Facilities

The facilities of Oberlin College and Conservatory are unsurpassed by any school of its size. It has one of the nation’s most extensive college library collections, one of the finest college art collections in the country, and first-rate facilities and equipment in music, theater arts, the natural sciences, computing, and physical education.

The Oberlin College Libraries consists of the Mary Church Terrell Main Library in Mudd Center, the Science Library in the Science Center, the Clarence Ward Art Library in the Allen Art Building, the Conservatory Library in the Conservatory complex, Terrell Special Collections, and the college Archives located on the fourth floor of the Terrell Main Library. The vibrant Robert S. Lemle ‘75 and Roni Kohen-Lemle ‘76 Academic Commons on the first floor of the Terrell Main Library features the latest computer technology and integrated learning support, along with Azariah’s Café (named for Oberlin’s first professional librarian and former interim college president Azariah Smith Root). One of the nation’s leading liberal arts college library systems, the Oberlin College Libraries provide access to over 44 million physical and electronic resources.

Founded in 1917, the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College is recognized today as one of the best college and university art museums in the United States. Numbering more than 15,000 works, the collection spans 6,000 years of human history, with works from the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome; European and American paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts dating from the medieval period to the present; important holdings of Asian paintings, scrolls, sculptures, and decorative arts, including more than 2,000 very fine Japanese prints; notable African, Islamic, Indigenous American, and Pre-Columbian works; a large collection of prints, drawings, and photographs; and the archives of the artist Eva Hesse. Free to all since it opened, the museum serves students and faculty through significant integration of the collection into the College curriculum and through many academic and public programs.

The collection is housed in an impressive Italian Renaissance-style building, designed by Cass Gilbert and named after Dr. Dudley Peter Allen, a distinguished 1875 graduate of Oberlin College. In 1977 a gallery for modern and contemporary art, designed by the architectural firm of Robert Venturi, John Rauch, and Denise Scott Brown, was added to the Gilbert building. The art building complex houses the college’s art department with its superior art library of 100,000 volumes. Museum staff also oversee public programs at the College’s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Weltzheimer-Johnson House.

The Apollo Theatre and the adjoining Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman Center for Media Education and Production are home to the Cinema and Media Department . With fully equipped sound stages, green screens, animation rooms, editing suites, and classrooms, the Apollo Film Labs is the creative and social hub for cinema and media majors.

The Oberlin Conservatory Complex is comprised of four contiguous buildings: Bibbins Hall, the Central Unit, Robertson Hall, and the Bertram and Judith Kohl Building. The Kohl Building, which opened in May 2010, serves as the innovative home for the conservatory’s Jazz Studies Division  and its academic programs in music history and music theory. The Kohl Building features a world-class recording studio; flexible rehearsal and performance spaces; teaching studios and practice rooms; and an archive for the largest private jazz recording collection in America, rare musical instruments, and a rare collection of jazz photographs from the 1950s, among other holdings. The Kohl Building has been designed to be the first music facility in the world to attain a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold rating. In 2016, the Conservatory also opened the William and Helen Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space, a club-like, subterranean venue at the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center that is dedicated to interdisciplinary classroom experiences by day and Conservatory performances by night.

The performing arts at Oberlin utilize the Irene and Alan Wurtzel Theater in the Eric Baker Nord Performing Arts Annex, the Kander Theater (formerly the Little Theater) in the Hall Annex, and the Sophronia Brooks Hall Auditorium for theater, dance, and opera classes and productions; the Warner Center for the Performing Arts is also used for theater and dance classes and productions. Finney Chapel is available for concerts, lectures, and performances of various kinds. It houses the Kay Africa Memorial Organ, which was built by C.B. Fisk, Inc., of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and installed in 2000. Other pipe organs on the Oberlin campus include a three-manual Flentrop organ in Warner Concert Hall and a two-manual Brombaugh organ in Fairchild Chapel in Bosworth Hall.

Initially serving as Oberlin’s main library when it opened in 1908, the Carnegie Building now houses the Department of Geosciences  classrooms and laboratories along with a number of student and advisor support offices: the Academic Advising Resource Center / Office of the Registrar, the Office of Financial Aid, and the Student Accounts Office. The Office for Institutional Equity, which serves both students and employees, is also located in Carnegie. The historic Root Room on the second floor, named after the college’s first librarian, is the site of large campus and community functions.

Peters Hall, completed in 1887, was renovated in 1996 and its function redefined primarily for foreign languages. Extensive classroom space, including a dedicated seminar room for each department, along with faculty office space, are complemented by the Paul and Edith Cooper International Learning Center, a state-of-the-art language and media center. Atop Peters is the college’s observatory and planetarium, which are actively used by the physics and astronomy departments for individual student projects and for public viewing sessions. The dome was installed in 1929, along with a Gaertner 6 inch f:15 refractor telescope. It currently houses a 14” Meade LX200 catadioptric reflecting telescope.

The Adam J. Lewis Center for Environmental Studies opened in January of 2000. The building and landscape design intentionally provide a one-of-a-kind learning environment through the adoption of multiple integrated net-zero technologies. These include solar PV electrical generation, ground-source heating and cooling through the use of wells and heat pumps, and a “Living Machine” for the treatment of wastewater. All these systems operate on site. On an annual basis, the photovoltaic solar array on the roof and above the parking lot are designed to allow the center to meet all or most of its energy needs. The “Living Machine” is an ecologically-engineered wastewater treatment plant that internally recycles all the wastewater produced in the center. Annually, more than 70% of the water used within the Lewis Center has already been through the Center at least once. Additionally, ecological restoration, permaculture, agroforestry, and organic gardening are demonstrated within the center’s landscape, which includes a restored wetland ecosystem, a fruit orchard, experimental hazelnut orchard, and a household-scale organic garden. The center is a living laboratory that showcases sustainable environmentally efficient building technologies and operating systems. The Lewis Center has won major architectural awards and has attracted considerable national and international attention. It is home to the Environmental Studies Program .

Oberlin Center for Convergence (StudiOC) is both a modern and flexible educational space and a new method for faculty to pursue multidisciplinary collaboration. StudiOC is designed to refine the art of creative and integrative multidisciplinary inquiry in students as a means for them to interpret and address social, cultural, artistic, political, and scientific questions.

Oberlin’s Center for the Engaged Liberal Arts (CELA) comprises a range of offices that help students explore opportunities beyond the classroom. Located on the garden floor of Mudd Center, it encompasses the following areas: Bonner Center for Community-Engaged Learning, Teaching, and Research; Career Exploration and Development; Digital Portfolio Program; Entrepreneurship; Fellowships and Awards; Study Away; Undergraduate Research; and Winter Term.

The Oberlin College Science Center, completed in 2002, is an integrated science complex that incorporates the Roger W. Sperry Building, the Kettering Hall of Science, and the Wright Laboratory of Physics into a comprehensive facility offering laboratories for teaching and research, lecture halls, classroom spaces, and communal spaces like Perlik Commons, Love Lounge, and Bent Corridor which are available for use by all students and faculty. The center houses the Biology , Chemistry and Biochemistry , Neuroscience , and Physics and Astronomy  departments, the Science Library, and the Center for Learning, Education, and Research (CLEAR). The design of the 230,000-square-foot facility encourages collaborative learning among the disciplines of the natural sciences, supports both faculty and student research, and fosters both formal and informal learning.

The Center for Information Technology (CIT) comprises highly skilled professionals who provide technology services and support that empower the college to achieve its goals with excellence. CIT consists of six units: Academic Technology, Enterprise Applications, Enterprise Infrastructure, Information Security, IT Project Management, and IT Support.

CIT staff are located in two primary locations. In the Seely G. Mudd Center, the service desk is located on the main level, A-Level houses the ID Card Office, and the fourth floor houses Academic Technology. Remaining staff are located in the Professional Services Building.

The Jesse Philips Physical Education Center has been the primary recreational facility on campus since 1971 but has since been bolstered by the addition of the Patricia ‘63 and Merrill ‘61 Shanks Health and Wellness Center and renovation of the Robert Carr Pool. These facilities provide a hub for fitness opportunities for the campus community and recreational users.

Connected to the Philips Physical Education Center, the John W. Heisman Club Field House features a newly resurfaced indoor track and four full-sized tennis courts. Outdoors, the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex / Dick Bailey Field features an all-weather, multipurpose field with artificial turf and lights, suitable for nearly every athletics team, club sport teams, and intramural events, as well as Oberlin wellness endeavors. It also includes locker rooms for all of Oberlin’s outdoor varsity teams. Baseball’s Dill Field and softball’s Dolcemaschio Stadium at Culhane Field are two of the best facilities in NCAA DIII, while Robert Lewis Kahn Track and Fred Shults Field features one of the best natural-grass playing surfaces in the country.

Other recreational facilities that are available for use by students, faculty, and staff include 12 outdoor tennis courts, multipurpose outdoor fields, and six bowling lanes located in Hales Gymnasium.