Although demolition of the President Street Academic Center was approved by the Board of Trustees in January, some community members are still not in support of destroying the building.
Although the President Street Academic Center is officially slated for demolition in early May, some Athens residents still don't support demolishing the historic building.
At the January Ohio University Board of Trustees meeting, the board voted to demolish the vacant building rather than renovate it, according to a previous Post report. In addition, the structure that replaces PSAC would likely be used by the College of Business, according to the same report.
Ann Fidler of the Athens City Historic Preservation Commission, whose members have advocated against the building's demolition, said there are many reasons to not demolish the building.
“PSAC is on the National Register of Historic Places,” Fidler said in an email. “This designation means that the 105 year-old building has historical and architectural significance.”
OU spokeswoman Katie Quaranta said the demolition process, budgeted at $1.5 million, will begin May 2, just three days after final exams conclude for students. Quaranta said the work should be completed and the site restored by August 12.
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“The University is soliciting proposals for contractors with experience in demolition of buildings,” Quaranta said in an email.
PSAC was designed by Frank Packard, a prominent Ohio architect who also designed many of the buildings around College Green, such as the former presidential residence at 29 Park Place and Chubb Hall. The building is included as a portion of the Ohio University Campus Green Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“Because Packard was so instrumental in defining the built landscape of the area where campus meets community, the loss of this building will diminish the architectural continuity of the city and the university," Fidler said.
In January, Stephen Golding, then-vice president for finance and administration, said the decision to demolish the building was focused on student and faculty needs rather than finances.
“It is about creating space that is usable in the 21st century for teaching students and for providing for the kinds of spaces that faculty need in order to do what they’re doing," he said in a previous Post report.
Tim Traxler, a resident of Millfield in Athens County, said in a letter to The Post that he is also against the demolition of PSAC.
“Rather than creating a good working example of a historic building being repurposed as a green building, tens of thousands of students see the administration doing the same old thing, destroying our heritage and replacing it with another soulless structure," Traxler said in the letter.
Fidler said the university’s choice to move ahead with demolition was “disheartening."
“It is the same pattern that the university exhibited with the demolition of Building 26 on the Ridges," Fidler said in an email.
Building 26, the former tuberculosis ward located at The Ridges, was demolished in 2013 while students were gone for spring break, according to a previous Post report, and the demolition was done without approval from a university advisory committee.
Fidler said after university engagement with local residents regarding the Ridges Master Plan, community members were hopeful that OU would have a new attitude toward preserving historic structures.
“We thought that the Ridges Master Plan approach signaled a change in university stewardship of historic structures,” Fidler said in an email. “But the lack of engagement surrounding PSAC suggests that we were mistaken."
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