Another building in the Ridges Complex will be completely vacated by the end of the month, said Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for Facilities.
Facilities began to vacate Building 20, which housed office space for the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, the Ohio University Press and other offices, in January due to inadequately-supported piping, aged air conditioning systems and electrical systems that were not grounded.
“The problems with the building are severe, and we’ve undertaken a very exhaustive study of the building,” Wyatt said.
The Voinovich School and the OU Press began to move out of the building after some concerns arose about dangerous mold in the building, but test results did not show dangerous levels of mold.
The Voinovich School will be kept in entirety at The Ridges, and other offices will be moved to the West Union Office Complex, formerly known as the HDL Center,or moved instead to OU’s main campus.
Wyatt said there are currently no plans to renovate the building. He estimates that Building 20’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems rehabilitation would cost $5 –8 million.
The fate of the building will be decided with the Ridges Master Plan, included in OU’s six-year Master Plan, but vacating the building will not accelerate the process, he said. The Ridges Advisory Council still has not been formed as of yet.
According to a news release, there was a general agreement that the university would establish an advisory group to make recommendations to OU President McDavis with respect to future development on The Ridges. This group will include representatives from the City of Athens, Athens County and Athens Township.
On Monday McDavis met with local government officials including Mayor Paul Wiehl, Athens City Council President Jim Sands, and Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn among others.
“Our dialogue today was a great example of how we’ll move forward,” McDavis said at the meeting. “As we begin defining a Ridges master plan, we will continue in this spirit of collaboration with our community partners.”
dk123111@ohiou.edu
