Last week, Ohio State began demolition of the 103-year-old Lord Hall, forever destroying a significant piece of university history.
The building was designed by one of the most significant Columbus architects of the 20th Century, Frank L. Packard, and it owes its unique diagonal orientation to the original plan for the university that was laid out by Fredrick Law Olmstead, landscape architect of Central Park in New York City and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. Due to this, Lord Hall was at one time identified by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office as a potential candidate for landmark status.
The building originally housed the School of Mines and is named for Nathaniel Wright Lord, first dean of the College of Engineering.
In addition, Lord Hall has the distinction of having been firebombed during campus-wide protests against the Vietnam War in May 1970. During these protests students clashed head-on with the National Guard and in the wake of the Kent State shootings the university closed for two weeks.
It is true that in its waning hours Lord Hall had fallen into serious disrepair, but as Ohio State moves forward, we need to take the time to reexamine the future we propose for ourselves. Our unique heritage, more than a century of “O-H-I-O” and “Carmen Ohio,” isn’t likely to disappear any time soon. Still, the allure of new facilities and the competition for rankings, students and endowment money may cause us to lose perspective of our true purpose; a perspective that is increasingly hazed by the largest recreation center in the world, the soon-to-be largest student union in America, and an ever-changing assortment of labs and classrooms.
At a time when the university is larger than ever, we need to take a hard look at ourselves and determine what’s best for us and our unique place in history and our state, and not where we rank.
Ryan Connolly is a sophomore in architecture. He can be reached at [email protected].
