Central Ohio Federal Savings and Loan Building, Columbus
The 66 South Third Street, formerly known as the Central Ohio Federal Savings and Loan Building, is a two-story office building. It is located at 66 South Third Street, Columbus, Ohio, USA. The design of the building has been inspired by classical architecture.
Various elements of classical architecture in the structure are the following:
- The building comprises a pediment, containing the symbol of the bank designed on its tympanum.
- The entablature is built under the pediment. Having distinct Roman features, it has three parts, namely the cornice, frieze and architrave. The epistyle or the architrave consists of three fascias separated by ornamental mouldings. Further, the cornice is decorated by an elaborate ornament, containing egg and dart mouldings supported by a series of beam-like brackets called modillions. The frieze forms an intermediate part of the entablature, which joins the cornice and the architrave.
- The elevation of the building is distinctly characterized by the presence of an attractive stoa with a colonnade. The latter contains four Corinthian columns separated at an equal distance and two additional pilasters, being columns attached to the wall closely placed with the adjacent column. Another set of pilasters can be seen on the front wall and resemble the exterior ones based on their form and ornamentation, but are in-built. These were built to make an impression of octastyle.
- These Corinthian columns can again be sub-divided into three parts, namely the capital, shaft and base. The height of these three parts functions as the diameter of the column. The circular shaft is ornamented using flutes, which are periodically separated by fillets. The base is relatively plain, consisting of a simple square block. The upper and lower torus is separated by the scotia and double bead. The columns are tapering downwards and bear a disc-shaped base. The shafts have slight convexity, namely the entasis with an upward taper or diminution. It helps to provide an optical correction to the columns. Otherwise, they would appear thinner.
As it is seen in the two pictures above, the front view of the Central Ohio Federal Savings and Loan Building bears striking similarities to the Pantheon in Rome. Various elements of classic architecture are incorporated in the building. The design of the Central Ohio Federal Savings and Loan Building is inspired by classical architecture in general and the Pantheon in Rome in particular. It is built carefully with special attention paid to the structure, proportion and ornamentation of features. The similarities between the Central Ohio Federal Savings and Loan Building in Columbia and the ancient Pantheon Temple in Rome are the following:
- Open colonnades.
- Corinthian columns.
- Elaborate ornamentation of the cornice.
- The shape, structure and form of the pediment.
To sum up, the columns seen at the frontal side of the Central Ohio Federal Savings and Loan Building strictly adhere to the design principles of the Corinthian style (Hiraskar 23). Regardless of the differences in construction techniques, one can find sharp similarities in the intricate mouldings of the architrave, cornice and pediment carved out in both buildings. Thus, the Central Ohio Federal Savings and Loan Building stands as a true model of the historical Pantheon Temple in Rome.
