John F. Milligan Library
Coming soon, Ohio Wesleyan's new John F. Milligan Library will transform the heart of campus into a world-class immersive learning, collaboration, and creative arts hub. The facility will include community-building spaces, study areas, high-tech classrooms, art studios and galleries, and lots of glass to showcase the building's warmth and light.
A World-Class Library
This will be no ordinary academic library. OWU President Matt vandenBerg says, "We're redefining what a liberal arts campus looks and feels like. Our concept takes liberal arts creativity and aesthetic sensibility from the metaphorical and physical periphery of campus and delivers it to the center of every student's experience."
The university will break ground on the project this summer and open the completed Milligan Library in January 2027.
Expanded Study and Learning Spaces
The project involves renovating and expanding the existing L.A. Beeghly Library. The library will expand by more than 10%, to 101,767 square feet. Highlights include:
- The front entry will move west, and visitors will enter into a spacious two-story atrium. A second entry on the south side of the library, facing Park Avenue, will welcome the community.
- Nearly 300 study seats will be distributed across the library in a variety of settings, including reader tables, booth-style seating, individual carrels, lounge areas, computers, and group study rooms.
- Classrooms and instructional spaces with an additional 240 seats.
- A glass facade wrapping the former portico will bring in natural light and visually open the space to the JAYwalk.
- The renovated library will accommodate general collection shelving for approximately 140,000 to 150,000 volumes, along with dedicated, separate shelving for rare books and special collections.
- "Outdoor rooms" designed around the library will create open spaces that contribute to campus life.
OWU's Center for Fine Arts
OWU's Fine Arts faculty, studios, and classrooms also will relocate to the facility, which will include gallery and performance spaces.
Most art classes will be taught on the third floor, with studios for painting, drawing, photography, print-making, textiles, book arts, enameling, and more. A full ceramics studio will be housed on the first floor, with digital arts on the lower level.
The design process is still underway, and we will provide more details and illustrations in the coming months.
OWU's Largest Gift
OWU alumni have donated more than $50 million in just three months to fund the creation of the visionary, fine arts-infused library. Alumni and trustees John F. Milligan and Kathryn Bradford Milligan from the Class of 1983 spearheaded the initiative by investing $20 million in the library project – by far the largest gift in Ohio Wesleyan's 183-year history.
"Kathie and I are very supportive of the efforts at OWU to create independent thinkers and leaders for the future," John Milligan said. "We know that today's students need learning facilities vastly different from the libraries of 60 years ago. We are thrilled to be able to support the dramatic redesign of the library to create a place for students and faculty to gather, learn, and constructively discuss ideas right in the heart of the campus."
John Milligan is executive chairman of Emeryville, California-based 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT). A chemistry major at OWU, he previously served as president and chief executive officer of Gilead, leading teams that developed, manufactured, and commercialized therapies including the first single-tablet regimen for HIV treatment and the first 12-week, all-oral cure for Hepatitis C.
Five additional donors made seven- or eight-figure commitments to elevate the total raised to more than $50 million: Michelle Mulkern Kilkenney '99, and Ryan Kilkenney; Fred Newton '80 and Bridget Donnell Newton '80; Thomas Palmer '69 and Susan Palmer; Michael Payette '69; and Kara Trott '83.
In addition, multiple donors, including Jason Downey '02 and Elizabeth Long Downey '06, have created a combined seven-figure endowment to support programs in the facility and to maintain and modernize the building in perpetuity as needs and technologies evolve.
A New Campus-Community Paradigm
Ohio Wesleyan will leverage the Milligan Library and forthcoming central campus improvements to facilitate even stronger connections with the Delaware community.
"Historically, college facilities have tended to look inward," vandenBerg said. "We're upending that model by blurring the lines between campus and community for the betterment of both. We are removing the loading docks and other physical barriers that currently separate us from our community so we can properly welcome them in to learn and grow with us.
"We're also transforming our surrounding exterior spaces into places where OWU community members can learn, socialize, and recreate together," he said. "We believe these new outdoor living rooms will help transform the JAYwalk into the JAYstay."
Partners
New York City-based Perkins Eastman and Miamisburg, Ohio-based Levin Porter Architects are overseeing the work.
Matt Franklin, president of Levin Porter, says, "Our team of architects, planners, and engineers design academic library projects all around the country, and we think this is a one-of-a-kind library concept among American higher education institutions. The benefits of connecting the arts and library into one complex are endless.
"Of course, this project will be beautiful and physically transform the JAYwalk area, but more importantly, it will provide so many opportunities for collision learning experiences among all students on campus. Imagine heading to the library to study for a biology final and seeing an art student diligently turning a new piece on a ceramic wheel or watching digital content being created in a state-of-the-art studio. We hope these collisions encourage OWU students to embrace the many benefits of a liberal arts education."
 Levin Porter Architects |
 Perkins Eastman |