A new era for The Ridges

This article was previously printed in the Spring 2021 issue of Ohio Today. 

“We can begin to dream dreams. … And just maybe, years from now, we can look back up there and say that this was a great period of expanding opportunity in the life of Ohio University.”

It was the spring of 1989. Martha Turnage, then vice president for University Relations, was talking about The Ridges—the more than 700 acres of land and historic buildings that have served as a healing and cherished landscape for more than 150 years and that have indeed yielded expanding opportunities for OHIO and the region.

The previous spring, the state of Ohio began transferring ownership of what was originally known as the Athens Lunatic Asylum to Ohio University. After 120 years of evolving alongside one another, OHIO began taking strategic steps to make The Ridges a natural extension of the campus as well as a community resource—building on the legacies of both institutions to serve individuals in hopes of bettering society.

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The change in stewardship of the property, fully realized in 1993 when the last patients were relocated to a new state hospital constructed across the Hocking River, more than doubled the acreage of the Athens Campus. It also handed the University what Turnage described as a great burden and great potential.

For the past nearly 30 years, the University has worked to preserve a storied piece of Athens, American medical and architectural history by investing in facets of The Ridges that balance OHIO’s programmatic needs and financial resources.

Buildings that were intentionally designed to help heal those suffering from mental illness have been transformed into centers for the arts, scientific research and hands-on learning. The picturesque grounds of The Ridges remain open to campus and community with new opportunities for adventure and discovery launched over the past few years. Dreams have become reality.

A new chapter for the gem of The Ridges

Shawna Wolfe’s first experience at The Ridges came just as the University was taking full ownership of the property.

An OHIO undergraduate, Wolfe, BSHCS ’97, was hired to help clean and paint the interior spaces of the Kirkbride complex—the oldest and most iconic of the approximately 40 buildings that call The Ridges home. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, The Ridges’ Kirkbride complex is one of less than 20 remaining in the United States.

“In between work and during downtimes, I walked the corridors and different areas of the buildings. I fell in love with the spaces and the way they were thoughtfully crafted to bring the natural environment in,” remembers Wolfe, who now serves as associate vice president for University Planning and has been co-leading OHIO’s most-recent efforts to reimagine the property. “I had a vision for what these spaces could be in the future.”

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Within the first three years of taking ownership, the University began repurposing the Kirkbride complex’s central administration building, renaming it Lin Hall and opening the first floor as the Kennedy Museum of Art. It was the beginning of a new life for the Kirkbride complex that over the past two years has undergone a first-of-its-kind transformation.

In March 2020, OHIO completed a more than $16 million renovation of The Ridges’ Buildings 13, 14 and 18, marking the first time a university has repurposed an entire wing of a Kirkbride facility for its academic mission. The eastern wing of the complex that once housed male patients is now home to the Ohio University Police Department and office and collaborative space for various OHIO offices and employees.

Plans to renovate the space were approved in 2018 but were years in the making.

In 2014, the University embarked on a year-long planning process, engaging campus and community as it evaluated the condition of The Ridges land and buildings and charted guiding principles and a plan for future investment in the property. The resulting Ridges Framework Plan, approved in 2015, was a key component of OHIO’s 2016 Comprehensive Master Plan, a roadmap to the future of the Athens Campus, aligning the University’s use of space and resources to its programmatic needs.

Among those needs were a new research facility for the Russ College of Engineering and Technology and a new home for the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. The University determined that the best and most efficient path forward was to repurpose two existing buildings on West Union Street—the West Union Street Office Center and the Human Resources Training Center—to serve the Russ and Heritage Colleges, respectively. Repurposing these existing buildings limited the expansion of OHIO’s physical footprint—one of its largest expenses—while saving the University more than $60 million in constructing new facilities and deferred maintenance offsets.

The administrators working inside those repurposed buildings would be relocated to the renovated space at The Ridges as well as Grosvenor Hall, the Heritage College’s former home. That move was just beginning when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted most of OHIO’s administrative staff to a remote work environment. When OHIO administrators return to campus, many of them will be a part of a new flexible work program in flex workspaces that include The Ridges.

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Since 2015, OHIO has invested more than $28 million into The Ridges. The past four years alone have seen not only the historic transformation of the eastern wing of the Kirkbride building, but also significant roadway and infrastructure improvements, the opening of the OHIO Observatory and the launch of the OHIO Museum Complex.

Developed in partnership with the Kennedy Museum of Art, the OHIO Museum Complex is an evolving indoor-outdoor learning laboratory offering immersive exploration of the arts, science and the landscape of The Ridges both on site and virtually through the mAppAthens app. The Museum Complex features two new donor-funded galleries on the second floor of Lin Hall, outdoor experiential learning on The Ridges trail systems where interpretive and directional signage will be installed this spring, and synergies with the OHIO Observatory and The Ridges Land Lab.

“The monumental buildings and nurturing grounds at The Ridges are a testimony to the state of Ohio’s historical commitment to improving the lives of the people in our region,” says Dr. Joseph Shields, vice president for research and creative activity and co-lead with Wolfe for the Ridges Framework Plan. “The repurposing of this public asset as a center for integrating culture, research, education and the natural environment ensures that residents of our extended community will continue to benefit from its unique qualities into the future.”

Connecting The Ridges’ past to the present

The revitalization of The Ridges is a long-awaited dream for the Athens community and for those whose lives have been profoundly impacted by personal experiences there.

Patty Mitchell, BFA ’87, MFA ’91, found her life’s passion as an OHIO student who participated in the mental health center’s Resident Volunteer Program, which provided students free room and board, on ward, in exchange for engaging in activities with clients.

“What a gift we were given,” Mitchell says of the year she spent living in the geriatric wing, working with residents on the locked men’s ward, taking groups into town, playing volleyball and doing other activities with residents.

There, Mitchell discovered the power of creating and connecting through the arts, inspiring her to become an artist in residence who invites all community members to participate. In 1998, Passion Works Studio was founded as a collaborative arts center where a core group of artists with developmental differences aesthetically and creatively leads the collaborative making with community members.

At Passion Works, Mitchell is providing some of the same life-changing experiences she had at The Ridges to area residents and countless OHIO students who have volunteered at and visited the studio.

“Connection, purpose and belonging are necessary for us to thrive—as individuals and as a community,” says Mitchell, who held Passion Works’ first three exhibitions, as well as its 20th anniversary celebration, at The Ridges’ Kennedy Museum of Art.

“The Ridges is a jewel—historically and as a monument of possibility,” she says. “I benefited greatly from deep experiential learning at the Mental Health Center. I witnessed how beauty, purpose and the creative process helped people find happier lives. Those memories are vivid and with me every day.”

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George Eberts, MA ’80, has spent the past 40-plus years working for the mental health facility and nearly as many years teaching astronomy at OHIO.

As a staff education specialist when Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare, as the state hospital is now known, was located at The Ridges, he schooled new employees about the facility’s history and mission as part of their orientation.

“I know every hallway in that place, every building. I became a repository for a lot of anecdotes and historical information,” says Eberts, who conducts outdoor walking tours of the property, sharing its stories and its impact while raising funds for the Southeast Ohio History Center.

As the volunteer coordinator at Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare today, he continues to facilitate learning and community service opportunities for OHIO students. And, as a lab instructor and outreach specialist in OHIO’s physics and astronomy department, Eberts engages students and area residents in nighttime stargazing at The Ridges’ OHIO Observatory.

“I think it’s wonderful that the University stepped in to save that property because mental health was going to leave it either way,” Eberts notes. “Over the last few years, it’s more and more of a relief that the Kirkbride is safe. We’re almost where we can say that the entire Kirkbride is safe.”

Laying the groundwork for the future

Every investment made in The Ridges has not only advanced the academic mission of Ohio University and further integrated campus and community into the property but has paved the way for future development.

The western wing of the Kirkbride complex has been designated for private investments, via donors, grants or developers, with the goal of creating a place where academia meets a vibrant center of the community bustling with housing, retail, recreation and other quality of life elements.

In 2019, OHIO hosted a Developer Day that drew more than 40 interested parties to The Ridges to learn about investment opportunities. Site tours and discussions have been held for multiple developers, investors and potential tenants. And the University continues to partner with the community to identify immediate solutions to stabilize more of the historic buildings and solicit private developer interest for the long-term rehabilitation and reuse of those buildings.

“What has occurred at The Ridges is nothing short of a dream come true—for Ohio University and for the Athens community—and a testament to the countless champions of The Ridges over the years,” says Wolfe, who, 27 years after falling in love with the Kirkbride complex, will be among the OHIO administrators working there.

On Dec. 8, University Advancement held its fifth “OHIO: Sense of Place” virtual experience, designed to showcase various physical spaces at the University while connecting Bobcats to one another and their shared history. This fifth installment of the series spotlighted The Ridges and featured this video produced by University Communications and Marketing.