Last updated: January 23, 2024
Article
Case Study: Open Air School, Columbus, Ohio
Kelley Companies
Perched on a wooded hill above the Olentangy River, the Open Air School is perfectly positioned for its historic use—an open-air school—and it seems particularly fitting that the rehabilitation of the school took place during the recent pandemic, when people gravitated outdoors to spend time together.
The concept of open-air schools developed in Germany as an effort to combat the spread of tuberculosis in children, and it spread to the United States by 1908. According to the National Register nomination for the school, the premise of an open-air school was that children’s bodies could be strengthened against tuberculosis by exposing them to abundant fresh air in all seasons and providing ample rest and good nutrition. The nomination points out that this school was constructed with the typical features of an open-air school, a natural setting, outdoor play areas, a rest room for students to nap on cots, classrooms with abundant windows that were opened year-round, and a dining room that served students three meals a day.
The school was no longer an open-air school by the time it closed in the 2010s. The outdoor play area was enclosed and the rest room and dining room were repurposed for other educational uses. The Kelley Companies, a Columbus-based family-owned development firm purchased the building in 2018. Their comprehensive rehabilitation converted the building into spaces for a variety of local small businesses, including a fitness center, a café, a restaurant, a pottery, and a design firm.
The rehabilitation used both the Federal and the Ohio State Historic Tax Credits and preserved the building’s historic character, spaces, and features. The new uses blend well into the historic school. Lockers remain in the quarry tile hallways, and historic classroom doors were preserved with the installation of fire doors behind them. Wood floors and other features remain in the classrooms. The rehabilitation also reconnected the exterior and interior of this former open-air school. An outdoor play area is now a shaded patio, and, with the addition of a discrete railing, the former play terrace is now an rooftop amenity.
The rehabilitated school has become a destination spot in the Old North Columbus neighborhood. The completed work retains so many historic features and finishes that visitors remark that it still feels like a school. The rehabilitation of the Open Air School won a James B. Recchie Design Award from Columbus Landmarks, and the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office awarded a Preservation Merit Award to the owners, the architects, the historic preservation consultant, and the design and branding firm.