northsider

You know, if having a bunch of national chains in the Banks is what it takes to get more people interested in city living and Cincinnati in general, I'm totally cool with that. We want a city that's exciting and interesting to all sorts of people, not just hip and artsy folks! I'm hoping that as progress in the Banks continues, we'll start to see some more local businesses in there. As for the architecture not being that great - what's more important for the Banks is the form of the built environment. I wouldn't want every new building in the basin to take its visual cues from the banks, but I think the lesson that people will take from the Banks is that there is a hunger for more and more walkable mixed-use neighborhoods with density!

Those last two renderings both look pretty great! It's a shame that the Kroger-mart idea for the building's scrapped. I actually work for Kroger in merchandising - next time I'm in a Q&A session with the head honchos, I should ask about Kroger's plans to re-examine more urban formats.