohio Union to look like.

"What students really wanted was a very collegiate traditional-looking building," Hodak said. "Very Ohio State, scarlet and gray throughout. We didn't want a crazy modern building."

The university took students recommendations and opinions to heart. And Stuck said that is all that mattered.

"That's who's paying for the building and that's who the building's for," Stuck said. "So, that's what's most important to us - that your needs are being met."

Elyse Coulter can be reached at coulter.36@osu.edu.

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