And while winning over the Ohio University community may have been an easy get, Baker Center has garnered outside attention as well: Learning By Design -- an annual guide to architectural services and achievements for educational facilities -- has awarded Baker Center grand-prize honors at the college/university level in its 2008 Education Facilities Design Award contest.

Learning By Design commended architects Moody Nolan Inc. of Columbus for the overall plan and design of the five-story, 183,000-square-foot facility. The publication is a collaborative effort of the National School Boards Association and Stratton Publishing and Marketing Inc.

Richard Carpinelli, associate vice president for student affairs and director of Baker Center, said one of the goals of Baker Center was to bridge the upper and lower parts of campus in a way that would grab the attention of visitors and demonstrate the university's vitality.

"We want this to be the first impression people have when they come to campus and come to Baker Center, and we want this to be the lasting impression people have as well," Carpinelli said. "This is a gathering place for all members of the Ohio University community, and we take great pride in its recognition."

The competition's judges made note of Baker Center's atrium, where skylights naturally illuminate the three-level escalator system designed to connect two of the busiest areas on campus.

"The design of Baker Center takes positive advantage of a very difficult site with three stories of grade that change across its width," said Robert Larimer, principal architect at Moody Nolan and the manager in charge of the Baker Center project. "By including a central atrium with a series of escalators, the building itself becomes a pedestrian pathway traversing what was once a formidably sloped barrier separating the upper and lower portions of the campus.

"This new pathway not only benefits students directly by providing a convenient and safe passage, it also helps activate the building by providing a continuous flow of students through this, their own building."

Improving the flow of pedestrian traffic across campus wasn't the only concern addressed in the design for Baker Center.

"It was clear for a long time that the old university center was too small to meet the needs of the campus community," said Director of Implementation Richard Shultz, who oversaw the project for the university. "One of the major concerns we had in planning was the size of the building. How could we create a building that was large enough to fit the needs of the community and still fit the site and the feel of the campus around it?"

Shultz said the planning committee worked with Moody Nolan to create an exterior design that would complement the more traditional two-story buildings near the fourth-floor entrance and effectively interface with pedestrian and vehicular traffic at the first-floor entrance.

Their work hasn't gone unnoticed.

"It is amazing to see, with an entrance on both College Green and West Green, how they were able to capture the feel of campus from whatever direction you approach the building," said Steve Oechsle, a graduate student who works in Baker Center both as a member of Graduate Student Senate and the Residence Life staff. "This is a brand new building, yet it's completely in line with the feel of College Green."

Carpinelli reports other colleges and universities, including Miami University and Ohio State University, have visited Baker Center to see "how you start from the ground up" in creating a university center that meets the daily requirements of a modern campus.