New digs bring together medical, engineering colleges

Ohio University's new Academic & Research Center opened its doors Jan. 4 to students in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology and the College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM). While most of the classroom spaces are complete, research facilities are still under construction.

Colleen Carow, Russ College director of external relations, said several themes are prominent in the layout and architecture of the new building. The goal in the architecture of the building, designed by Burgess & Niple of Columbus, was to keep it contemporary, she said.

By exposing the different structures and equipment within the building, the designers managed to provide a physical example from which students could learn. The layout of the open social spaces and the classrooms were designed to promote collaboration and socialization between students of the two colleges.

"The main intention of the building is to encourage collaboration and conversation," Carow said. "We want students, teachers and researchers to be talking and to be collaborating. Our old building was more compartmentalized, and students tended to stay in their groups. It took more effort to socialize."

Karoline Lane, director of communications for OU-COM, said that the building is unique in how it was designed specifically to accommodate the research and education needs of its students.

"It's designed the way it was to promote collaboration between our colleges, our students and our researchers," Lane said. "We're looking at shared interests, so the spaces are very open."

According to Lane, this joint effort will contribute to the academic and scientific success of the programs.

"I think you're going to have some good ideas coming out of just having these people together in a shared space," Lane said. "A lot of advances in medicine are made from these kinds of collaborations."

Carow and Lane both emphasized that the Academic & Research Center (ARC) is the first building in seven years, since Walter Hall opened in 2003, to be almost entirely privately funded.

Among donors was alumnus Charles Stuckey Jr. and the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation, the latter which donated $10 million to the new center. According to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates, Stuckey graduated from OU in 1966 with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering. He donated $5 million to the project, which, according to OU, cost about $36 million to build.

"There are not many buildings at OU which have been constructed primarily from private donations," Carow said. "It's really ground breaking for the university in terms of that alone."

The university's grand opening of the building is scheduled for Saturday, May 8. At that time, Carow said descriptive signs will take permanent residence within the ARC to illustrate the purpose of the exposed structures and utilities within the building for current and future students.

These signs will also be used in tours, and as a way of promoting the building and the possibilities it can hold for current and future students, she explained.

For the grand opening, Lane explained that both colleges will be heavily involved in welcoming in the public and sharing the research accomplished through both colleges' collaborative efforts.

"This is taking our research program up to the next level," Lane said. "We're going to be looking at how we can create the next treatments, the next diagnostics, and what are the next advancements that are going to help patient care."

The merging of the Russ College and COM in the building, Lane said, will benefit the goals of both the colleges in addition to the university.

"For the university, this is a huge leap," Lane said. "This building provides an opportunity for us to recruit in, as we build our program, the kind of researchers (and engineers) that will allow us to really build on our research efforts."