I read this article yesterday.

I was hoping they would have shown some type of artist's rendering to give an idea of exactly how this will look.

I agree about this opening up the West Green for housing again.

I just don't know if I'd want to live in a building that had the cadaver labs or storage.

This is going to help gentrify the west side of Athens with the Medical School on Union Street. You may see a few hotels go in out there to support conferences and its walkable to campus. Phase I done in 2020 is not far away.

I'd imagine that there will be a sizable piece of property open up for developers on that side of town in a year or two as well.

NO.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

[If anti-neighborhood school coalition gets its way.]

This so called West Union Green may represent progress to some, but it's likely the last nail in the coffin of what was once a significant commercial and industrial (yes industrial) hub of Athens. This project, as I understand it, will run along the South section of W. Union between Factory Street and Roberts Lane. I'm sure many of you are scratching your heads with that reference. Where the heck is that? Well, if you're an old-timer like me, you may remember the Athens Lumber Company. That was originally at 169 W. Union. OU bought that property for $850,000 in 2000 and tore it down for the current Human Resources (HR) building that sits just east of Factory on the South side of W. Union. Few realize that the Athens Lumber Company was in business at that location (169 W. Union) since 1871 as the George Faloon Planing Mill and later as the Athens Lumber Co. from 1890 to roughly 2000. This proposal is just east of that starting on the west side of Factory Street. Within this proposed development on the West side of Factory Street just south of W. Union is a very historic foundry building that will likely be torn down with this development. It's really unfortunate because the structure was renovated and is in really great shape and is the last structure in the old Athens RR station area that remains (other than the train station itself) from the old days. If you go on Google maps you'll see it at the NW corner of Factory and Moore Ave. I'm not against progress and I understand change, but it will be unfortunate to lose the last remaining foundry building from the old industrial era of Athens. I lived in this neighborhood in 1976 and I can tell you it was both gritty and great. We had the Little Ritz at 110 W. Union, the West End Tavern, the trains (including the Amtrak "Shenandoah" line) were active. "Black Julie" Abraham ran the Roaring 20's (And Jambouree) at 120 W. UNION, Mountain Leather was at 106 W. Union and Harpo's was active at 128 W Union. This whole neighborhood has already been gentrified. The old Hocking Canal once ended here, but it was filled in and later the trains died and the tracks were removed. Prior to that the Station Street Apartments were built. That development wiped out all the old industrial and commercial sites. Again progress is progress, but I hope OU won't tear down the foundry building while no one is looking. But I think we've seen this before. If you're in Athens drive by and take a look. Its worth saving.

And that Robert's Lane reference. The Roberts family ran the Athens Lumber Co. from 1890 to 2000. They supplied lumber for a White House (yes, that White House) removation in 1910. One of the Roberts ancestors was Margraet Snowden. Yes, that Snowden. I could go on, but hopefully you get the picture that some progress comes at a price.

Cool building. I love those industrial style brick buildings. Everyone wins when those types of buildings are re-purposed. It does look like they plan to tear it down. The only renderings of this project I've seen of this plan were in the OU Master Plan. From the rendering in the master plan, it looks like not only are they constructing a new building over this it also looks like that block of Moore Avenue would be eliminated and the new building would also go over that. I may be wrong as it is hard to tell from the rendering.

I'm hopeful the University will do a good job blending these buildings into the surrounding area. Two large plots of developed land that I don't like are the Station Street apartments and on the other side of town, Riverpark Towers. They serve the need for student housing but I wish they'd both been laid out a little differently.

If you want to see a pretty good job of "preserving history",check out the Sands Casino in Bethlehem Pa..
It was built on the old Bethlehem Steel site.
Its amazing how they were able to preserve/incorporate portions of the plant into the project.

Sean, I agree with what you say here. We really need to renovate and re-purpose rather than tear down and replace. The recent destruction of Old Morton Hall on President Street was really obnoxious. This building was structurally sound and was designed by a world-renowned architect. In the area you are talking about the HDL center was, of course, one of about five buildings in town that were part of the McBee Company back when I was a child. In my class there were about as many kids whose parents worked at McBee's as there were kids whose parents worked at Ohio University. McBees was a company known throughout the nation and in Europe. In fact, they had additional plants in The Netherlands and on the west coast (Eugene, Oregon, I think it was). The company was founded and headquartered here in Athens. The HDL building was turning out business forms and other products 24 hours a day. You'd hear various whistles throughout the day and night indicating shift changes. The McBee company actually was an early innovator in the development of computers for business use. It's downfall was the merger with the Royal Typewriter company to form Royal-McBee. In the merger McBee was actually the bigger company in terms of total assets. They took about $11 million in McBee assets in a vain attempt to beat IBM to the patent office with the selectric typewriter concept. After this they were nearly bankrupt and were bought by the mega-conglomerate company Litton Industries. They were then a speck in his huge company and Athens was no longer the hub but a small hardly noticed spoke. It slowly wilted on the Litton vine, was bought by Deluxe, and then folded. There still is a division of Deluxe called McBee, but it's really just a branding thing. The old McBee Company is deader than a doornail, but it didn't have to be that way if not for the merger with Royal, which was a royal mistake.

They tore out Old Morton because it didn't fit architecturally with the newer buildings on that block. The powers that be want to put something in its place that meshes with the Bentley Annex ect. McBee's they could have kept and renovated into shops. A proposal for The Ridges had that concept for its maintenance buildings. Overall I agree there is a surprising lack of creativity in the proposals.