The move is planned in 2013 from the current Memorial Union site to the unused portion of the ground floor located within the parking structure across the street from Gill Coliseum. The project is currently in the schematic design approval phase with the campus planning committee. Here are some of the schematic representations of the proposed bookstore. Figure 1 depicts the southwest corner of the bookstore from the corner of Ralph Miller Drive by Gill Coliseum. Figure 2 shows the northwest corner of the structure from Student Legacy Park. For reference, note the gray parking structure in the background of each schematic representation.

Figure 1. OSU bookstore from Ralph Miller Drive (click to enlarge)

The parking structure constructed as part of the Reser Stadium Phase I project has had an unused portion on the west side facing Gill Coliseum. Original approved plans for this space was as a dining hall, but by the time parking structure was completed in 2005, an attempt was made to locate a McMenamin’s restaurant in the space. The restaurant was never approved and the dining hall plan approval expired. By 2011, the OSU Bookstore had requested and received site approval to use the ground floor of the parking structure for a new bookstore.

Figure 2. OSU bookstore from Student Legacy Park (click to enlarge)

The move is expected to increase the floor space of the bookstore, add a café, and increase the parking available for off-campus visitors to the bookstore in the current parking structure. And for sports fans, this relocation places the bookstore at the center of game day activities associated with major sporting events at OSU.