Columbus Hates Old Buildings. The Budd Dairy Food Hall Proves We Should Love Them.
Columbus has a few notable historic buildings that have been maintained over the years. The Leveque tower is our most well-known still-standing historic structure. The Ohio History center is a masterpiece of brutalism. The Columbus Museum of Art is beautiful revivalism accompanied with daring contemporary architecture. However, Columbus has far more notable historic buildings that have been paved over by developers or the city government or just left to rot. It’s one of the main reasons that Columbus doesn’t feel as culturally deep as other nearby cities, despite having a surprisingly deep history.
The Budd Dairy Food Hall is an inspired example of what can happen when developers look at historic buildings and embrace them instead of dismantling them.
The Budd Dairy building was built in 1916 as “America’s Finest Milk Bottling Plant”. The bottling plant includes meeting place on the second floor making this a great example of cross-programming.
The building was expanded with barns that housed the milk wagons to the East of the building. Eventually the building was sold to Hamilton Dairy Co. and would eventually become the property of Borden Dairy Company until 1967. The building went through a number of owners and concepts but mostly remained vacant.
Unable to find the original designer of the building, the person given most credit in historical documents is William H. Budd, but take that with a huge grain of salt.
(There is a more in depth history here at Budd Dairy Food Hall’s website.)
The Budd Dairy building remained vacant for decades after Borden Dairy left. It became North 4th Street’s monument to unfulfilled potential.
Compared to the gentrification of nearby Short North, Italian Village has more organically grown it’s own culture of quality businesses housing them in renovated buildings. Seventh Son Brewing, across the street, was an old garage. Fox in the Snow was likely also an old garage. Cosecha (before it’s pandemic demise) was an incredibly beautiful renovation of… well… probably a garage? The Market Italian Village has impeccably restored its own wooden barrel vaults. This is the perfect time to polish the crown jewel of Italian Village’s 4th Street. The Budd Dairy building.
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants approached Lykens Companies (the developer of the property) with an idea for the vacant Budd Dairy. And so, a restoration began.
Upon arriving at Budd Dairy the first thing visitors notice is a pretty decent sized parking lot (considering finding parking in Italian Village is difficult). This is quickly forgotten upon observing the immaculately restored South facade. The terra cotta ornamentation has been retouched. The chains that held the canopy are lovingly tucked into the facade, with the exception of three Westmost chains given the duty of pretending to hold up the new entrance canopy. New windows were installed to match the historic window layout (many were blocked in over the years).
While it is true that the smokestack is considerably smaller than the one shown in the postcard, it feels massive. It is no longer in use, despite being considered for ventilation of kitchen equipment. The entire exterior of the building feels authentic to the spirit of the building including the scars left intentionally obvious. The most obvious addition to the building on the front is the monolithic concrete stair, which does not try to upstage the building; instead, it blends in with the industrial aesthetic.
The entrance vestibule provides the first real taste of how the interior is treated. Scars from the removed mezzanine populate the wall. The restrooms are nestled at the back wall of the lobby, instead of the usual hiding spot (the dreaded back hallway). Say hello to Verona, the Budd Dairy mascot, on the way in.
The end of the building toward 4th Street is elegantly restored. Bills, mail, etc. were exchanged at this end of the building. Nearly all the materials have been maintained or restored; the wooden window frames, hardwood floors, wood-framed glass partition, wooden doors, marble window sills, white subway tile, and the marble, wood, and iron stairs are all restored to something approximating their original splendor. Given the level of deterioration of the building over the years, this is a considerable achievement.
The main food hall is remarkable. The tile of the original is mostly untouched left chipped and unpainted. Parts of the tile had to be replaced, but the tile was intentionally similar but noticeably different. I realize that matching the tile would be impossible for 100 year old tile, but the new tile does not work well with the existing tile. A small misstep compared to the massive television (I assume it will have information for visitors) across the hall from the entrance. A TV this massive in a historic room seems out of time and place. The furniture, however, blends in with the aesthetic of the original time period; wood with painted metal stools and tables line the halls. The food stalls are wrapped in a partition hiding modern food equipment merging old with new seamlessly. The massive amount of ventilation pipes that run from stands are left exposed and orchestrated nicely through the back of the space. When elements had to be altered due to modern codes, the restoration is almost impossible to notice.
At the East end of the food hall is a connective building which was used to safely transport milk from the bottling floor to the barn. The plan was to demolish the connector building, I assume to provide more outdoor seating. Instead the building was kept and houses another food stall along with some seating. Garage doors were installed to create a vast indoor-outdoor space. A space that was to be paved over, ended up one of the most successful spaces in the entire building.
The second floor contains the event hall (remember the one mentioned on the postcard?). Restored wood floors flow throughout and the bar is made from wood stained to match. The entire space is overflowing with historic architectural detail. One of the more interesting artifacts left in the space is a set of wood doors with glass panels. Originally set in a partition that divided the space, they now stand alone and act, themselves, as a partition. They add a lot of character to the space, while breaking it into smaller more intimate areas.
The rooftop bar/patio is up the stairs from the event hall. Immediately to the left an up close view of the terracotta detailing on the facade comes into view. To the right the view of the smoke stack in the distance. The patio is treated with a 180 degree view of downtown Columbus to the South and historic homes to the East.
That’s it for the food hall portion of the building, but there is more to this project. If you were wondering what is going into the barns behind the food hall, I’m here to tell you, it’s pretty cool.
The barns and underground portion of the main building are occupied by offices. In the barn, the wood structural members are painted, but left exposed as pilasters. The hallway runs the length of the building, topped with skylights that rain down natural light.
The offices in the barn have clerestory windows that allow indirect light to wash over the entire space. Between two arms of the barns, a courtyard is nestled finished in industrial chic. Weathered steel and brick coat the space, while the plants bring life to the experience. The forest green doors accent the industrial qualities of the courtyard nicely.
The lower level offices have their own character surrounded by weathered painted brick. Restored windows allow a good amount of light for subgrade spaces. This area exposes plenty of historic “scars” (at least for now, these were still under construction at the time). One space comes with an ancient boiler, while another shows the scars of stairs that were removed. Call backs to the building’s history vastly improve these spaces.
Columbus needs to be reminded that it HAS history, and sometimes it is pretty cool. I hope restorations continue and developers start taking the best path instead of the easiest path. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy what the Budd Dairy Food Hall has to offer. A bit of (hopefully good?) food, a unique and wonderful atmosphere, and a bit of culture that Columbus desperately needs.