A view from the top floor of Orton. Credit: Mason Swires | Lantern Reporter
The college student’s life is very loud. Between professors talking at them, the inner roar of looming stress and the weekend madness that ensues at bars, one can be overwhelmed by it all.
With finals approaching, it can be hard on a large campus such as Ohio State to find a quiet space to sit down and study. But these spaces do exist here, in more than just the warm corners of Thompson Library.
Orton Hall
OSU’s geological sciences and history building, known as Orton Hall, holds not only the department, but also a silent, rustic, almost Harry Potter-like atmosphere of architecture in its small library. While walking toward the obscure Orton Geological Museum that also exists in the building, one can find a door to the vintage room that opens up to a small, almost Victorian library made entirely of wooden book shelves and long tables. Students can find solace here among the old dinosaur bones of Orton Hall.
Knowlton’s fourth floor and roof garden
The architecture department’s building, Knowlton Hall, is itself a testament to creativity, which quiet study is conducive to. The building’s library is built in a soundproof classroom with windows that look out upon the roof garden that many people don’t know exists on the tiered roof of the building. It is divided into two floors, both containing spaces to sit and relax or to sit down at a table and get to work. There are reclined chairs overlooking the garden through the windows that wrap around half of the floor of the library, letting in a lot of natural light and contributing to the cozy environment.
Fine Arts Library
This library is for the true abstract studier. Its entrance is a staircase that goes under the Wexner Center for the Arts and wraps around the majority of the building’s sublevel. It is absolutely silent in the stacks of large, bound books, and there are a few tables among them. But the majority of the workspace available to students is in the main foyer of the underground art exhibit and library. Computers are also available for those who didn’t bring their own. As far as sound level, this library is the clear winner in silence.
The quiet floor of the 18th Avenue Library
The library is nestled between Scott Hall and Denney Hall, and is relatively well-known. There’s the Terra Byte Café that serves hundreds of students on the ground floor that adjoins the computer lab and other floors that have available workspaces and shelves of knowledge. But the fourth floor of the 18th Avenue Library is actually dubbed the “quiet floor.” There is a sign to prove it. No noise is permitted there, and the entirety of the space is dedicated to tables, desks, cubicles and glassed-in study rooms that provide a place that is open 24 hours to students looking to cram or find some peace.
