Imagine arriving in 1966 to Ohio for the first time to begin a college education from the great metropolitan New York City. Flying into Port Columbus Airport, the initial view of the city of Columbus is only two major highways and little suburban development.
This was the case for Brooklyn-born Pasquale Grado, who came to Ohio State to study architecture.
“Seventeenth Avenue was the only way into the city. All you saw was corn fields to your right and left – it was definitely a culture shock,” Grado said. “Columbus was just starting to grow.”
He recalls walking down the street and not seeing anyone who resembled him.
“Everyone had more of a Midwestern look,” he said.
Upon graduating, he stayed in Columbus because of lack of money, but as time went on he began to see what Columbus had to offer.
Grado ended up living in the same apartment for the next 27 years because he enjoyed it so much.
“When I graduated I continued to live in the area because of all the older buildings. The apartment was above where Progressive Audio is now,” he said referring to the location on High Street between 13th and 14th avenues.
“I loved the building – it’s been around since 1911,” he said.
He went on to teach at OSU’s School of Architecture both part and full-time over the next 15 years, focusing his studio classes on community-related work, like a planning overlay guiding urban development. Outside the classroom, his interest in design, development and planning grew.
In the late 1970s, the growing population of the University District resulted in housing shortages. Developers were rapidly building large, dense housing structures to compensate. This lead to a lack of parking and flooding, among other problems within the community’s infrastructure.
Grado’s love of not only architecture, but Columbus and the University District, culminated in his current profession, executive director of the University Community Business Association.
“In 1984, myself and seven other High Street businesses created the University Community Business Association,” he said.
The organization became an advocate for capital improvement money that lead to several other interest groups Grado lobbied for.
“He’s been involved with the community since he was a professor,” said Brad Shimp, executive director of Community Capital Development Corporation. He has known Grado since 1985, when he served on the board of UCBA.
Shimp said Grado’s dedication to the community is crucial for the students.
“He has a vision of what we can give students – a safe and fun area,” Shimp said.
Grado stressed his love of teaching and said it was key to help individuals explore their full potential. Now he feels he is still teaching but on another level.
“It’s the same thing now but a matter of taking talents and gearing them to another,” he said.
Teaching on a high school level is something Grado is considering in the future. He also has a modest architecture firm doing “what one man can handle on his own,” he said.
Though most of his blood family remains in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Grado has developed quite an extended family here and keeps busy with his other hobbies.
“I love to garden – I recently bought a house in the Tuttle Park neighborhood and have been doing some horticultural archeology,” he said. “I’m slowly fixing up an elderly woman’s yard that had become very overgrown.”
Grado also enjoys cooking and not surprisingly traveling to other cities, counting Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle among his favorites.
Time in his permanent residence is spent remodeling.
“An architect’s house is never done,” Grado said.
Despite staying behind the scenes, many don’t realize the impact he has had on community, said Kathy Eshelman, president of Grade A Notes and the University Community Business Association.
“I think Pasquale has had a huge impact on the university community – it’s been far reaching,” Eshelman said. “He’s had a love for the area both personally and professionally.”
Eshelman said the 20th anniversary of the UCBA is an event they are both looking forward to next year.
Though Grado remains modest about his influence on the community, he is not shy about his love for it.
“There is not a better place to live in the entire city,” Grado said.
