Ohio State University is moving forward with long-held plans to demolish the remaining buildings at Buckeye Village, the multi-building apartment complex off of Ackerman Road that provided housing for graduate students and their families for over 50 years.
There are no immediate plans to build on the site, according to OSU, although documents dating back to 2017’s Framework 2.0 plan have called for the area to be developed into an Athletics District, a process that is already well underway.
The beginning of work on the Covelli Center, in 2017, required the demolition of several Buckeye Village buildings toward the southern end of the complex, and several more came down to make room for the Ty Tucker Tennis Center.
A lacrosse stadium is currently under construction just south of the Buckeye Village Community Center, which holds a child care facility and will not be demolished.
A map posted to the Athletic Department website shows that the land where the remaining Buckeye Village apartment buildings sit will be turned into multi-purpose fields. It also designates the area south of Ackerman Road, between Fred Taylor Drive and Defiance Drive, for “commercial use.”
“The intent is to demolish the remaining Buckeye Village buildings by the end of the year since they sit vacant,” said Dan Hedman, Director of Marketing and Communications for the university’s Office of Administration and Planning.
When asked if the large trees on the site would be leveled at the same time as the buildings, Hedman said, “no mature trees are coming down as part of the demolition of those former apartment buildings.”
In 2019, OSU offered residents of the complex subsidized housing in University Village, a privately-owned apartment complex on the other side of Ackerman Road. However, a handful of families continued living in the nearly-empty Buckeye Village complex after that, and the last residents didn’t move out until last spring, according to the Lantern.
In 2017, the university to sought proposals to build a 450-unit, family-friendly apartment complex on Kenny Road, but later said that none of the proposals met the affordability requirements. Since then, no new plan has emerged from OSU to build the type of subsidized family housing that Buckeye Village provided, and none currently exists on campus.
“There is no university-operated, dedicated family housing available at this time,” Hedman confirmed.