The newly remodeled Jennings Hall has a garden featuring only plants native to Ohio. The plants will be used by students in various Biology classes.

In golden-colored rocks lining the new courtyard walkways behind Jennings Hall rest small fossils – reminders of ages long gone.

Now the relic brick facade of Jennings – itself a fossil of the former building – hides the $32 million renovation project designed to bring Ohio State’s biggest undergraduate major into a single setting.

Class began Wednesday in the building’s brand new labs and classrooms, which played host to a plethora of classes in the school’s Introductory Biology Program, whose Biology 113 and 114 courses are staples in the general education curriculum.

The building boasts a new courtyard and three floors of classrooms and is home to the Mathematical Biosciences Institute, where researchers apply mathematical concepts to more complicated biological problems.

Richard Hall, associate dean of the College of Biological Sciences, said the idea behind the building project was to bring biology classes, and their sometimes dispersed students, into a more comfortable and interactive setting.

“We really bent over backwards to make a building that felt good to be in,” Hall said. “Now it’s all people-friendly space.”

Formerly known as the Botany and Zoology Building – or, as Hall recalls, the BoZo building – part of Jennings Hall was originally built in the early 1900s.

“Part of it was built in 1914, part in the ’30s, part in the ’40s, the ’60s, so there were all of these pieces and parts, and it was just worn out,” Hall said.

One dramatic change made to the building is the complete renovation of room 155, an auditorium that Hall said was designed backwards, so students – if they came in late or left class early – would have to walk to the front of the class and through the door beside the instructor. Nearby loading docks and truck traffic also made the learning environment uncomfortable, Hall said.

The renovation, which has been in the works for years, was paid for mostly using funds from the state of Ohio, with additional money coming from private donors and the colleges occupying the building, Hall said.

Construction first began in November 2005. A formal dedication ceremony for the building and grand opening will be held in 2008.

Tim Hoffine can be reached at [email protected].