OU unveils its new Academic & Research Center

Ohio University's Academic & Research Center honored both its donors and the OU community this weekend at the new building's grand opening.

The center, located on West Green, is a state-of-the-art, 89,000-square-foot space that was built to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary learning and research between OU's Russ College of Engineering and its College of Osteopathic Medicine. The center connects to both colleges' buildings.

The $34.5 million center is one of the few buildings on campus that was built almost entirely with private support. The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation and Charles R. and Marilyn Y. Stuckey were the building's two biggest donors, contributing $10 million and $5 million to the project, respectively. The only other buildings on campus that have been significantly funded with private dollars are Cutler Hall in 1819, Templeton Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium in 1928 and Margaret M. Walter Hall in 2003.

At Saturday's ceremony, OU President Roderick McDavis called the center "an academic facility that takes away boundaries"� between two different disciplines.

"Now our faculty, students and staff can harness the potential for this 21st century facility,"� he said.

Richard Vincent, president and CEO of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation, said the foundation had been encouraging the osteopathic medical school to become more of a research institute enterprise for several years.

"The concept was easy to sell to my board with the understanding that it was a collaboration between two great colleges at the university,"� he said.

Vincent said it didn't take long for him to realize that the idea of a collaborative building with the engineering college was a novel and exciting idea.

"Our intent with this investment is to elevate the university generally as well as these two colleges to an indispensable level in the state and nation,"� Vincent said.

Charles Stuckey, an OU alum and Board of Trustees member, said his commitment to the engineering college began nearly 15 years ago. He said he was initially interested in contributing to a new space for engineers, but when McDavis suggested bringing the two colleges together into one building, Stuckey was sold on the idea.

"That's when I discovered that the collaboration between these two colleges was really important,"� he said.

For Stuckey, the center is more than just a building. "It's a way of learning,"� he said. "It's a catalyst for a learning process and collaboration on research and probably could be a model for other buildings around the campus as well."�

John Brose, dean of OU-COM, said there was a natural relationship that brought the two colleges together.

"There's more crossover between medicine and engineering than you'd think,"� he said.

Brose explained that collaboration between doctors and bioengineers is necessary to develop medicine and medical technology, and without that collaboration, medicine and medical technology could not advance.

Dennis Irwin, dean of the Russ College of Engineering, said the two colleges have had a relationship for several decades.

"The building itself came out of the fact that both colleges were interested in building more space,"� Irwin said.

The two colleges had a dual need for teaching and research space. The colleges' current buildings, Irvine Hall and Stocker Center, are both renovated residence halls, which means there are a lot of compartments and rooms that are separate from each other, Irwin explained.

"So what we wanted to do was bring people together so that they could see on a daily basis what other people are doing, hear what they are doing and hopefully start talking about those connections that would happen with other students, faculty and staff,"� Irwin said.

The center, which has been open to students and faculty since January, features classrooms, learning studios, project team rooms, open lab space, a Project Hangar, study alcoves, café, three-story atrium and other unique features like a holographic fireplace on the third floor and electric glass on some classrooms, which can be switched from opaque to transparent.

Construction on the building began in January 2008, and the building was completed during fall quarter 2009. The center was designed by Columbus-based engineering and architectural firm Burgess & Niple.