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Preservation architect recounts long work to save Columbus school buildings and convert one to Cristo Rey High School
Summary
A preservation architect from Schooley Caldwell described decades of work to preserve the Ohio School for the Deaf complex in Columbus, the 1981 fire that destroyed the main building, and a later successful adaptive reuse that created Cristo Rey High School with modernized classrooms and accessibility upgrades.
A preservation architect from Schooley Caldwell detailed a series of long-running restoration efforts in Columbus on historic public buildings, focusing on the Ohio School for the Deaf and a later conversion to Cristo Rey High School.
The speaker described the firm’s history and projects, then said the Ohio School for the Deaf complex — a 19th- and early-20th-century site — suffered a 1981 fire that destroyed the main building while leaving the school structure standing. He recounted early proposals to convert the complex to assisted living and to offices, then said those plans failed at different times for reasons including market shifts and a developer pause during the recession.
On the eventual conversion to education use, the preservation architect said the Columbus Metropolitan Library and other partners helped assemble a real-estate deal that allowed Cristo Rey to occupy the school building. To meet modern classroom-size standards and life-safety/accessibility rules, the design team removed select partition walls and lowered an entrance to create a single secure entry and accessible path. "Preservation as perseverance," he said, summarizing the project’s long timeline and community effort.
He also described the programmatic benefit the presenter attributed to the school: "Since it opened, 100% of their graduates have gotten offers to be accepted at colleges," the preservation architect said; that figure was stated as a claim by the speaker and was not independently verified in the presentation.
The architect urged continued fundraising to complete remaining work, specifically noting an unfunded goal to restore the building’s tower.
The presentation closed with before-and-after images of the rehabilitation and a reminder that adaptive reuse often depends on finding an actual user before funding and construction can move forward.
