thebillshark

Alright I got it. Build a multi-story mixed use L shaped building with a front on Jackson where the lot driveway is. The building would come back to about where the Rookwood store is and then the L would wrap around the building with the mural on it and extend to 12th street. Make the rest of the lot a plaza. Put a restaurant fronting the plaza in a commercial space in the L shaped building with seating for outdoor dining. Then the streetcar stop would face the plaza and look out onto the whole Vine St. restaurant strip instead of into the face of a single building.

Backing up a few posts, I did think about the proximity to Washington Park and the risk of duplicating public spaces. I think they would naturally be different because of the scaling. Washington Park is big and of a scale to serve all of OTR, and feels like an outdoor space. A square at Twelth and Vine would just serve those streets and would almost feel like an indoor space. I am thinking it would feel almost like the center of a shopping mall formed by Vine St's restaurants and shops. Maybe you wouldn't have to do intense event planning like the park or Fountain Square. In regards to how much space it would need to take up, it's tricky. I was thinking just a few benches for people to rest or take their Graeters or Brezels to, some trees and a space for busking which may not take up the whole space. But if you built something on just the eastern half the lot you'd be blocking the mural and access to the Rookwood pottery shop. (Admittedly I didn't care for the mural too much when it first went up but I think it's OK now and in anycase the building its on looks good.)

On a different subject... I'm all for infill development for parking lots, but does anyone think the lot at 12th and Vine lot would be better suited as a public square? It's got a ton on pedestrian activity and people seem to naturally congregate there. There's a Redbike station, streetcar stop, ATM, and valet parking. It's a well framed open space for both the Vine and 12th St. streetscapes. The buildings across from it in Vine are stunning and with this open space you can see them walking all the way down 12th St. I think it would be a good candidate for a public square project. Now the lots on Republic behind Vine St. buildings in that area onthe other hand should be redeveloped.

Yeah, on one hand the parking should support both this new development and the redevelopment of the other historical buildings on that block (I couldn't quite tell but it sounded like all the unit totals were for the new construction.) Maybe they could go level deeper and put the whole thing underground? (Might be cost prohibitive though.) On the other hand this is near both a northbound and southbound streetcar stop and bike lanes and bus routes so if we're ever going to start this auto lite/TOD thing this would be a good place to start. EDIT: if they did do the whole garage underground maybe the additional productive above ground structures they could build facing Green and Logan would help defray the costs.

Very Cool. I like the residential scheme better. Looks like it could accomodate larger housing units and shrinks the parking garage. In addition more residents mean more 24/7 street activity. I see what natininja is saying about the Elm Street street level garage on slide 7 of 8 of the article. It would be better if the ground floor had an additional commercial space there to wrap the garage on the Elm St. side.

Report would be a waste of time and money. Also how can any conclusions be reached with everything still torn up and the Hopple St. exit still under construction? The bike lanes don't even extend to Ludlow as planned yet. As long as maximizing car thruput is our #1 priority our neighborhoods will remain desolate and blighted.

Regarding chiquita, much as you shouldn't try to catch a falling knife when buying stocks, cities shouldn't try to attract floundering companies with tax incentives. The fact that a company is willing to completely tear up roots and move its HQ for tax incentives may be a sign the company isn't doing so well in the first place. Kind of like when Kasich & JobsOhio were flirting with Sears to the tune of $400 million in incentives. Sears may not be long for this world and we really dodged a bullet. A completely ridicuolous amount when you think about it! Laissez-faire my rear end!

Not sure where I stand on that but I would say at least wait until Phase Two of their project is imminent. I could see them wrecking this building down and then the whole damn thing falling through.

I always thought that building would be great for a Sam Adams tap room.

Weird-maybe he was new and did it wrong? I can't see bartenders trying to count out pennies in a crowded bar.

Non-professional opinion here, but I really like that house. They built it right up against the abandoned structure next door so it really fits in, I'm sure they took on additional risk to do that. They used brick that has an aged look to it. The cornices aren't super elaborate, but they look nice, and some of the cornices on actual historical buildings aren't super elaborate either. The front door vs. side door thing is a complete non-issue in my opinion and I do think having the door on the side is more practical for layout and security. I don't see anything wrong with copying the architectural styles of the past, especially in a historic neighborhood, especially when today's styles inspire so much wailing and grinding of teeth. Let the building's nod to 2014 be the fact that the interior isn't divided into tenements for huge families of immigrants. We can leave the cholera and horse poop in the 1870's, but I think they were onto something with their buildings.

From the article: McDaniel said that the bridge decision should also include potential impacts on commercial development and that it is a "60-70 year decision, not just for the next three to five years." "We should be looking to get the biggest bang that we can out of this ... so why not look at going through areas such as Newtown in Ohio?" he asked. "There is less and less developable land through the I-75 corridor. Why not use this as an opportunity to open up more development? It seems as if there was a foregone conclusion that this would be the site without enough examination of other options." So they are planning on combining the new Brent Spence with the Eastern Corridor into one Super-Boondoggle?

Atlanta's is smaller. 2.7 track miles compared to our 3.6 miles. I actually think we could use another northbound stop along the south edge of Washington Park. You could catch some walkshed area there because its at the corner of the route. Then maybe perhaps another southbound one in the vicinity of 14th and Race to serve the Vine St. restaurants.

I have to think the economic development potential of these systems is at least proportionally related to their effectiveness as a transit mode. I don't believe in magic, so I don't think rails are magic either. That's why we must run the Cincy streetcar with high frequency and long span, or else it will be useless and fail. That's also why I've been pushing for this bus circulator system for Uptown to feed into the streetcar. ( http://goo.gl/awheu8 for folks who haven't seen it yet.) But I do think the downtown system will succeed in its own with high frequency and long span.

With as dysfunctional, sophomoric, corrupt, and stagnant as our U.S. national politics are, I'm glad Canada is a seperate country. The theory of entropy says things progress from a state of order to disorder, and brother, we're seeing it happen here.

One thing I've noticed about UrbaOhio is that Cincy forum posters are mostly MIA on the weekends and holidays...

I was up in the market/streetcar MOF area today and I was struck with how well Findlay Playground is framed by the surrounding buildings. Any plans to "pull a Washington Park" with it? It could look incredible, and it would be right by the streetcar Uptown extension. Just stand in the middle of it and imagine all the surrounding buildings rehabbed and decorated for Christmas. Also, I could see how an underground parking garage there could serve redevelopment in the surrounding area. It'd also be nice if the market was able to reclaim some of its north parking lot for vendor space and events, and that might be facilitated by having a parking garage there as well. I can also envision a new structure being built by the market on the parking lot along Race right by the streetcar stop. So as much we urbanists would like to go car-free I can see a need for a garage in that area.

It'll be a shiny new parking lot soon. This site could have been a transit center for Uptown surrounded by mixed use development, probably for the same level of costs we routinely spend on other projects, but with our transit agency on a shoestring budget and elected officials unwilling to go to bat for them, it didn't happen. Even with plans in place for years to build the streetcar to this site.

The stuff going in on Race Street seems really fancy. Makes me wonder what will happen when the development gets up to the corner of Liberty St. and Alabama's Fish Market. I really like Alabama's and would hate to see it get gentrified out.

We need a bat in the outfield.

Republic between 14th and 15th has great mature street trees, I think they should try to replicate that if possible as it goes north- it makes it much more welcoming.

Or maybe even across Central Parkway in the building with the Warner Bros. Pictures sign on it? I think that's open.

This building looks great, and it's totally unique to the area. They took some of the barriers down when they opened the garage and you can finally check it out. The first floor has wrap around floor to ceiling tall windows on each corner and you can see straight through to what's happening on the intersecting street. They did a really good job concealing the fact that the building contains a massive parking garage. Should be a rule that if you complain about all the new generic construction going up you're not allowed to complain about this building too.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/nightlife/bars-and-clubs/2014/12/06/sam-adams-stained-glass-windows/19974317/ Sam Adams should open a tap room. One block from the streetcar line!

Yeah it seems like you would have to plan your every possession and action like you were on a backpacking trip in the deep woods. The slightest bit of disorganization and you would be drowning in your own mess. Ain't nobody got time for that. Edit: well I couldn't do it at least, but after reading about it over on UrbanCincy, it seems like a neat project and should be interesting to follow.