Agricultural Engineering Building
By the mid-1970s, Ives Hall, the former home of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, had become less-than-satisfactory, according to a Columbus Dispatch article: “The old stable offered little laboratory space. Doorways and ceilings weren’t large enough for modern farm equipment. The building had few outlets for electrical or steam power. … A raccoon had set up residency in the basement.”
In 1976, department faculty members put together a wish list of things they wanted a new building to provide, including large laboratories so research and class projects could be carried out at the same time. Ten years later, at a cost of $11.6 million, a newly constructed building opened, offering more than 92,000 square feet of classrooms and laboratories, including a deep pit to measure soil compaction and a cement-sided stream to test water flows. It also features spaces big enough for large farm equipment such as combines, and includes a mock-landfill area to test decomposition methods.
The building, which opened in January 1986, was never officially named by the Board of Trustees.
more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Agricultural Engineering Building
