In 1893, Ohio State finished Orton Hall, incorporating grotesques in the bell tower from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. In 1929 artisans finished the American Insurance Union Tower, which would serve as a landmark for Columbus for generations. That 353,000 square-foot skyscraper is now known as the LeVeque Tower.
And what is today’s contribution to architecture in central Ohio? In 2022, more than 15,000,000 square feet of warehouse space was built with roughly the same look: generally one-story, poured concrete walls, a front door with a small office and lots of loading docks. By 2026, experts estimate we have more than 300 million square feet of warehouse space.
Outside, the color palette is either gray, white, brown, maybe a strip of Amazon blue. They routinely have a million-square-feet. Although they serve the needs of today’s commerce, how many times these buildings can be recycled into something useful is a problem for the next generation.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: The boring warehouses of Greater Columbus
Reporting by Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
