Building 26, which once hosted the Athens Asylum’s TB Ward and the Beacon School, is to be demolished in the next few weeks — a project that will cost Ohio University $450,000.
Associate Vice President for Facilities Harry Wyatt did not announce when demolition will begin but said the building will be down by the end of March.
The project’s cost was more than originally appropriated when demolition plans were first addressed due to the amount of hazardous material within Building 26, which caused delays in the demolition, Wyatt said.
The extra project costs will come from OU’s safety funds. OU decided to reserve $1-3 million each year since 2011 for repairs that improve safety for OU’s faculty and students.
Wyatt said he hopes to go about the demolition without pestering the other buildings located at The Ridges complex.
In order to do so, the construction workers are using an access route that goes around The Ridges, and their method of demolition, crunching, should not be as disruptive as traditional methods, Wyatt said. The method involves the crushing and lifting up the pieces of buildings involved.
The demolition of Building 26 caused a rift between OU and the Athens County Historical Society & Museum. Faculty invited members of the Historical Society to early meetings regarding the demolition of Building 26, but OU was firm in its decision and ultimately did not allow Historical Society representatives to speak at OU’s November Board of Trustees meeting.
“I never laid out any hope that we were discontinuing our plans to demolish Building 26,” Wyatt said.
However, Ron Luce, director of the Athens County Historical Society & Museum, had hoped an earlier meeting would give him a chance to discuss alternatives with university officials. Within one week, Luce found an interested renter or buyer who wanted to turn the building into low-income housing.
In 1988, the Ohio Department of Mental Health gave The Ridges to OU in poor condition after closing off several buildings, said Doug McCabe, curator of OU’s Archives and Special Collections.
Because of the condition of some of the buildings, OU contemplated destruction and renovation of several other Ridges buildings besides Building 26 within its Facilities Master Planning Report, published in 2006.
Separate from the Capital Improvement six-year and 20-year plans, this Master Plan was created as a reference document of possibilities that could be done with OU’s Athens campus.
“By no means was this meant to be a capital plan, because there is not enough financial capacity to implement this plan,” Wyatt said.
However, the Historical Society feared this plan called for the demise of much of The Ridges’ current complex, Luce said.
“I think the Historical Society has a responsibility to let people know when some of their history is in jeopardy,” Luce said.
Currently, OU’s only modification to The Ridges complex will be the demolition of Building 26. OU does not plan to build anything in its place.
OU officials will begin considering a master plan for the rest of The Ridges complex as soon as they can schedule around other projects, and the Historical Society will be included in the planning process, Wyatt said.
“I want, 200 years from now, for people to be able to hang on to the history that was developed here starting as early as 1797,” Luce said.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
