Hastings and William French Building

College of Allied Health Sciences

The former Shriners Burns Institute on the UC Medical Center campus has undergone a $5.5 million renovation and been renamed to become the first home for this new UC college.

The move into a single facility offers faculty and students in allied health programs improved opportunities for professional interaction with one another and with health professionals in UC's medical, pharmacy and nursing colleges. Dean Andrea Lindell says that CAHS faculty have already begun discussing the development of interdisciplinary courses, particularly in nutrition and communication sciences.

Dedication: Oct. 29, 1999
Location: Eden and Goodman avenues, East Campus
Contains: State-of-the-art clinical and research facilities, as well as classrooms for students in communication sciences, genetic counseling, medical technology, nuclear medicine, nutrition, physical therapy and physical therapy assisting
Design firm: SFA Architects

Photo/Dottie Stover

Kingsgate Conference Center

Kingsgate, which is owned by UC and operated by Marriott Conference Centers, is equipped not only for guests' personal comfort, but also for their audiovisual and telecommunications requirements. Through advanced videoconferencing, for example, a university surgeon in an operating room can answer questions from students who are viewing the procedure live from a meeting room or other remote location. Videoconferencing also allows distance learning and tele-training in classrooms to be projected in real time to meeting rooms or off-site locations.

The entire conference center has Internet access, as well as communications with campus classrooms and buildings. Guestrooms can videoconference with one another, or link to any meeting room for simultaneous data transmission. Through the narrowcast system, personalized messages or broadcasts can be sent to selected guests.

Dedication: Oct. 12, 1999
Location: Goodman Drive, between University Hall and the Vontz Center, East Campus
Contains: Audio-video access to meeting rooms from its 206 guest rooms, plus 20,000 square feet of conference space, including a 5,500 square-foot ballroom, two amphitheaters, a 60-seat pub and the "Bistro," a 220-seat restaurant with gourmet buffet
Design firm: VOA Associates

Photo/Dottie Stover

Link:

Kingsgate Conference Center information

University Commons

Considering the modest size of this green space, which serves as a symbolic and physical link between East and West Campuses, the architects have managed to include a wide variety of landscape features, making it as appealing for a quiet stroll as for large celebrations.

Three recently acquired artworks find a place in the commons' outdoor sculpture garden: "Belief" by Terry Allen, "Five Lines in Parallel Planes" by George Rickey, and an untitled bronze by Joel Schapiro. This is the first of five sculpture gardens planned for the campus; other sites are Zimmer Plaza, where Kenneth Snelson's prickly, silver "Forest Devil" will be installed; Teacher-Dyer Courtyard; the Health Professions Building Courtyards; and DAAP-Wilson's College Court Ravine.

Dedication: April 26, 2000
Location: Adjacent to University Hall, Kingsgate Conference Center and the Vontz Center
Contains: Strongly sculpted landforms, a granite plaza with a wide fountain, a series of stepped lawns, a picnic grove, a brick-pavement plaza and cone-shaped hills, one of them topped with a meditation garden and another the setting for sculptor George Rickey's "Five Lines in Parallel Planes."
National design firm: Hargreaves Associates

Photo/Dottie Stover

University Hall

The six-story office building boasts open-plan architecture and shared conference areas between departments. Galleries on the first, fourth and sixth floors display works from the UC Fine Arts Collection and contemporary pieces by local artists. Beneath the building is a large parking garage.

Dedication: Dec. 10, 1999
Location: Goodman Drive, between Vine Street and the Kingsgate Conference Center, East Campus
Contains: University offices and departments, many of them formerly housed off campus, including the UC Foundation, University Architect and Human Resources
Design firm: VOA Associates

Photo/Dottie Stover

Vontz Center for Molecular Studies

Architect Frank Gehry's first all-brick building has an imaginative exterior of sloping and curving walls and an eminently practical interior. A walkable utility level between each floor permits maintenance and redesign of lab modules, without disturbing ongoing research.

Besides drawing comment from The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsweek, the unusual research facility was a feature subject in the Chronicle of Higher Education and made the cover of World Architecture magazine. It is one of four new UC buildings applauded as a nationally significant local architectural landmark by The Cincinnatus Association and The Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati.

Dedication: Sept. 23, 1999
Location: Martin Luther King Drive and Eden Avenue, East Campus
Contains: Three floors of academic, research and office space for scientists investigating the basic causes of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's. Includes a permanent, museum-quality display about Dr. Albert B. Sabin, UC researcher and professor of pediatrics, developer of the first oral, live-virus polio vaccine.
National design firm: Frank Gehry and Associates

Photo/Dottie Stover