The Core North plan will be renovating different buildings on North Campus, creating more opportunities for student success. This is a planning rendering in line with the plan, not the specific projects. The designs are set to begin this month. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State
Three North Campus residence halls will undergo a renovation, with designs set to begin this month. The design plans with cost $10 million.
Approved by Ohio State’s Board of Trustees on May 21, Drackett, Jones and Taylor towers are the first three residence halls that have planned renovations. The work, which is scheduled to be complete by 2030, is intended to provide space to support the student community, according to the university’s Planning, Architecture and Real Estate website.
The tower’s entry levels will be redesigned to provide more gathering spaces for students on North Campus, according to the project plan presented at the meeting.
Part of this plan is to also “de-densify student rooms in housing,” according to the Core North plan. Beginning at the three towers, the floor-by-floor renovations will increase “the average square feet per bed.”
The approved proposal also included replacing the plumbing, heating and sanitary lines in Drackett, Jones and Taylor Towers.
The renovations are a part of the Core North plan, with a long-term goal to strengthen the space that North Campus has, renovate the student housing and provide more opportunities for student success, according to the Core North framework.
The Core North is the area “bordered by Lane Avenue to the north, High Street to the east, the Olentangy River to the west and the north side of the Oval along the south,” according to the website.
According to the university’s Planning, Architecture, and Real Estate website, the designs for this project will begin this month, and final construction is planned to finish in August 2030.
“Part of the next phase of this project is to create the phasing plan that will be required, so we can’t provide a specific timeline right now,” Dave Isaacs, university spokesperson, said in an email.
The Core North plan also intends on renovating classrooms, labs and facilities across North Campus. These new renovations will create “purpose-built, active-learning classrooms,” according to the Core North’s proposed long-range plan.
“We can share that this will be a multi-year project and it is possible that one or more of the buildings may need to be taken fully offline for an academic year for the updates,” Isaacs said in an email. “At the same time, as we always do, we will work to minimize impacts to the overall student experience.”
To learn more about the Core North project, visit their website here.
This story was updated on June 6 at 1:07 p.m. to accurately account for the number of the budget being represented in the design plans, not the full renovation. Clarification was also added to the featured photo.
