Initial plans for Ohio Stadium met resistance, as critics regarded a 60,000-seat facility as folly and an outrageous financial risk. Despite the opposition, the Athletic Board moved ahead with planning, University Architect Joseph N. Bradford conducted site surveys, and a University-owned field on the east bank of the Olentangy River was chosen for a stadium athletic complex. In 1918, the Athletic Board asked Professor of Architecture Howard Dwight Smith to design a football stadium with running track and practice fields. The University Board of Trustees approved the plans in 1919 but required construction to be funded by private contributions. In 1920, the Athletic Board elected Columbus industrialist and OSU graduate Samuel N. Summer to chair a fundraising campaign, and he enlisted thousands of volunteers to support a national drive that opened in October with a weeklong campus festival and student parades from the University to downtown Columbus. Three months later, fans, students, alumni, and corporate supporters had raised $1,082,878 to build Ohio Stadium. Construction began in August of 1921. Smith's architectural plan used several modern innovations and an exterior facade inspired by his studies of classical architecture, with exterior arches reminiscent of the Roman Colosseum and a rotunda coffered ceiling strongly influenced by the Pantheon. His design for Ohio Stadium won the 1921 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for public architecture.
