Ohio State University's $49.3 million Energy Advancement and Innovation Center is open, and several outside companies are in talks to rent portions of its wide-open spaces in the gateway to the Carmenton innovation district.
Three-fourths funded by the private company that manages the campus energy infrastructure, the nearly transparent building will be a hub for research on renewable energy, smart energy systems and green mobility. Faculty and students will rub shoulders with entrepreneurs leading spinoffs and engineers from large corporations.
"We’re creating the ability to interact and collaborate with open space," said Paco Herson, OSU's associate dean for research innovation and professor of neurosurgery. "We have to bring people together, and this building is built with that specifically in mind."
Herson, who came to OSU in 2020 from faculty positions in Colorado and Oregon, said the purposeful design to spark interdisciplinary research is unique in academia.
"It's really an important vision, to be able to create physical structures that will enable and enhance those less typical interactions," he said. "That is going to be a big driver of innovation.
"We're going to spark innovation we don't know about yet."
New York City's Smith-Miller and Hawkinson Architects LLP designed the 66,000-square-foot center at 2281 Kenny Road, and Columbus-based Moody Nolan was architect of record. The contractor was Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. Trustees approved the project in 2019; construction started in fall of 2021.
Check out the slideshow for a look inside the building, and a look back on Carmenton's progress to date:
OSU Energy Advancement and Innovation Center
(Having trouble with the slideshow? Slideshows on this page automatically scroll through. Or you can click through via the small white arrow on the right side of the picture, about halfway down.)
Engie, which has operated OSU’s heating, cooling and power systems since 2017 on behalf of Ohio State Energy Partners (itself a joint venture of Engie North America and Axium Infrastructure) will have space in the building.
Energy Partners donated $50 million to cover $37 million of the construction cost, with the rest for research and building operations.
The fourth floor was added during the design, specifically to increase the space for industry partners to lease. The university covered that $10 million increase in cost, and this year trustees approved $1 million for the cafe and a storm drainage system.
Some interior detailing continues in the building, so office move-ins start later this month, a spokeswoman said.
In his dean capacity, Herson and a team will work in the building, which will also have engineering-focused staff from the university's Technology Commercialization Office. His neuroscience lab, where he works on mechanisms for brain injury and repair after strokes, is in the neighboring Pelotonia Research Center.
Both the energy center's first-floor cafe, expected to open in January, and a plaza with plenty of seating between the energy and Pelotonia buildings are meant to inspire lots of cross traffic for even more "creative collisions."
The $228 million Pelotonia Research Center opened in May, followed in July by the $350 million OSU Wexner Medical Center's outpatient cancer complex. Nationwide Children's Hospital spinoff Andelyn BioSciences Inc. which opened in phases starting last year, is the first private company in Carmenton.
The west-campus district encompasses some existing OSU halls. The Center for Software Innovation is in design.
Overall there are 270 acres to develop in the coming decade. JobsOhio awarded a $100 million incentive toward the development. The city of Columbus gave its largest-ever economic development incentive, projected at $47 million over 25 years, based on the creation of some 12,000 jobs in the district.
