COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus College of Art & Design officially opened its new Center for Creative Collaboration this semester, a 27,000-square-foot space designed for students, faculty, businesses and community partners to learn, make and collaborate together.
The $15 million project is the college’s first major new building in decades, since the Design Square Apartments residence hall opened in 2006, CCAD President Melanie Corn said. Rather than building from scratch, the project gutted and expanded Battelle Hall, a 1940s-era Chrysler body shop the college converted into design studios in the 1970s, adding an 8,000-square-foot two-story addition, an elevator and reopened windows that bring back natural light.
Most funding came from the college’s “Here for Change” capital campaign, which raised more than $25 million against a $20 million goal, with zero tuition dollars used. The rest came from the $3.6 million sale of a Grant Avenue studio to the Columbus Fashion Alliance, $1.4 million from the city of Columbus and a $1 million federal grant. The college broke ground in 2025 and opened its doors at the start of the fall semester.
The building houses sculpture, jewelry and metal studios, a wood shop, a welding shop and all of CCAD’s digital fabrication and design innovation labs, so students no longer cross campus for tools. All first-year students take classes there, and with about 60 percent living off campus, the center doubles as a student union with communal spaces, sound-proof nooks and kitchenettes. Beginning this year, every student graduates with a business concentration in invoicing, marketing, grant writing and contracts, plus at least one experiential learning opportunity — students and faculty have logged 300,000 hours with more than 300 organizations since 2019. Fall enrollment stands at 761, with a 22 percent jump in committed students from Franklin and Delaware counties via the Creative Pathway initiative.
