The Athens News visitor's guide calls it Ohio University's crowning jewel
but just more than a year old, Baker University Center is slowly losing its luster.
The 183,000-square-foot facility, which took almost three years to build and will cost more than $82 million once the principal cost and interest are paid, will raid students' pocketbooks until fiscal year 2032. And though university officials praise it as an award-winning facility that helps attract prospective students, the building has been marred by false fire alarms, cracked floors and new, unforeseen expenditures.
As a belated birthday present for the facility that opened Jan. 2, 2007, The Post collected the good, the bad and the defective from Baker's first year in operation.
Show me the money
Designed by architects from Columbus-based firm Moody Nolan and Pittsburgh-based WTW Architects, the $60 million university center, funded in part with $20 million in state capital improvement monies, was intended to meet the needs of a growing student population, according to an OU news release.
A year later, that price tag is up $22 million, with a $722,000 addition to the center on the way.
OU borrowed about $44.45 million to fund the building and now owes $38 million in interest. That interest makes up the difference between Baker's sticker and final price.
Only four percent of the price tag has been paid for by a $60 per quarter fee imposed on full-time students. But that fee, which has generated about $3.57 million so far, won't end until at least 2032, said Rebecca Vazquez Skillings, OU's director of Budget Planning and Analysis.
And just recently, OU officials announced they would build a two-story addition to the food court because a consultant underestimated the amount of dry storage, freezer and cooler space that was necessary, said Richard Shultz, director of Implementation. Previously, OU had been renting temporary freezers for the food court at a cost of $884 a month.
The cost of the new facility, which is scheduled to be complete in September, is $722,000.
It was during the final stages of construction that it was identified that there was a shortage in storage said Christine Sheets, assistant vice president for Auxiliary Services. There was no easy fix.
Not all it's cracked up to be
Cost hasn't been the only obstacle in Baker's first year. Built with great difficulty on the site of a former riverbed ' where the soft, moist ground is less stable ' the center now has visible cracks on the first and fourth floors.
John Kotowski, associate vice president for Facilities, said cracks are to be expected when material dries and shrinks and noted that the building has no structural deficiencies. All the floors in Baker are built with terrazzo, a cheap alternative to marble.
It cracked in places where it did not bond with the concrete slab underneath
Kotowski said. It has been repaired in numerous locations; it is just a natural occurrence.
Construction experts offered varying opinions on the significance of the cracks.
Kim Kilmartin, a project manager for Fiorilli Construction in Cleveland, said cracks, probably caused by a water build-up behind a wall, are not normal for a new building, but they do not necessarily indicate poor design.
Just sometimes things happen
Kilmartin said. It could be anything if they planned and designed everything correctly.Josh Bontosky, salesman with Terrazzo & Marble Supply Companies in Wheeling, Ill., said sometimes cracking could occur as a building settles.
It sounds like they needed to use a membrane that prevents cracking
but cracking can also happen as the building settles
he said.
False alarm
Cracks aside, the building has seen a host of other minor problems.
In its first two months of operation, Baker played host to Athens firefighters six times, thanks to a glitch in the software that controls the exhaust fans in the food court. Smoke from McGuffey's Grill did not exhaust correctly, causing the alarms to activate frequently, Shultz said, adding that the problem has since been fixed.
It didn't cost anything to fix it
just a lot of time
he said.
Since that time, Baker has seen only two fire alarms.
The false alarms weren't firefighters' first experience in the university center.
Firefighters were called to Baker three times before the building opened to extinguish roof fires sparked by the construction company's roofing technique. The fires didn't delay construction.
Even though the fires didn't delay construction, Baker opened with a body of water in place of Iraq on its fourth floor map.
The omission has since been corrected, Shultz said, adding that it was an oversight on the part of the installer when he was spreading the wet concrete.
When spreading concrete
it is hard to know where you are
he said.
Award-winning architecture
Still, the home of Athens County's only escalators ' which themselves cost $565,000 to install ' has drawn widespread praise. In December, the center took home the grand prize in an architecture contest sponsored by the annual education facility architecture publication Learning by Design.
A national panel of judges that included five architects and a facilities manager toured Baker Center in October and selected it for the award, said Marlene Hendrickson, managing editor of Learning by Design.
Judges were impressed with the building's plan and design
