Columbus, like much of central Ohio, is flat. But not everyone wants it to stay that way and if you’re one of them, grab a pail and shovel because Columbus needs a mountain.

Matthew Moorman, the director of Flatland Solutions, is blurring the lines between the natural and the artificial. As director of Flatland Solutions, a local research group, he is spearheading a campaign to build a mountain within the Columbus city limits.

What was initially a concept art piece has evolved into something more. It is no longer the mere fancy of an Ohio State sculpture major, but a serious effort to galvanize the community to inspiring heights.

“Building a mountain is an effort that requires more than what one man can offer. It requires a community effort. If we build a mountain, what else could we do together?” Moorman said. “It would be the beginning of a series of unique ideas that would give Columbus the enhanced character and identity that it deserves.”

Moorman has received funding through a grant from OSU. The group’s 10 members and a number of volunteer environmental, architectural and geological advisors from OSU form the nucleus of the campaign.

Moorman envisions the as-yet-to-be-named mountain as “the” Columbus landmark.

“Columbus offers quite a bit, but I still believe that it’s a blank canvas,” Moorman said.

“We definitely have a lot to offer, but one thing we have always had to struggle with is a national identity,” said Brent LaLonde, an Experience Columbus spokesman. “Other cities have no perception.”

Flatland Solutions maintains that a mountain would create viable recreational and commercial opportunities such as skiing, snowboarding, hiking, climbing, mountain biking and hang gliding.

“The mountain could occupy valuable real estate that would otherwise become shopping malls or isolated housing sub-divisions,” Moorman said.

“It’s who we are. We know who we are – we’re a midwestern city. We never marketed toward tourists,” LaLonde said. “The topography plays a role in that. Anything we can do to change, we’d be for it.”

To build awareness and support, the group released a local music compilation to testify to the initiative’s growing support.

“Columbus Needs a Mountain: A Local Music Compilation” adheres to that particular blend of do-it-yourself originality and community involvement. Sixteen local artists are represented on the compilation, including Scottie Boombox who contributed “The Construction.” Boombox echoes Moorman’s ethos within the song observing that “…this part of Ohio gets one hell of a soybean yield – with the strip malls they got the outer belt growin’ walls. This man has finally found a solution to the flatlands.”

The initial proposal called for a mountain with a peak of 631 feet, just enough to make it the highest point in Columbus – the current high point, the Rhodes Tower, stands at 629 feet. In addition, a mountain built to that height and classified as a national monument would make it the highest national monument in the country. The St. Louis arch holds the record at 630 feet.

However an impressive notion it may have been, that simply was not appealing enough for Flatland Solutions. Instead, Flatland Solutions members turned their heads toward the Columbus skyline for inspiration.

The prominent buildings’ heights and orientations were measured and a chain of interlocking mountains were modeled according to those measurements. The result of those calculations was “a design concept that relates a mountain to one of Columbus’ most prominent visual and functional features,” Moorman said.

The proposed Skyline Design Concept’s dimensions are 1.5 miles long, 1.3 miles wide and 629 feet as the highest peak.

To date, Flatland Solutions has recognized three possible building materials: compacted earth, rock and vegetation; scrap tires capped with earth, rock and vegetation; or geodesic domes capped with earth, rock and vegetation.

Scrap tires are also being considered because they are abundant and do not biodegrade. Flatland Solutions has consulted with the Environmental Protection Agency regarding the necessary steps toward potentially becoming certified as a tire drop-off facility in the event a site is acquired.

629 vertical feet of man-made mountain equates to 125,230,740 cubic yards of matter.

A geodesic dome construction implies the possibility of a hollow mountain for the Greater Columbus area. The innovation was conceived by Buckminster Fuller and achieves maximum strength and volume with a minimum amount of surface area and materials.

Whether or not Moorman’s vision comes to fruition may be irrelevant. According to the Flatland Solutions mission statement, “A mountain would change Columbus, but the greatest impact will be felt from the systems of identification, collaboration and intervention… Individual efforts have a significant impact, but we recognize the potential of what we can do together.”

“Community involvement could come from the contribution of a portion of privately owned dirt or by digging your own weight or volume in dirt,” Moorman said.

No word yet on whether contributors will receive a free T-shirt exclaiming “I dug my own weight in dirt.”