RJohnson

the google earth photos do one thing. Prove that it is one ugly ass building. It is like a mal-formed pyramid. Historians will look back and refer it to The Pyramid of Meidum in an attempt to answer why?

turn it into a twenty story parking garage, then plaster the brick "wailing wall" with neon signs from the sign museum. Throw in a "rat pack" style theatre lounge with bellhops and valets. You yourself a genuwine mid century modern art museum/parking garage/night club. Ayn Rand will crawl out of her grave and proclaim, "now that's what i'm talkin bout".

be happy, a major league team is coming to Cincy. That means more entertainment possibilities, more jobs, more excitement and more jobs for people to keep it clean. The corner of Liberty and Central Parkway is possibly the ugliest corner in the entire city. The ballet company is housed in possibly the ugliest building in the entire city. Remember OTR before the connector. What happened? OTR was cleaned up. OTR has been given a renaissance. WCET may get a new building. There could be new homes, apartments, condos, shops, and dreams. Local kids could/will see the changes and the positives it brings. That gives them hope. A little less negative Nelly, please.

how about the old wlwt building. Keep the historic building. Add a modern annex over existing parking.

I would really like to see all those lots along Culvert and Eggleston get developed. Other cities have taken these areas that are blighted with overpasses and turned the overpasses into unique features that really give the neighborhood a different feel. I'm thinking Dumbo, Brooklyn or Old City, Philly. Here is a before and after in Philly: They should demolish the Gilbert Ave. overpasses though, and replace it with a roundabout intersection for Gilbert, Eggleston and 8th (Reedy) streets. and so now you want to demolish overpasses and streets... what is that word people use to describe a woman who can't make up her mind?

Or maybe the Cincinnati Stormtroopers or the Cincinnati Blitzkreig or tweak the colors to black and red and call it Cincinnati SS

Yeah I don't think it would take much for Cheviot to suddenly turn the corner and land on the citywide radar. It is a very walkable part of the city. Well, its own city. The homes are 70/30 3-bedrooms versus 2-bedrooms. The problem with 2-bedroom houses is that investors more easily buy them up and turn them into rentals. Monfort Heights has practically zero sidewalks and is completely unwalkable/bikeable. White Oak does have sidewalks but nobody walks or rides bikes there. Are you sure. I swear over the past fews weeks I have noticed lots of walkers and a few bikes or maybe it was bigfoot chasing a coyote.

I made this drawing a few months back. It was a proposal for lot 24 that was a little more unique than the current blocks. I learned I wasn't an architect but the idea was close to latest proposal. Great views of the park and bridge. Allows people in the Current to keep views of the park.

consider Monfort Heights and White Oak...

and cincy could be "the terror tiaras" or maybe the tiara terroists"

I was looking for your approval. Wasn't it Brunelleschi who said, I know how to give you what you want, you just need to hire me for the rest of the story... or was that Paul Harvey. And, if you knew all the buildings were built wrong, you should have said something 3.5 decades ago. Way to go....

E I don't know how to us this blog, but 1. the sidewalks will still be functional (you can walk on them). Some will be inside out of the weather (24/7/365). Sounds attractive to some walkers. 2. Leave all the "beautiful historic buildings" in place. There is existing retail and apartments. Attach the glass cap to the historic buildings. Or, just leave the facades. 3. Only closing one block; Plum, a useless street at present. Tearing down the Albee was necessary. Since Cincinnatians seem to want to live in some idealistic past, not only can they stare at the real facade of the old Albee they can stare at colorful lighted LED Albee facades.... think Blink. Now we have a beautiful new convention hotel, an enclosed air conditioned walkable park/exibition space and beautiful preserved historic buildings. A street is the basic building block of a city, in a way a mall enclosure is not. A street is a fundamental element that people have tried and failed with gimmicks to replace (think skywalks.) Psychology your proposal, if it was not someone’s destination, would be seen as one big superblock to walk around, not through. That you describe that section of Plum Street as “useless” suggests we have irreconcilable differences. I would grade the west side of Plum an “A” for strength of building form and diversity of uses. There is even a new condo project underway on the south end of the block that will combine old & new construction. The parking lot on the east side of the street obviously needs to be redeveloped though. Additionally we had a mall in Carew Tower and it failed and had to be redeveloped, and Columbus had a mall downtown that was razed and redeveloped, so a downtown mall is not the kind of project that has been historically successful. This would be taking bunch of separate buildings with different owners that can reinvent themselves over time (a robust configuration) and combining them into one big fragile project probably getting government aid. The kind of project that in ten years headline writers will be writing things like “What’s the matter with convention place mall?” And “Convention place mall fails to attract tenants” similar to the problems we’ve seen at the Banks or Newport on the Levee. So, our historic buildings are not just about living in an idealized past, they are about maintaining a robust urban form that we know can stand the test of time. (Also, welcome to the forum... hope you don’t mind the vigorous debate right off the bat! You’re quite skilled with the graphics) You are right a street is not a building. Yes some people's ideas were fails. But, now I've given you a perfectly good solution (or we could wait for the new bridge to be built then build all the way to the mill creek). There was the guy called Bucky and he said we should put a big glass dome over an entire city. It hasn't been done yet, but another one of his ideas was built in Dubai (?) Dreams come true it could happen to you. But indoor malls downtown have been tried time and time again and failed. You just need to line all the streets around there with ground floor retail. Think of it as an outdoor mall. No need to overthink it. And the more streets the better. We shouldn't be getting rid of any. That's how you get that fine-grained urban scale that everyone loves. Think Boston, Savannah, Philadelphia. The shorter the blocks the more interesting it is for pedestrians. https://ceosforcities.org/small-blocks/ These are at the same scale. One is way more pedestrian-friendly. I know, don't call it a mall. That will fool the out of towners. The brass fireplace guy is complaining that he doesn't have enough customers. And, fourth is a shadow of its one time glory. So my idea was to build a convention hotel and an inviting place for pedestrians as well as shoppers. If the covered porch of the convention hotel is not successful I will eat a big mac. The convention center cannot move. It cannot grow west because the bridge will not be built in my life time. the idea is to get people who are in hotels and new to the city out as peds. We just need a simple transitional area to ease the frightened hoards out into the big city. Yes lets create stores everywhere in around fourth and fifth. I was in Orly (Paris airport) it was big and covered and you could sit and walk and eat and shop and even fly out of it. There were people everywhere. I don't think the covered area needs to look like the covered hotel lobby at 5th and Vine. From the outside, who would know to go in that failure of a building. It just takes a little imagination. The Cleveland Museum of Art did a fantastic job of enclosing the courtyard/sculpture park. The ceiling is very high, the courtyard vast and the architect connected the old with the new and the newer. The entrances to the area just need to be more inviting. Let the peds see inside before they venture out into the wild. So in conclusion, this idea was an attempt show that putting a large open area in the right part of town, connected to a hotel, a convention center and shopping area could bring locals and out of towners together for a new experience. This rework of the convention center hotel and "crystal palace annex". It leaves Plum Street intact. The Fifth Street Façade is the Albee Theater "block façade" as it was when the block was bustling. The façade is LED lighting that changes a rainbow of colors. the Crystal Palace is a hotel restaurant, open theater, small exhibition hall, and an invitation to 4th Street the Miracle half mile. No historical buildings were harmed in the rendering of this idea.

E I don't know how to us this blog, but 1. the sidewalks will still be functional (you can walk on them). Some will be inside out of the weather (24/7/365). Sounds attractive to some walkers. 2. Leave all the "beautiful historic buildings" in place. There is existing retail and apartments. Attach the glass cap to the historic buildings. Or, just leave the facades. 3. Only closing one block; Plum, a useless street at present. Tearing down the Albee was necessary. Since Cincinnatians seem to want to live in some idealistic past, not only can they stare at the real facade of the old Albee they can stare at colorful lighted LED Albee facades.... think Blink. Now we have a beautiful new convention hotel, an enclosed air conditioned walkable park/exibition space and beautiful preserved historic buildings. A street is the basic building block of a city, in a way a mall enclosure is not. A street is a fundamental element that people have tried and failed with gimmicks to replace (think skywalks.) Psychology your proposal, if it was not someone’s destination, would be seen as one big superblock to walk around, not through. That you describe that section of Plum Street as “useless” suggests we have irreconcilable differences. I would grade the west side of Plum an “A” for strength of building form and diversity of uses. There is even a new condo project underway on the south end of the block that will combine old & new construction. The parking lot on the east side of the street obviously needs to be redeveloped though. Additionally we had a mall in Carew Tower and it failed and had to be redeveloped, and Columbus had a mall downtown that was razed and redeveloped, so a downtown mall is not the kind of project that has been historically successful. This would be taking bunch of separate buildings with different owners that can reinvent themselves over time (a robust configuration) and combining them into one big fragile project probably getting government aid. The kind of project that in ten years headline writers will be writing things like “What’s the matter with convention place mall?” And “Convention place mall fails to attract tenants” similar to the problems we’ve seen at the Banks or Newport on the Levee. So, our historic buildings are not just about living in an idealized past, they are about maintaining a robust urban form that we know can stand the test of time. (Also, welcome to the forum... hope you don’t mind the vigorous debate right off the bat! You’re quite skilled with the graphics) You are right a street is not a building. Yes some people's ideas were fails. But, now I've given you a perfectly good solution (or we could wait for the new bridge to be built then build all the way to the mill creek). There was the guy called Bucky and he said we should put a big glass dome over an entire city. It hasn't been done yet, but another one of his ideas was built in Dubai (?) Dreams come true it could happen to you. But indoor malls downtown have been tried time and time again and failed. You just need to line all the streets around there with ground floor retail. Think of it as an outdoor mall. No need to overthink it. And the more streets the better. We shouldn't be getting rid of any. That's how you get that fine-grained urban scale that everyone loves. Think Boston, Savannah, Philadelphia. The shorter the blocks the more interesting it is for pedestrians. https://ceosforcities.org/small-blocks/ These are at the same scale. One is way more pedestrian-friendly. I know, don't call it a mall. That will fool the out of towners. The brass fireplace guy is complaining that he doesn't have enough customers. And, fourth is a shadow of its one time glory. So my idea was to build a convention hotel and an inviting place for pedestrians as well as shoppers. If the covered porch of the convention hotel is not successful I will eat a big mac. The convention center cannot move. It cannot grow west because the bridge will not be built in my life time. the idea is to get people who are in hotels and new to the city out as peds. We just need a simple transitional area to ease the frightened hoards out into the big city. Yes lets create stores everywhere in around fourth and fifth. I was in Orly (Paris airport) it was big and covered and you could sit and walk and eat and shop and even fly out of it. There were people everywhere. I don't think the covered area needs to look like the covered hotel lobby at 5th and Vine. From the outside, who would know to go in that failure of a building. It just takes a little imagination. The Cleveland Museum of Art did a fantastic job of enclosing the courtyard/sculpture park. The ceiling is very high, the courtyard vast and the architect connected the old with the new and the newer. The entrances to the area just need to be more inviting. Let the peds see inside before they venture out into the wild. So in conclusion, this idea was an attempt show that putting a large open area in the right part of town, connected to a hotel, a convention center and shopping area could bring locals and out of towners together for a new experience.

E I don't know how to us this blog, but 1. the sidewalks will still be functional (you can walk on them). Some will be inside out of the weather (24/7/365). Sounds attractive to some walkers. 2. Leave all the "beautiful historic buildings" in place. There is existing retail and apartments. Attach the glass cap to the historic buildings. Or, just leave the facades. 3. Only closing one block; Plum, a useless street at present. Tearing down the Albee was necessary. Since Cincinnatians seem to want to live in some idealistic past, not only can they stare at the real facade of the old Albee they can stare at colorful lighted LED Albee facades.... think Blink. Now we have a beautiful new convention hotel, an enclosed air conditioned walkable park/exibition space and beautiful preserved historic buildings. A street is the basic building block of a city, in a way a mall enclosure is not. A street is a fundamental element that people have tried and failed with gimmicks to replace (think skywalks.) Psychology your proposal, if it was not someone’s destination, would be seen as one big superblock to walk around, not through. That you describe that section of Plum Street as “useless” suggests we have irreconcilable differences. I would grade the west side of Plum an “A” for strength of building form and diversity of uses. There is even a new condo project underway on the south end of the block that will combine old & new construction. The parking lot on the east side of the street obviously needs to be redeveloped though. Additionally we had a mall in Carew Tower and it failed and had to be redeveloped, and Columbus had a mall downtown that was razed and redeveloped, so a downtown mall is not the kind of project that has been historically successful. This would be taking bunch of separate buildings with different owners that can reinvent themselves over time (a robust configuration) and combining them into one big fragile project probably getting government aid. The kind of project that in ten years headline writers will be writing things like “What’s the matter with convention place mall?” And “Convention place mall fails to attract tenants” similar to the problems we’ve seen at the Banks or Newport on the Levee. So, our historic buildings are not just about living in an idealized past, they are about maintaining a robust urban form that we know can stand the test of time. (Also, welcome to the forum... hope you don’t mind the vigorous debate right off the bat! You’re quite skilled with the graphics) You are right a street is not a building. Yes some people's ideas were fails. But, now I've given you a perfectly good solution (or we could wait for the new bridge to be built then build all the way to the mill creek). There was the guy called Bucky and he said we should put a big glass dome over an entire city. It hasn't been done yet, but another one of his ideas was built in Dubai (?) Dreams come true it could happen to you.

E I don't know how to us this blog, but 1. the sidewalks will still be functional (you can walk on them). Some will be inside out of the weather (24/7/365). Sounds attractive to some walkers. 2. Leave all the "beautiful historic buildings" in place. There is existing retail and apartments. Attach the glass cap to the historic buildings. Or, just leave the facades. 3. Only closing one block; Plum, a useless street at present. Tearing down the Albee was necessary. Since Cincinnatians seem to want to live in some idealistic past, not only can they stare at the real facade of the old Albee they can stare at colorful lighted LED Albee facades.... think Blink. Now we have a beautiful new convention hotel, an enclosed air conditioned walkable park/exibition space and beautiful preserved historic buildings.

oops wrong image … try this one

I'm new to this but here goes. If 4th Street is to become a shopping district, and we need a convention center hotel, and we don't need a huge convention center, rather a way to attract new conventions. This could be a possible solution. Create a Hotel, convention center annex, and a shopping area that easily opens to 4th street. Inviting out of towners to shop 4th. By eliminating Plum Street between 4th and 5th and enclosing the entire mall under a glass cap that reflects or mirrors the architecture of the existing convention center. The Albee Façade stays as is and straight across the street is the entrance (one of four). The entrances are the basic lines of the Albee Façade and they are enhanced with LCD lighting to highlight the connection between the two structures. Shops on 4th will open on the 4th and into the mall itself. The northeast corner will have a 30 story hotel. The northwest corner could have a convention center annex. The southeast corner could have shops/retail for locals and visitors. the southwest corner could have retail and apartments/condos. The entire structure would have a one level below ground parking area.