Description: Two photographs document the unveiling of a plaque honoring Governor James Rhodes at the Ohio History Center. The plaque hangs on the plaza level of the building, which was constructed during the Rhodes administration. A third photograph shows the Governor and Mrs. Rhodes touring the library collections with librarian Elizabeth Martin and director Daniel R. Porter. At a press conference held November 10, 1964, Governor James Rhodes unveiled financial provisions for the construction of a new archives, library, and museum building for the Ohio Historical Society (now the Ohio History Connection). Groundbreaking ceremonies for the building that would become the Ohio History Center were held on August 22, 1966. The new building opened on Sunday, August 23, 1970, and was dedicated to "the people of Ohio whose illustrious deeds are herein enshrined and proclaimed for the inspiration of all." Upon its opening in 1970, the American Institute of Architects applauded the Center as a "bold, imaginative, almost startling structure." Architectural Record, in a July 1971 article, called it "no doubt the most architecturally significant public structure built in Ohio since the State Capitol Building." W. Byron Ireland & Associates, a Columbus architectural firm, designed the Ohio History Center building. The building is an example of "Brutalism," a rational, structuralist, monumental style exported in the early 1950s by French and British architects. Distinguished by its structural honesty and undisguised, blunt use of materials, Brutalism departed from conventional bourgeois styles. Stone and marble were rejected in favor of form-textured concrete, or beton brut, a technique employed by the French architect LeCorbusier. Founded in 1885, the Ohio History Connection conducts a range of activities related to interpreting, collecting and preserving the state's heritage. In the last century, the organization has collected more than 1.5 million items pertaining to Ohio's history, archaeology, and natural history. The organization's services include managing the state archives, administering the state's historic preservation office, and operating a network of historic sites and museums. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3370_4919361_001
Subjects: Ohio Government; Ohio Historical Society; Museums; Archives; Libraries; Brutalism (Architecture); Rhodes, James A. (James Allen), 1909-2001
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)