PaulI

Just found out. It was a one day only show. Just for Saturday. But it was cool!

Technically this wasn't a mall program, but it was next door to the mall outside the Police headquarters. A really cool exhibition of vintage police cars. Maybe somebody on this thread can remember being chased by one of these awesome looking vehicles (just kidding!). I took these pictures Saturday, no idea if it is still running today.

Not sure what they are doing with the very large paved area on Prospect & Huron - hopefully some green stuff will make it there. But if anyone has any idea of what will go in this area I'd love to know. But it does look like it won't just be some large slab of concrete.

Looking at the old picture I know I was definitely struck by how beautiful and inviting it was, and how much fun it must have been to take a stroll through it. And, yes, it had four quadrants. And somehow they worked. But when so much of what surrounded it was torn down and rebuilt, the four quadrants suddenly stopped working. My personal feeling is that the four quadrants don't have any historic value anymore. But they were awesome back in 1900. But I think the general consensus on this thread is that if we let the newly built Public Square end up in the same state as it is now, then we didn't really accomplish anything. A water feature is a thing of beauty, but not if yesterday's trash is floating on the surface. And a picnic area is charming, unless of course it's full of cigarette butts and someone is hurling obscenity's at you. It can't just be a new design, it has to be a new attitude.

In case anyone is interested, this is how Public Square looked around 1900. Really impressive, huh! Very European in style. Just goes to show that each time the square was redesigned they somehow ended up making it worse. This upcoming makeover will be the first time it got better! http://www.shorpy.com/node/17589

Just one minor note. There is a breakwater that runs parallel the entire length of North Coast Harbor. So where the planned development would be the water never gets bad, even when the weather is really nasty. That's why you can rent jet skis at the mouth of the Cuyahoga and cruise all along the lakefront. Setting up restaurants along this length of the lakefront wouldn't be a problem at all. Other than it can get windy, but I'd say that in this location that's rarely a significant issue.

In that case, an oops on my part. But maybe a brand new sign means something. Sorry if I got everyone's hopes up. I was pretty psyched myself up to 2 minutes ago.

This is the parking lot on W 9th, next to Constantino's. Not sure who owns it.

Unless I am mistaken, this sign went up today. Could this be the end of the parking lot?!!!!! This is an awesome space, right next to the Samsel building. Let's hope so .....

Views of the east bank development taken from the west bank. Not sure if the pictures capture the epic scale, but to the naked eye it looks huge! Not sure when phases 3 and 4 will occur, but the old buildings left standing on the east bank still look amazing. Will be great to see them brought back to their former glory.

New signage looking nice this weekend. The patio appears still not to be open, but they were painting it this weekend, so hopefully any day now while we are having this great weather!!! Cool cowboy mural on the wall now!

Well, it's a start, but two boats docked at the marina yesterday. There's still scaffolding there, so I am assuming there's no official opening just yet. But great to see actual boats docked in the harbor. One small step, etc. ........

Not sure if this has been posted before, but this was presented to the planning commission last month. Looks pretty nice to me ...

Yep, a massive upgrade. And just a FYI, the outdoor patio is expected to open this coming weekend. I believe they had issues getting permission from the city to use that space to serve food and alcohol, but I was told it should be cleared up by this weekend.

If you walk down Main Ave (underneath the Shoreway) this is what the development looks like right now ....

I walked down Huron this weekend and was really impressed with the progress being made. The County Admin building seems to fit really nicely into the area, and even the overhead bridge looks cool now it is fully covered in its new cladding. And if anyone is wondering what the view is like from Progressive Field, I took these during the win over the Rockies last Sunday ...

Hi Guys, I don't mean to put down the suburbs or Crocker Park (which is perfect for Westlake), but just because something is new doesn't mean it has to look like Crocker Park. There's a lot of cool water/lake front development going on around the world that is just amazing. I was really just saying I don't think the style of architecture that works in Crocker Park would work on our lakefront. But I have a feeling that this is where it is headed. I included a picture of a proposed plan for some lakefront development in Chicago. Not suburban at all, and very cool. It can be done.

Yep, I am with KJP on this one. Delighted to see the development happening, but at the same time a tad concerned it ends up as Crocker Park-on-the-Lake.

Yeah, it looks great. I was there yesterday too and noticed the same thing also. Plus you could see there was a ton of work going on inside the building. Not sure how close they are to opening the restaurant, but things are definitely happening. On their web site they post the plans for the restaurant ....

Yeah, I love Cleveland, but Public Square is dreadful. A perfect example of "The Broken Window" theory. The idea being that if you let an area fall into disrepair that crime and anti-social behavior will soon follow. New York city dealt with this very issue in the 90's and completely turned around their city (in a great way) by operating a zero tolerance policy for petty crime (which included littering). Anybody who goes to New York city today will enjoy a safe and delightful place that is a joy to walk. Bryant Park in New York in the 80's was the haunt of drug dealers. Not revitalized until the early 90's. And now it is a public gem. So I don't buy that this is a big city problem and people just need to deal with the litter and harassment that occurs every day on Public Square. We don't have to deal with it. We can, and should, change it. Public Square could be a wonderful place for everyone. It just needs a better design and for better policing of the area.

Interesting thread everyone. Just to comment on a few prior points of view. Millennium is awesome, but a much bigger space than Public Square. And it has cost almost $500M. Yeah, a lot of money! Bryant park is very cool too. One of my favorite in New York and I do agree it would work really well in Cleveland. For me the biggest miss on the new design (and I am a big James Corner fan) is the proposed structure for drinks/food. It's just way too small and doesn't cater for the fact that Cleveland is a really cold city a lot of the time. It really needs to be a bigger structure with indoor and outdoor space, and the capacity to open up completely when the weather is nice. And lots of outdoor heating so we can enjoy sitting outside as long as possible. And it would be great if someone like the people from Pour on Euclid could take it over and run the place. Just someone with passion and good taste would be a huge bonus! San Francisco did a nice job with Union Square and added a really grear place to eat and drink, and I posted some pictures below. But what is especially interesting about Union Square is that it shows that you really can block off the entire area of Public Square and not cause traffic mayhem. If it can work in San Francisco (where they get a lot of downtown traffic) it can easily work in Cleveland. Mayor Jackson needs to trust his instincts on this one and just tell the RTA that he's blocking off Superior at Public Square. It would be so much better.

I'd say most of the debris is cleared, but not all. I would imagine by this time next week it should be completely clean.

I was down at North Coast Harbor on Saturday and checked out the new marina. It looks like it is very close to opening. There was still some scaffolding, but the paddle boats were all lined up, so I am guessing the time is close. There was also some event going on at the park that was very cool.

I was in the Ernst & Young building (looking really nice) on Friday and took these pictures of the construction...... This isn't construction, but I've never seen a picture from this angle before and thought it was an interesting view of the Flats ....

I wish I knew what they plan with the awesome space they have downstairs. Unfortunately I don't. But if anyone else does that would be great to hear.