jborger

Rosetta moving their Independence and Beachwood offices to downtown Cleveland They'll be taking 400 jobs to 80,000 square feet of space in floors 11-15 plus a new 17th floor penthouse at 629 Euclid Avenue by the Holiday Inn Express near East 4th Street. The building will be named (Rosetta Center?) and have their name featured on the outside of the building. Developer is MRN and here's a great quote from them: "Maron hopes to attract other marketing and tech-focused companies to the block, which he described as Cleveland's new "Mad Men" district -- a reference to the hit television show about Madison Avenue advertising in 1960s New York." Awesome news. More at http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/digital_agency_rosetta_plans_t.html

No, they're gonna suspend it from the Shoreway bridge... :) Sorry, just couldn't resist. I'm a jerk.

I can't say enough how having more college students living downtown is a great thing in so many ways. Glad Cleveland State is doing all of this. :clap:

What would you have liked to see them do? Yep. And they chose to stay downtown, so let's chalk that up as a win.

Open forum on downtown Cleveland's Public Square redesign draws a big crowd Recently, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance and ParkWorks teamed up to develop new concepts and ideas on what Public Square -- the heart of downtown Cleveland -- should look like. They hired Field Operations, a landscape design firm based in New York City, to come up with the plans. Field Operations, along with The Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative of Kent State, came up with three ways to unite the four quadrants: Frame It, Forest It, and Thread It. On Thursday, the first open forum was held at CSU's Levin College of Urban Affairs. It was fairly well attended with over 100 people showing up. More (including pictures and slideshow) at http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6824-Downtown-Cleveland-Examiner~y2010m1d23-Open-forum-on-downtown-Clevelands-Public-Square-redesign

No. I want answers NOW!

Yes, it's going to be a private party room with seating for 45 people, plus a separate bar.

TWO aquariums? Really? Anyway, I wish Jacobs wouldn't put an aquarium in the Powerhouse. I just love that building the way it is. I say leave the Powerhouse alone and develop that massive parking lot. You could put a whole neighborhood in there. The Powerhouse has cool stuff in it -- restaurants, comedy club, piano bar, reception areas... Develop that parking lot and the Powerhouse will be packed with people! Then go build an aquarium in a new building on the lakefront. Oh well...

They should just build the Medical Mart ALL AROUND the Sportsman. It could be Med Mart's internal bar. :laugh:

American Greetings is looking around to possibly leave their 1 million sq. ft. Brooklyn headquarters. Old downtown Eaton headquarters, perhaps?

From this picture, it looks like Chinato will be two stories... Cool.

From the article... "The county plans to sign an option to buy an office building on St. Clair from L& R Investment Co., said the attorney, Jeff Appelbaum. And eminent domain could be used to transform other property into a public park. Appelbaum did not say which property, but the Sportsman's Restaurant is sandwiched between L&R's office building at 113 St. Clair and its parking garage." Huh? First, I didn't think they'd have to use eminent domain and two, what's this public park stuff?

Halle-frickin-lujah.

So what if a developer that wants to turn a surface lot into a mixed use development tells the parking lot owners: "Look, you let me build on your lot and you will own all the parking spaces in the new parking garage that will be park of this development." Because if a parking lot is successful, that means people need it. You can't (or shouldn't) just get rid of 300 parking spaces. But if you get rid of 300 surface lots and build UP with a new development and parking garage, you can ADD spaces. So the parking lot owner would get even MORE spaces (which means more revenue) in a brand new facility and the developer gets his land. Or what am I missing here?

It's the second biggest residential building downtown after Bridgeview.

Great link, Rockitect. From that page... "PPS’s main criticism of Public Square is its prioritization of vehicular traffic over pedestrians. Wide traffic lanes surround and bisect the square creating an environment hostile to pedestrians." Agreed! And I don't think any of these three proposals really answer that. Especially the hill one that everyone thinks is so groundbreaking. The reason that it's groundbreaking is because it unifies all four quadrants. But it does so in a shoddy manner. Yes, the four quadrants should be one. But cars and buses should be routed elsewhere, not just made to go over a manmade hill that people aren't going to want to climb anyway. Instead of buses ruling Public Square, build an indoor station behind Tower City, next to the casino, near the federal building. That will rid The Square of the bus stop that dominate the landscape. Make the square one, big square and route cars around it in a counter clockwise manner. Also from the above link... "A robust transit hub creates a space not only for transportation, but also social exchange. Students transferring buses from their cross-town high schools, office workers catching their coach bus back to Brunswick, recent immigrants visiting government offices, white and black residents alike all pass through this space in the center of the city as they continue to their next destination." Except that's NOT what happens at Public Square. The perception of white suburbanites is that The Square is a dangerous place where poor blacks loiter around while waiting for the bus. Is it more realistic to try and change the attitudes of humanity or try and do something to change the environment? I think the latter.

RTA did? Please show us proof. Ok... From the article... "Diverting buses around the square would cost the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority hundreds of thousands of dollars in productivity by slowing travel times, said RTA General Manager Joe Calabrese."

But I think it being a square and not a circle will help slow traffic. So would traffic signals. I think the benefits of a unified square outweigh it's problems. Unify the square and create a giant sculpture or something in the middle that will draw people to it.

I like Proposal #2 the best, but I agree: the best idea would be to make the square one space. The only reason they're not looking at that option is because RTA whined about it. And that's just a terrible excuse. RTA should not be able to hold Public Square hostage. Ontario and Superior have been closed through the Square before -- festivals, watermain breaks, etc... They seem to handle that just fine. So if they can quickly come up with alternatives when something like a sinkhole happens, you're telling me that with more time and money they couldn't develop a permanent solution? Please...

I think that's part of the problem. Public Square is mostly used by people waiting for a bus. People rarely go to Public Square just for the square. There's passing through, trying to get somewhere else... 20 feet, try 78 FEET! Yes, the mound will be 78 feet in the center. That's almost an eight story building.

The chart in this PDF says it was 1901: http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/landmark/arch/pdf/archdetailPrint.php?afil=&archID=217

Exactly my point. So I hope the same thing doesn't happen at PlayhouseSquare. And Coneybear, I'm far from a cleveland.com poster... I just get tired off looking out my window towards the river and our bridges and seeing burned out lights or lights that just weren't turned on. Early in the NBA basketball season, we had a nationally televised game on the the lights on the Veteran's Memorial Bridge were out at tip off. That's just sloppy. We don't focus enough on lighting in this city and it's a shame because it's something that can make a downtown stand out from the suburbs and something that Cleveland can easily compete on with other cities. So yes, when I hear plans of public lighting, I am skeptical, seeing how we treat what we already have installed....

How dare someone write their opinion in an online forum!

And eventually the lights will burn out and no one will bother fixing it. Like the bridges in the Flats. Or the lights along the river in the Flats. Or the fountain in the Flats. Or anything in the Flats. Actually, the sign at Christie's is pretty bright....

It's not the owners of the Sportsman that are the hold up... It's the other property owner. Maybe they could just tear down the Sportsman and build a mini medical mart...