The design of the Hale Hall addition is intended to create a student union environment that welcomes diversity, an increase in the amount of space needed to fulfill the required tasks necessary for everyday work, and create an identity that is unique to the building as well as the Hale Black Culture Center honoring Dr. Frank W. Hale. The original program for Hale Hall was a student union on campus for students to congregate and enjoy themselves. In the existing program, Hale Hall does not have a defining student lounge or gathering space where students have the ability to occupy the space. The existing auditorium is too small. The addition can give the new auditorium size as well as flexibility for the purpose of the space. The legacy that Dr. Frank W. Hale holds in that building needs to be emphasized through the architecture in particular the museum/art gallery.
Hale Hall's existing additions are examples of additional square footage that does not interact well with the original building or the site. Through research, Hale Hall's original design incorporated monumental stairs from the South Oval landscape. Allowing for a public entrance from north campus. The new addition will recreate that monumental circulation leading into the original building, although its approach will be designed as a contemporary piece of architecture rather than its classical essence. This will create a relationship between classical architecture and contemporary architecture that has been successful on OSU's campus.
By surrounding the sacred trees and creating structure through the landscape, the two environments can become one. The new addition is subordinate to the original building, giving the historic building hierarchy in size and maintaining its iconic status. The new addition's design will become the identity of the entire building as a whole, expressing the essence of the Hale Black Culture Center as well as expressing its relationship with the OSU framework plan. The landscape is raised higher than the current slope of the South Oval site and provides new program beneath as required. Its relationship underneath the sloped landscape and on top the landscape is connected through the multiple ways light enters the new addition.
The Underground Railroad ran through campus and the Union's lantern is representing one of the ends to that path. The historical marker for the Underground Railroad is placed next to Hale Hall showing the pathway that is taken. The new addition represents the Underground Railroad with program beneath the surface and looking towards the lantern structure of the Ohio Union.
