MayDay

Don't get me wrong, I think as a project in and of itself it could have an enormous impact on the area. But some of the statements come off WAY too shady - seven star hotels? First - there is NO such thing as a seven star hotel. You may hear the term thrown around but it's nothing more than a marketing ploy. To give you an idea of a 500-room hotel, the Marriott at Key Center has about 420 rooms - now, really... and then they want to add several four-star hotels? I'm very familiar with Amherst (my ex's parents live there) and while there's some money out there, it's nowhere near the demographic needed to support such a project. If they want a landmark site in North America, they need to draw from a LOT further than 100 miles away. As much as all of us would love to see office towers in Lorain County... what companies would locate there? It's too far flung from the center city of the region (Cleveland) and its amenities. Not to mention we're talking about plunking down a convention center? Don't get me wrong, if they can do it, more power to them - but I'm just pointing out some of the flaws I see in their plans. By all means keep us posted - regardless of the final outcome, it's one heck of a proposal.

(Sorry for the choppiness - typed this at work from Crains' Cleveland): Link to the proposals: http://www.cleveland.com/news/agate.ssf?/news/county_plan.html The consultant to Cuyahoga County has trimmed the list of sites and developers for a proposed, $100 million county administration building. Last friday, Staubach Co. presented county commissioners with four semi-finalists: the former Higbee building on Public Square, owned by Forest City Enterprises; the vacant Ameritrust Tower on East Ninth owned by the Richard Jacobs Group; a site controlled by the Goldberg family and Trammel Crow Co. of Dallas along Euclid Avenue that would add space to the former Taylor department store; and a site on Lakeside Avenue between West Third and West Ninth Street that eventually would include a residential complex, as proposed by Garfield Traub Development of Dallas.

Ambitious is a diplomatic way to put it - as much as I'd like to see the Lorain/Elyria/Amherst area prosper, this may be a bit too much. And folks, $250K is a lot of money for most of us but for a company like TransEuropean, it's a drop in the bucket. It also gives me the willies that "'They (Trans European) are under no obligation to give us their financial information,'' said Lorain County Community Development Director Ron Twining." Sorry, you don't just hand over a massive swath of land and "hope for the best".

Updated pics from 11/18/04 of East 4th Street/HOB area: New light fixtures and bollards along East 4th: And this funky torch streetlight at East 4th and Euclid:

Looks like they're back to work, although they now have separate entrances for union and non-union workers *eyeroll* Anyways, updates from today:

Well, a lot of you have seen a few of these pics - I decided to re-scan them (back when I had a film camera) and blow 'em up. The story goes like this - back in the day, Paul_In_Cleveland (another forumer from Cleveland) had a friend who worked in the tower. Well, they finaggled a way for us to get up to the 57th floor to take some pics. Here's what it looks like (it's never been rented since construction - the owner decided not to locate his operations there): Some views (sorry about the reflections): Then the security guard said (and this is well before Sept. 11th so there's no chance any one will ever get to do this again) "well if you're willing to sign a waiver, we can let you go OUTSIDE to snap a few pics". Well, here are the results and I still can't thank Paul enough - btw, the red dot shows where we were: Looking west, with the Federal Courthouse tower, RTA tracks/bridge, Cuyahoga River, Detroit-Superior Bridge... Top of Terminal Tower: The 'floor' of "58" - notice the lack of a barrier... there's nothing holding someone back. The little 'antenna' looking thing? That's a lightning rod: Now, to get this shot, we had to kneel down with our backs to the edge and tilt up. My knees were wobbly after this: Lakewood and the Gold Coast: BP and the Gateway stadia (Gund Arena and Jacobs Field): The Warehouse District, bridges in the Flats, mouth of the Cuyahoga River: Back over to the southeastern view: Tower and Galleria at Erieview: Eaton Center: One Cleveland Center:

Did someone say glass? Here's a pic from the first week of November - the pic doesn't do it justice - the tones are blue and green - very blue and green: And while it isn't a huge presence in the skyline, it does add a teensy bit on the western edge of the CBD (lower left corner of the pic):

A few shots of 515 Euclid from this past week... looks like the elevator shaft is topped out at 5 stories:

What the heck - two more pics:

I'll say this much about Steven Litt: 1. I've made attempts to contact him but he never returns emails. For someone who writes that not enough "young" (aka under 60) people care about Cleveland's built environment, you'd think he'd be proactive to contact those of us who give a rat's ass. 2. Paul_In_Cleveland from SSP sent him an email for info to help his "Downtown Cleveland Building Projects" site - Litt chastized him and asked him if he contacted the PD for permission to use the images of the projects. 3. Comes off as smug in his articles? Yeah, I suppose he does. But, having said all that, he's grown on me - I've learned to appreciate the fact that he does try to get Clevelanders out of the "well, we can't demand too much - after all, this IS Cleveland" mentality. As far as this article, I'd say he makes good points about moving the port just to move it. I think that a lot of thought has gone into the lakefront near downtown, but that the areas near Edgewater are treated like afterthoughts - I mean, putting the port (with all the truck traffic) on a 35mph boulevard?

Updated pics as of 10/24/04: I noticed that the building was topped off - must have been a private ceremony - how do I know? The pine tree (see the red arrow):

Well sure, let's just call up Bank of America and say we're mad about the vacancy rate in downtown Cleveland and maybe they'll relocate from Charlotte or heck, even cancel their new NYC tower and plop it down on Public Square! After that we can call Bill Gates and have him move to Bratenahl! After all, we're mad aren't we? :lol: Don't take my remarks as anything more than busting your chops - the reason we're all on this forum is that we have an interest in what happens to our urban centers. As far as the Creative Class - you're preaching to the choir and frankly a little late - on this and other urban/architecture forums, Richard Florida was being discussed well over a year ago. He makes good points but he also oversimplifies a LOT of issues. As a card-carrying member of the creative class (hell, as a gay, 32-year old graphic designer/photographer who authored a book about Cleveland architecture I think I'm a poster child), I can assure that things are hardly as bleak as Florida would paint them. Could they be better? Yes. Are they getting better? Absolutely - the Cool Cleveland events (usually attended by 500+ people), efforts by Cleveland Public Art, the creation of live-work zones and so many more things are happening to make Cleveland a desireable place for creative types. Now, if we could get northeast Ohio to secede from the downstate hilljacks... :lol:

What the heck, a few more pics from different angles: You can see the Bingham Building in this pic where they're gutting the upper floors and adding balconies: From street level:

"and i want ass" Well, courtesy of urbanohio.com's smiley menu :crack:

A view from the Shoreway from Oct. 10th:

First, the article is from Inside Business, not the Plain Dealer. Second, I think the writer was suggesting that the downtown housing market has more demand than supply (if it's saturated, it means that renters/buyers have too many options). F.E., the Bingham is about three blocks northwest of the Rockefeller - are you thinking of something else?

Why, do you have a bitchin' Camaro? (told ya I wasn't as hoity-toity as some might think!) ;)

One more update from 10/08/04:

More Pinnacle from 10/08/04:

^I love that song! Ahh, the Dead Milkmen - so irreverent!

Yep, GSI did the lakefront proposal for the convention center - they have a pretty modern style - they did the University Hospitals Westlake campus and the Ohio Turnpike travel plazas as well.

Bah! We all know what those queers do to our great state! Get 'em outta here, I say! :stupid:

Lebanon - great for antiquing and on Sunday you MUST go to the Golden Lamb and order the petit filet mignon - it comes with bread, vegetables, apple butter and you can't beat the price for around $14 - delicious!

No, I have no idea why they're named Montana but here's a nice little 10-unit infill project on Prospect Avenue at East 36th. Updated pic: And info about the project from Progressive Urban realtors: http://www.progressiveurban.com/montana/

Updated photo from October 1st, 2004: