Knowlton Faculty Receive Grants to Study Spaces on Ohio State Campus

A team of Knowlton faculty and students will engage in a semester-long study to turn underutilized campus civic spaces into ecological and inclusive learning areas.

Knowlton Faculty Receive Grants to Study Spaces on Ohio State Campus

A team of Knowlton School faculty have received two Framework Learning Space Grants from Ohio State’s Integrated Physical Planning Liaison Group (IPPLG) to study exterior spaces on the Columbus campus. Professors of Architecture Kay Bea Jones and Beth Blostein, and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Paula Meijerink, will engage Knowlton students in a semester-long, interdisciplinary study to turn underutilized campus civic spaces into ecological and inclusive learning areas. The two campus spaces under study will be the area between Hitchcock Hall and Knowlton Hall, and the combined space between Scott Hall and the former Brown Hall site. 

Space between Knowlton Hall and Hitchcock Hall
Space between Knowlton Hall and Hitchcock Hall

For the study of the area between Hitchcock and Knowlton, the team will receive funding up to $10,000 to improve the relationship between key building entryways. The area between Hitchcock and Knowlton is a campus gateway and nexus of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. A goal of the team’s research will be to design solutions that connect users from both buildings and the disciplines they house and to resolve circulation and accessibility issues common to this location. The team will also propose upgrades to learning and exhibit spaces and the planting of additional trees and other landscape features.

Space between Scott Hall and the former Brown Hall
Space between Scott Hall and the former Brown Hall site

A separate IIPLG sponsored grant of $9,000 will support a study to improve the design and year-round use of the combined space between Scott Hall and the former Brown Hall site. Along with addressing accessibility in this campus location, the team’s research will study how to increase the campus canopy cover for high resilience and low maintenance places of beauty. Proposed designs will contribute to the university’s sustainability goals while creating memorable and unique spaces that improve the quality of campus life.

The faculty team plans to engage students in the process of research, dialog, and re-composition of campus space as part of their design scholarship. Early in the autumn semester, the team will offer six research fellowships to architecture and landscape architecture students to assist in the study and design proposals that will support future university decisions about improvements to these campus areas.