thebillshark

^plan should be for mixed use building; commercial street level and residential above. Parking available at the new garage under Cutter Playground. Nothing magic about this stuff, just need more of it.

Anyone have an extra ticket for the Bailey this weekend they'd be willing to part with? Message me to work out details if so

^expansion will be onto IRS site I presume? Wonder what the time frame is.

MLK to SB71 will be the big one. Will be interesting to see if it clears up the infinite line of cars on Reading trying to get on 471 every afternoon.

Birkla has a plan to redo the Terrace Plaza Hotel: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/08/04/developer-unveils-bold-plan-for-deteriorating.html Looks like they want to completely remove the blank brick walls from the bottom portion of it. I'm fine with that.

It's mentioned in the Mohawk neighborhood plan: http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/planning/planning-projects-studies/mohawk-area-plan/

It's really twisted and bass ackwards to think of the only developable land as land that already has buildings on it, and these empty asphalt expanses as being untouchable, but that's the exact situation were in as long as these surface lots are so profitable (and probably why the owners are political donors.) It has the potential to limit the ROI of the streetcar as well. If you think about the new proposals around town that's exactly how it's panning out. 12th and Race apts. would replace two garage like buildings, Ndukwe's office development proposed replacing an old abandoned CMHA building, Greiwe Condo Tower proposed to replace Donato's building. Nothing proposed for a surface lot - except the Kroger project which is getting massive city help.

Another point- both the Enquirer and Business Courier has reported the north Library building closure as "opening a block of prime real estate for development" -as if there aren't acres and acres of surface parking lots downtown (some in the immediate vicinity of this site) that are open for development.

If they acted in concert with 3cdc who is consulting on the library redevelopment they could reserve parking spots in the new Kroger garage. They could design an addition so that the entrance to the law school would be a half a block from said garage. It would be a ridiculous reason to disqualify this as an option. But I'm not saying your wrong- people are ridiculous and irrational over parking and it has caused paralysis and decay in our cities for decades.

I don't disagree about how hung up people are about parking, but the enormous Garfield Garage is less than a full city block away, AND the new Kroger project right around the corner will include a 500 space garage.

Didn't they already agree to make that on UC's campus? Not saying it wouldn't be a very good idea to have it there, I had just thought they voted to build on campus but maybe they simply voted to not have it at the Banks? They're spending a million bucks to study where it could fit on the Uptown campus. Now that this this opportunity has arose maybe they should reconsider? This would probably be a lot cheaper than a Banks option as well as be closer to the courthouse/law offices/corporations downtown, be on the streetcar route and accessible to main campus by relatively frequent busses. Would also give 3cdc's efforts to revitalize Court Street a boost. https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/08/24/uc-trustees-vote-on-where-to-locate-newlaw-school.html

*Brainstorm* would the north building of the Library (plus some potential addition) make a good UC College of Law?

I remember how big of a deal this was when they built it. So, I'm a little surprised and sad to hear it's already obsolete. That's also not the first block I would think of that needs to be "fixed" from an urbanism standpoint (not great, but certainly not one of the worst offenders downtown) so I hope it doesn't suck a whole bunch of resources from a more critical project. The windows are kind of weird, present on the lower stories but missing on the upper ones except for at the very top. I wonder how challenging that would be for re-use. Would residential be possible? Seems like this project could become a part of 3cdc's focus on the Court Street corridor.

Really hope that corner gets a taller add-on some day. That is not a flattering side of the County Admin. Building to leave exposed for all time.

The recessed first floor is fine. Without it, right next to the streetcar stop there would be too much of a sidewalk bottleneck in that location for outdoor dining. I'd have to jump over tables when I'm sprinting to catch the streetcar. I think this is a case where blindly adhereing to guidelines doesn't make sense quite frankly. I would think the meet the street guideline is in place to prevent a suburban style front yard or parking lot in front of the building. In this case the exception is for a sidewalk cafe across the street from a park and the mass of the facade on the upper stories still comes up to the sidewalk anyway. Of course you could take away two or three parking spaces out front and extend the sidewalk for dining and really make a notable memorable place there right by the streetcar stop. But that would cause people to faint or send them into convulsions. I cannot understate the resistance urbanists face on all sides of the political spectrum and all walks of life to anything that takes away parking spaces. 90% of people are just completely irrational about it.

Well it's included in the proposed Mohawk neighborhood plan under big ideas and challenges: http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/planning/planning-projects-studies/mohawk-area-plan/ http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/planning/assets/File/Mohawk%20Big%20Ideas_Challenges.pdf

Rhinegeist gondola rumor:

Maybe it's a carrot to offer so that state governments let Tesla operate their own dealerships?

He can't and won't. The same forces that cause people to experience success like that, cause them to overreach. (Unless he does stuff like this to keep attention off the day to day operations of Tesla and SpaceX)

^also it's hard to imagine now with that area being so run-down, but with the continued build-out of the urban core that land the highway ramps are on may become valuable and there's quite a bit of it there right on Central Parkway. It seems like when these opportunities come along, an engineering firm might do some kind of spreadsheet review of different options but no one really sits down and thinks about the whole picture in a creative way.

Article about architecture of Court and Walnut, before the HCB on July 24th: http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/downtown-cincinnati-kroger-project-makes-good-first-impression-with-interesting-and-subtle-design The GBBN model shows a taller building at Central Parkway and Main. So maybe they're planning for that possibility? Tough to tell with the angle of the photo.

All of those unused surface lots! After a drive through Nashville the past week I was thinking if we could just activate some demand, we could have an entirely new skyline if we just filled in these spots. I know it's OT here and lamented elsewhere but just wanted to sound off. My latest blog post talks about this area. This photo is a great illustration of how that Gilbert Ave overpass should be removed. I'd like to see it intersect with Eggleston in a roundabout. https://cincinnatiideas.com/2017/06/13/rethinking-eastern-downtown/

They need to leave area for the hike/bike path that's supposed to be built on the north side of MLK. It would also be nice to have light rail right of way preserved along the north side of MLK but maybe with all those traffic lanes plus the path they can squeeze that in someday.

Well that's that for US Bank Arena then. Guessing it gets replaced with a condo tower and maybe someday we try again with an arena up near the casino (with Gilbert's money.)

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OHDOT/bulletins/1a9c953 Good. Should be 2 way all the way to Vine