401 North Front Street

Location: Columbus, Ohio

Size: 149,340 SF

Completed: 2001

After years of planning, the 19th century Ohio State Penitentiary, located on the north side of Columbus, was raised to allow for the construction of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ new venue, Nationwide Arena.The developers were well aware that an arena cannot be successful by itself.  There needed to be support facilities such as hotels, restaurants, bars, housing, offices and other event centers to create a true destination landmark.

 Acock Associates’ office was, and still is, located within yards of the east main entrance to the new arena. There were discussions of demolishing the Acock building with the intent of developing at a higher density than the existing two story, 80-year-old building.

Ultimately, the Acock building was saved, but the large parking lot to the east of Acock’s building, along with vacant property to the south, was developed creating 401 North Front Street. This mixed-use building provides multiple restaurant and bar tenant spaces on the pedestrian street level with offices on the three floors above.

The buildings are uniquely connected by an overhead bridge that breaks the scale of the building at the pedestrian level, and also allows for slow moving deliveries to reach office buildings to the west. Detailing at ground level includes Flemish bond accent brick, limestone and brick vaults. The building negotiates grade changes, maximizing the flexible use of changing retail tenants over the years.

 The style of the building is sympathetic to the industrial roots of this area of Columbus and is complimentary to the brick, glass and steel adjacent to the new arena.