Preview The Ohio Veterans Memorial

Rising from the earth in a swirl of concrete ribbons, the Ohio Veterans Memorial and Museum will offer a new architectural landmark at the edge of Columbus’s Scioto River when it opens in 2016. Designed by Allied Works Architecture, the building is intended to look like a natural outgrowth of the landscape it occupies.

“It’s conceived as an earthwork, where the processional to a sanctuary is lifted up from the earth,” says Allied Works principal Brad Cloepfil, noting that the roof, which is reached by a dedicated ramp, offers an outdoor amphitheater and green space for events. “It’s about making this space in the landscape and the city where people come together in remembrance, or to celebrate soldiers coming home.”

Inside the 53,000-square-foot museum, visitors will find areas for permanent and temporary exhibitions related to Ohio veterans’ 250 years of military service, classrooms, a museum shop and café, and a two-story interactive digital cyclorama.

“It’s not just a war museum,” says Cloepfil. “It’s really about the larger idea of service and sacrifice.”