ExPatClevGuy

Um, one thing about the drawing. That giant black rig (sound & lights?) suspended from above would benefit from modification to something a little more sleek, discreet, and 21st Century. Could it be be brass or white, or less obnoxiously oversized? It will look completely incongruous and actually stupid even to folk who aren't particularly design minded. The drawingmay be a a conceptual mock up, but it doesn't look very well conceived or particularly pro from the multi-million dollar outfit that's pulling this together. 🍺 - Belch! 😆

@Pugu Yes, this is exactly what I am expecting to learn has been planned by P+C for Sherwin Williams. It's what I hope planners and decision makers at The City are able to prevent from happening. Whatever goes in on Frankfort and overall will be what gets locked in for Cleveland & our visitors for (probably) the next 75 year, so let's get this done right folks, okay?

I don't understand this comment. It still practically glimmers from good care. It has been very well maintained over all these years. Only the storefronts lack life, and the overall design is classy and timeless.

@E Rocc I do prefer The Gherkin to The Shard.

😆 Oh dear. I'm presuming they'll be careful enough not to make it too evocative of anything that will earn it a weird nickname, like oh... the Batman Building or something equally as unwelcome. I do trust that the taste level at both Pickard+Chilton & Sherwin Williams generally varies between nondescript to buttoned-down, and not too far into the wild or weird.

Yeah, it's nice if a CVS or Heinen's employee can live close to their job (that ends late at night) or paralegals, paraprofessionals, or what-have-you who are not highly paid techies, managers, or executives with deep pockets. As we learned in the pandemic, these are valuable and important workers. They are the people needed to keep the service economy humming downtown. Living near their downtown jobs will save them money that would otherwise be used on transit or car ownership, so they can apply both the time & savings towards education, groceries, childcare... It makes working downtown a realistic choice for those who strive towards greater success in life while earning nominal pay.

Vacant? Wow, since when? Sheesh, I've been gone too long. Are there any squatters known to be living in there? It's a pretty good sized place.

"Nobody" using the BP lobby is fine (people do use it, although it is not a train station or banking hall.) The publicly accessible lobby space of 200 PS is symbolically important to the metaphorical "public square" of our city's oldest and most monumental & prominent garden park. The 200 Public Square lobby delivers the limited service of elegant park views from above, and places to dine casually in an elegant (if austere) public space. Liken this limited public space to the public access we demand for developments of our waterfronts on Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga. Sherwin Williams frontage on Public Square will be the widely perceived front door of their business. It is important by expectation and by tradition that SW symbolically present a welcoming presence to the city as we are one of their key partners in success. The interaction of the SW tower with our most important civic space will become a hallmark of their corporate reputation for decades to come. Clients will arrive for meetings expecting an entrance to be available through the main front door. The view of this new complex from Public Square will be the most common and lasting impression that employees, customers, neighbors, and visitors will have of Sherwin Williams. The Park-side front of the building should be impressive and rather not like poorly conceived suburban homes that have prominent garages facing the street. A sealed "jewel box," only opened for the few is the wrong architectural statement for our beautiful Public Square. In the end, providing for a beautiful publicly accessible space on Public Square is a community spirited service that SW and their thousands of downtown employees should not have to be compelled to provide to the neighborhood. They should be volunteering this service to the city to demonstrate that they are a good corporate citizen. Sherwin Williams has the resources and creative capacity to make their Public Square frontage a showplace of community pride. It should not be a self-serving "walled garden" to be interacted with by the public at arms' length.

In their defense, temp workers travel to and from this building every day from across all of NEO.

"If well done" is the thing of course and subject to opinion. The example shown of Lone Star Beer ads & Texas themes being projected is a fairly off-putting maquette sample. Also that church lit up at night already... is already well done. What Cleveland holds as important in the built environment defines who we are as a city. As a place for contemplation & simple beauty that church means more to folk than it does as a billboard for one or a few people's individual artistic statements/endeavors.

As for Public Square park views from a potential tower behind Old Stone, and the improvement of our Public Square park by killing that 20 story masonry wall... My good friend's church on Mt Vernon Square in DC (Mt Vernon United Methodist) is across from the convention center, and on it's own elegant square too. On Mt Vernon Square is the former Carnegie central library of DC (now an Apple Store.) They cut a great deal with developers and got parking, classrooms, increased meeting space and more. Congregation parking is used Sundays when the office building is dormant for the weekend. It was an excellent bargain for the property behind their beautiful church. The congregation and the City of DC worked closely to get a sympathetic design.

OMGosh, that gorgeously detailed architectural gem of a historic church . Well, I guess nothing is sacred. They might as well just tear it down now and put up a TV panel. Projecting onto the the Standard Building wall is fine with me tho.

🎼 🎶... 🎵🎶...

Awful first pass. It’s a box with an unusual appendage porte-cochère (or something?) up front. It’s just a dorky sexyish adornment that can be played up with weird camera/artist angles to disguise the laziness of the actual overall package. I predict that all upcoming media shots and drawings will play up this small and unusual element in just such a way, yet nothing about it will disguise it for being the actual cheesy blue Nabisco cracker box that it is. - CPD, Please Show us some actual elevation drawings and prove me wrong.

Once again, I'm impressed with Michelle Jarboe's comprehensive work. The big surprise for me here is learning about a new plan coming together for the Cuyahoga Valley from Harvard to the Lake.

@PoshSteve I wonder what Moen's new HQ space needs are. 125K sq ft sounds about right for 450-500 employees.

@surfohio You speak the absolute truth on this. - It was a thing.

It seems like Bedrock may quite near the surface along parts of the the Doan Brook Watershed, so perhaps bedrock is fairly close to the surface too at Euclid & MLK. https://doanbrookpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/DoanBrook-All-Pages.pdf (Screenshot of page view deleted to respect copyright of the publisher. Upon examining the copyright statement in the document this morning, I realize I hadn't sought permission from author Laura C. Gooch or the Doan Brook Partnership to post it. The page I grabbed is easy to view in the original report. Scroll to page 138.)

Also, those two peninsulas are like...

The Columbus Road Peninsula below the Canal Basin was planned as "Gravity Place" ca. 1833. I wonder if this is what the developers had in mind. Re imagining this same plan on the Scranton Road Peninsula would be an intriguing concept. https://canalwaypartners.com/gravity-place-in-the-flats/ Text below is a screen grab from the online Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.

Wow! Thanks for the news @KJP and the renders @Geowizical. I'm very (very!) pleased, and now my interest & curiosity move to enthusiasm & hopefulness about coming news of various treatments; the materiality and texture of the surfaces, especially at pedestrian level; the look of parapets and flashing, etc. Then there's the overall shape and color, sculptural features, and reflectiveness of the finishes; and details like how Pickard +Chilton will resolve turning corners with sharp edges or soft curves, etc. P+C has put together some plain-Jane duds over the years, but also some of the most positively stately and impressive textures that are a complete pleasure to behold on a tower (300 N LaSalle anyone?) The composition of the planes and surfaces of this new skyscraper could really be a standout, in fact a dazzler. My hope is for elegance over shocking boldness. ...Oh my, the whole package can yet go in so many different directions. I'm back on the edge of my seat for more news. Today was made better for me thanks to all the reports and insights in this thread. Thanks again. ❤️

LOL, charming enough to some perhaps, but when I lived on Hessler, I blasted right past them as they are visually oppressive; so hard and tight tight to the street with no greenery - and always that trash. Historic yes, but relegated to the dead end leg of the one-way block, mostly tucked out of sight. I'd walk past at least twice per week without looking up, as they were the most uninteresting elements on the street.

Given that the historic form of Hessler street is already comprised of a make-believe Bavarian country manor home, gabled townhouses with faux turrets, and a Swiss alpine chalet, I feel this was an excellent approach. The whole historic streetscape on Hessler is "architectural fake news"

I agree with @Cleburger about the garden style described for this setting. Also; reporting to the authority about tree problems, then having that authority respond by asking the writer to go back and return with more details was... SMH!!! "If you are able to provide the location of each of the fourteen trees identified, I will be happy to reach out the team of arborists and get their opinions on the health of the trees." - WTH? Isn't it the job of an arborist to do this work on a regular basis without prompting? - Park maintenance in the economic & tourism center of downtown Cleveland should not be a complaint-driven process.

Thanks @X, I do see your point, even if you and I may disagree that difference between 24 and 48 new residents on one parcel is significant on a street that is already very densely packed. My statements about micro-units certainly do verge on hyperbole, but balance well against those who claim every voice for moderation and scale is a "NIMBY catastrophist." I'm confident that affordable housing and great city living are our mutual goals. There is a sensible center, and that's the point I seek to make on this topic.