ExPatClevGuy

"Consulting experts"

I thought you were possibly referring to the dome-top shadow at center screen.

@LlamaLawyer No worries, I get that. 😆 Once I got a look at these twins though, I couldn't help myself. - I'll be glad we're not likely to go backwards in design here. (Those cut-outs tho are so strangely familiar. Hmmm, now where in Cleveland have I seen a shape like that...)

Thanks for not going to go back to Cleveland City neighborhood owners & residents not knowing what they desire or what is good for themselves? This is 12 units of great quality housing being added to a limited-two and multi-family historic neighborhood street that is already awesome, very dense, and vibrant. It is is not some void that needs urban improvement by packing folk into the neighborhood like anonymous sardines. The great urban low-automobile density is already here. It already looks and feels great. This new version looks sensational, and the addition of 12-24+ new residents to this street is an awesome number. They will enjoy sharing larger more luxuriously sized units than the original plan. I can't even imagine the paint peeling from the siding product to be used.

"If it's ugly, just build two and they'll think you're a genius." 😆 A little too "Uncle Fester" for me, but I'm sure S.W. will do better.... right?

I guess this means that the coffee shop is expected to be popular with area residents & visitors. Still I'll be surprised if traffic will back out all the way out to the street. That seems a little too alarmist to me. Does traffic normally back out onto the street at Five Points Coffee, or at Peace Love and Little Donuts of West Park? Those might offer a fair gauge for planners to address this concern. On viewing the neighborhood in Maps, I do see a designated bike lane on Lorain. A supermarket and coffee shop will certainly pose more risk to those users than an empty K-Mart. All should appear at the neighborhood meeting and their voiced concerns should be heard and taken seriously. I hope none of those who express their ideas get called out on U.O. for being NIMBYs who hate the realities of progress. - (Snark, I've been catching it lately for my supportive posture on community input related to projects around town.)

Balance is a thing tho. I may have gotten somehow lost and accidentally posted in "Urban Ohio Northeast One-sided Support for Developers over Residents," but that's okay. It's still a good place to point out community voices in neighborhood projects like this one - a street where I actually lived personally. I'm glad for those who know the background and makeup of all the residents who reside on Hessler Street, yet residents still outnumber by 100% the amount developers who live on this street. Developers welcome! Still, residential neighborhoods are not the place to simply do-as-they-please. Even in commercial districts there are reasonable controls and aesthetic reccomendtions made in support of communities before construction begins.

It's all so subjective, isn't it? We all decide when it's okay to sell out the interests of community residents because we as outsiders prefer a "certain type" of development for them on their behalf, but their interests matter - of course they matter. The details of this development on Hessler Street really won't make a difference at all to you or me in the end; not like they will matter to the residents who will experience them day-in and day-out. When residents are truly happy, neighborhoods grow and thrive and succeed. That is what I want for every community, not just my own.

Thank you Kathleen Crowther & CRS, Nate Lull, and other community voices trying to save "The Marquard" and get a better overall deal for the people of Cleveland and Kamms. I wish you good luck in this. “The point of this petition is not to be a NIMBY. (- Hello U.O! -) The developers may make the claim that the new development will need more parking, something that simply cannot be substantiated by the fact there are already over 400 parking spaces in the lot.” - Nate Lull Live Link: Petition to Save the Marquard

BRAVO! I love it. - Very handsome. YIMBY to this design 😃, and kudos to the neighbors who stood up for excellence. This new look and size is in excellent context with the balance of the street, (which it should be for this tight knit community.) As one of the very few mostly intact townhouse row communities remaining in all of Cleveland, this was the successful sensitive choice. Hessler Street is practically dripping with human-scaled charm & early 20th Century texture & pedestrian scale, so something way out of tune would never have worked. - I'm super pleased. The street elevation facing out to Hessler is exactly what I would be able to view from the second floor balcony of my former apartment at lovely & historic 1961 Ford across the street.

With 50 million+ watching, and SW as a key partner of the Cleveland Browns; I'm considering that it may be a timely, unique and positive PR opportunity for an HQ press release - during NFL Draft Week in Clevo at the end of April. There should be no shortage of foreign and domestic media outlets in town, with reporters seeking interesting local angles for peripheral interest pieces.

Development moves fast in totalitarian Russia and China, so there is that. Jail for those who disagree with the plan. | | |😢| | |

@dastler All voices needed to build a community. - ALL!

"Loud" Community voices 1 | Silent "majority" 0 One of these two groups above may wish to fix the broken volume control of their communication methods. I'm no fan of the Club Azteca building because it appears by all accounts to have become AN ACTUAL BLIGHT. Still, those people rallied and got a preferred outcome for themselves. - There are lessons for outsiders to learn about the effectiveness of neighborhood voices in local communities.

Yay! This is an awesome result. The community stood up and got something valuable for their effort and attention. Now a better more community responsive result for all. Don't be too quick to discount the voice of neighborhood folk. This is how getting the best for your community works.

I now subscribe to Crains just to keep up with the actually-awesome Michelle Jarboe. -🧠✒️📰 The worst media enterprise in town was lucky to have her and were fools to lose her. Her incisive & thorough brand of journalism is worth paying for. Synopsis: DiGeronimo/Weston/Sannell are expected to close on Brook Park Ford around May 15 - with an eye towards manufacturing on a completely re-imagined site. 'Some built elements to remain. Crains Article: https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/makeovers-two-former-ford-plants-could-be-500-million-plus-undertaking Scannell https://www.scannellproperties.com/

It is a Kassouf project, so to me the render above is a believable result. I was thinking it might go full-on Notre Dame de Paris Remodel -"The Kassoufs said that Sherwin-Williams’ decision to build its new headquarters on parking lots west of Public Square means downtown workers and travelers will need spaces, and that their lot is positioned to do well as a result.

It actually is a nice area of Brecksville, though not the most posh in all the town. - Nice living and lots of fresh air if you can afford it there. I can appreciate that the folk who live on Westview, which runs parallel to Parkview, will desire that the residential scale of single family homes is not interrupted above the treeline by a residential or office tower. If the tower moved further back off of Parkview it won't be visible above the treeline from people's windows at home and I'm sure their objections will evaporate. I expect Brecksville and residents will prevail on this one. It's not like these isn't a mega-amount of acreage for the developers to move things around a bit. Brecksville homeowners pay Hella property taxes so their representatives are responsive. They for sure don't want someone on a distant balcony overlooking their garden parties. It's a middle-schoolers & soccer kind of town. If the folk on Westview Rd. in Brecksville want to view a commercial structure from the front bay-windows of their 1950s ramblers or split level colonials, they know where buy another home and have that. ...And, they would have done so years ago. Go Bees Gymnastics! .

Yeah, very strange. Good catches. There's some kind of monolith too covering E 6th Street just below & between The Keith & Public Hall. What's that for? - It's like a "picture find" in the back of Highlights Magazine. This isn't just an image with errors, it's a published lie. - Too weird!

Most architects don't treat Skyscrapers like dry-erase markers to be changed later. I enjoy Erieview as it looks today. The dark green is very elegant and suits it well. In fact it's quite wonderfully distinctive, just give it a bath. I do love once again that U.O. commenters are so terribly concerned about "drab colored buildings" in Cleveland, yet positively love the idea of bland colors if such is designed to be built in a community like Ohio City where residents oppose.

Committed homeowners will protect their interests in their own neighborhoods. - Too few activist homeowners downtown to worry about, yet. I'll just say that everyone pretends to promote "empowering neighborhood residents." ...until they don't. #LipService 👄((💄))

Perhaps by "character of the neighborhood" they mean that a building is an aspirational step up... Maybe a building design that inspires residents to point it out with pride and say how much they enjoy looking at it, and that it increases the value of their own homes. Those are okay things for people to desire be built on their own block. By the way; Ohio City is affluent? LMAO! - Ohio City has 1,200 units of public housing, with 37%(!) of the population living below the poverty line. Perhaps compared to even more depressed areas of Cleveland it seems affluent, but not by most standards. Still, O.C. homeowners and voters do still have more dignity than suggested by folk here who paint them as ignorant of the wider world, or style, good taste, or worse. Also, O.C. is very diverse. The 2010 Census data lists the Ohio City neighborhood as one of Cleveland’s most diverse, with 50% being White, 34% African American, 23% Hispanic, 1.5% Asian or Pacific Islander, <1% American Indian, and 14% noted as “other.” I'm a former O.C. resident from 30th & Jay. I kow this neighnorhood well. People here understand things that outside investors do not. Nobody desires to be taken advantage of for someone else's quick buck. Those who earn their real estate dollars through design integrity and thoughtful regard for their established neighbors are always welcome.

The old joke from my own CSU days goes... 😉

Do you think these neighbors don't want development, or do you think they don't want a poor design choice for their community? Those two ideas should not be artificially conflated. - Down to the last person, I doubt that any of these community folk wants nothing to happen in the available space.

Anything would make Rhodes a better building! It's a wonderful Brutalist work when viewing from afar, (In fact I think it has a very pleasing and successful appearance.) but I'm willing to let go of the look in favor of improved functionality like effective building systems; space efficiency; HVAC; Telecom; Plumbing... You name it! LOL - #ThatBuildingIsGrim