Ohio State Redesign Plan Could Threaten Part of the Eisenman-designed Wexner Center
The Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University.
A proposed redesign of an entrance to the Ohio State University campus could mean a partial demolition of the Peter Eisenman–designed Wexner Center for the Arts. As reported by Columbus Underground, in a March 4, 2026, meeting of the Master Planning and Facilities Committee, the university approved $2.3 million for professional services for the design of 15th & High Arts Plaza, on the eastern edge of the campus. A preliminary rendering presented during the meeting shows a neoclassical entryway and plaza lined with trees framing the main library at the far end of the Oval, the campus’s primary green space. The Wexner Center obstructs this view.
The project’s scope, outlined in the meeting minutes, details that the “new plaza, with enhanced site furnishings and amenities, will provide a seamless connection from High Street to Thompson Library.” A raised plaza to the south of the Wexner Center covers its subterranean film theater and currently acts as an impediment between this campus entrance and the library. A tall, curving concrete wall, dubbed the whispering wall by students for its ability to carry sound from one end to the other, rises overhead and forms the Oval-side edge of the plaza.
Eisenman’s New York office, then Eisenman/Robertson Architects, along with local architect Richard Trott and landscape architect Laurie Olin, won the 1982 competition for the new visual arts center, beating out finalists including Cesar Pelli, Michael Graves, and Arthur Erickson. Upon the structure’s completion in 1989, New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger called it “the museum that theory built,” and it represented a major milestone in the emergence of deconstructivist architecture. Conceived as a clash of the city’s and university’s grids, elements of the design intentionally break with the organization of the campus, instead aligning with 15th Street.
Illustration depicting proposed new gateway plaza at 15th and High Streets. Image: The Ohio State University
This is not the first threat to the Wexner Center’s whispering wall and auditorium. In 2016, Columbus Business First reported that the university was considering an overhaul of the east side of the Oval and that the wall is considered to be “just in the way.” A plaza to the northwest of the Wexner Center was also replaced by the Timashev Family Music Building, designed by RAMSA and DLR Group, and completed in 2022. Writing for RECORD in 2024, the late Robert A.M. Stern identified the Wexner Center as one of 15 postmodern landmarks-in-waiting.
In a statement to Columbus Underground, university spokesperson Ben Johnson said: “The Wexner Center for the Arts is aware and engaged in ongoing conversations about the project, and Ohio State remains committed to the center and its film department. To have 15th & High reactivated as a central hub and main entrance to the university will position the Wexner Center for the Arts as a centerpiece of campus and the surrounding neighborhood.”
Per the timeline proposed during the committee meeting, a vote to approve a finalized scheme could take place in March 2027, with construction beginning as soon as the following May.
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