imnotjason

Much of what you say is true, they are different cities and the typography is very different. But the juxtaposition of the cc's is similar: backside near the center square (circle) town, shopping mall, sports stadiums, several hotels ... even the old central train station which Indy is contemplating as a hub for commuter rail -- all attached as would be TC. And Indy and Cleveland are similar in size and Midwestern character... And the very thing you find wrong -- the underbelly, is exactly why it should be built there. The area btw Huron and Collision Bend is a wasteland that needs to be spruced up. Now the instability of the riverbed, as Peabody notes, could be a deal breaker. I don't have any comment on topography, but I think what works in Indianapolis could work in Cleveland given some specific elements. I made a trip out there last year to see some family - they live in Noblesville (think Delaware in comparison to Columbus) but work downtown. They're not exactly urbanites but they excitedly took us downtown to see the Circle Centre Mall for dinner and wandering. A couple of things struck me that I think contribute to the success there compared to, say, Columbus's City Center Mall. First off, the skyways and indoor connections don't try to replace the sidewalks and street grid, but instead compliment it. The connections are surprisingly extensive, making it easy for folks in town in the winter to get around. At the same time the streets are lined with restaurant seating and it was obvious people wanted to be outside to enjoy the nice weather. Second, there was plenty of garage parking but it was integrated into the surrounding buildings so that it didn't beak up the streetscape. If you want suburbanites to come, you're going to need parking. Third, the connection to the convention center and RCA dome does definitely bring foot traffic. The way the walkways and streets are structured invites visitors to spread out from there. Finally, there were a lot of new and interesting (for suburbanites, that is) stores and restaurants, like the Weber Grille. I'd probably rather find some kooky local falafel place myself, but this is what draws lots of people. So, can it be done in Cleveland? I think it could definitely be done in Columbus, and probably Sacramento, because those cities are eerily identical. I think the convention center and medical mart might hit the third point but the other three probably need work, and I think they're just as important.

Hello all, no actual news to share but I was back in town recently and had a chance to stop by Steelyard Commons for the first time. We were headed from the Shaker Square area to Parma so it was sort of on the way. We needed to pick up some presents for a few younger relatives so we stopped at the Target there and walked the Towpath. I was pleasantly surprised. Any extension of the Towpath is great, of course, but I think they did a good job integrating it into the site. One great thing about the trail is the range of history you see as you bike through, and the steel mills make a great addition. The overall plan is very boring and suburban, but I thought the signs and the storefronts were very cool. That has to be the best looking Home Depot ever. Probably the strangest visual is the steel Walmart facade in front of MetroHealth. You can see the other photos I took here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jason-morrison/tags/steelyardcommons/

Thanks for all the positive comments, everyone. Thanks for picking out that photo, ajknee, the San Luis Reservoir is a really strange landscape. I'll have to return there some time now that we live here. You can really tell that the lake is artificial, it's so dry for so much of the year, and that water is carried hundreds of miles from there. And I think it's possible to live in LA and not spend all day in a car, but probably pretty difficult. We avoided driving during rush hour when we were there - it was pretty ridiculous.

I took these photos on a trip to California a couple years ago. We drove down the coast from Santa Cruz to LA - if you ever get a chance, take the trip, it's a beautiful drive. LA is has more dense urban development than I expected. I guess you get the impression from TV and movies that it's an endless sea of suburbs, but many parts of the city are lively with lots of pedestrian traffic. Here's the view from the Getty museum: If you squint you can see downtown LA in the far distance. The skyline in the midground is Century City. LA has two or three large downtown areas, depending on who's counting. Here's a photo in the Hollywood area with the famous sign in the distance. Hollywood is both a big tourist trap and a very cool neighborhood with a wide ethnic and income diversity. This is a view of the street grid from Runyon Canyon park. This sort of reminds me of Sim City, but with way more smog: Having grown up in Ohio, cacti and palm trees seem out of place to me: This is as good of a picture of downtown LA as I could get. I actually like the way the photo turned out, it gives a fair impression of the oppressive heat that day: This barbed wire fence bordered the park - my guess is to keep the public out of the very expensive neighborhoods on the neighboring hills. I was less impressed by the more expensive parts of town. Beverly Hills, for example, looks like it's filled with paranoid agoraphobics. Giant fences to keep your millionaire neighbors out, and that sort of thing. You can see more photos of LA and California here.

Great photos, but my wife saw the picture of the big gold state capital dome and said, "Eww, I can see it from all the way across the room!" Every time we've driven past it we've had to poke fun at the gaudiest state capitol ever. To each their own. :)

That second one - is that from Twin Peaks?

Hey, thanks for all the kind words, everyone. If you want to see more, check out my Flickr page. And here's a link to all my photos of San Francisco. SF is pretty unique in the number of places you can go to get amazing views of the city. And I can't get enough of the Golden Gate Bridge... it's not just a huge piece of infrastructure, it really is a work of art. A couple more that I just uploaded:

Hello all. I'm not a very regular poster, but I used to read the projects and construction board pretty regularly to find out what's going on in Cleveland. At the beginning of the year I got a new job and moved out to the Silicon Valley area. I've actually had no shortage of job prospects in the Cleveland area but this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Still, I miss my hometown so I checked back in to see if they had built the Medical Mart yet :-) I thought I would share some photos I've taken around San Francisco since I've been here. You can click on the photos to see the larger versions in Flickr. San Francisco skyline from the Coit Tower - if you're in SF, definitely make the hike up Telegraph hill to Coit Tower: Transamerica through the trees: Parks like these fill in a steep part of the street grid: In the shadow of the bridge: Segway Tour: Sunset reflected over Chinatown: Downtown San Francisco and Alcatraz: Golden Gate Bridge from the north: Wave-battered stone across the Gate from San Francisco:

I usually just lurk around this board, but I'd like to ask everyone two questions about the whole Breuer tower controversy: 1) Do you think there would be as much controversy if the building replacing the tower was more interesting, better designed, or the vision of another "star" architect? 2) To those of you who think the tower is an eyesore, do you think it's a total loss or would it be possible to do something to salvage the design (and integrate it better with the rotunda)? I'm thinking of the Art Museum expansion, I think they did a fairly decent job integrating the classical original building and the Breuer expansion. For example, maybe the rotunda's columns and setback could be echoed in a new street-level facade on the tower. Some people have already mentioned wrapping the building in translucent glass, perhaps that could be done part way of the building, partially embracing the rotunda. I think an update / addition would be especially fitting, given Breuer's plans to update Grand Central Terminal in NYC. For the curious, here's a picture of that proposal: There's a rendering of the Art Museum Expansion in this thread: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2624.60

Not sure if this fits this thread or not, but I ran across this article and thought I would share. It's not offshore wind power, but the City of Toronto is using their Great Lake to reduce their use of electricity: http://www.unsoughtinput.com/index.php/2007/05/13/deep-lake-water-cooling-saving-the-earth-one-skyscraper-at-a-time/ Some details from the City of Toronto's site: (http://www.toronto.ca/environment/initiatives/cooling.htm) Any chance Cleveland could do something similar?

I drove by the Cedar Lee the other day and saw signs up about this project, so I figured you guys would have the inside scoop here. By the way, I think the parking garage in and of itself is a great idea. I'm a big fan of the Rapid and traveling by foot, but the Cedar Lee is really a regional attraction. Going to high school out in the suburbs, all us artsy and nerdy kids used to head up there to see art films and independent movies. But we made the drive up to Coventry even more often, in part because we knew we could just park in the garage and not drive around looking for spots. Also because Soul Veg used to be there, and 50% of all artsy kids turn vegan around 11th grade. I saw the same thing in Columbus around OSU and High Street - students I knew would drive around forever on the side streets looking for a spot, but suburbanites and people from out of town would just park at one of the garages. The important thing is to put the majority of the garage behind the storefronts and not break up the pedestrian-friendly areas. And definitely not demolish good buildings. I think Coventry is a good model for this, other old-school pedestrian-friendly downtowns like Bedford should really pay attention.

Two of the goals mentioned are to help inspire economic development and to also serve as a community center. I think the League Park location, followed by the White Ford Motor Company and the Independent Towel locations, are really your best bets. The Aviation High School and Howard Johnson locations are too cut off from the neighborhoods by the highways and railroad tracks to really be part of a neighborhood. Virtually no one lives anywhere near the Norfolk Southern and Scranton Road sites. My choice (not that anyone has put any multi-million dollar decisions in my hands lately :-) ) would be League Park. That site has some real sports history, and that neighborhood could really use the help. It's not a perfect fit historically, because the Indians were playing in the stadium by the time Doby was signed, but still, it seems like the most poetic location. I can see two drawbacks. First, it's not close to any highways or rapid stations. Second, it's not near the two museum-heavy areas of the city. I think the first concern could be mitigated with some planning and some streetscape improvements. As for the second concern, that might matter more for a museum like the Rock Hall than for this project. Anyone coming in to town to see an African-American Sports Hall of Fame will probably be willing to drive through the city a little to get there. Finally, no matter where you end up building, just promise the induction ceremonies will actually be held in Cleveland....

You have to jump threw hops. At the courts there is only ONE maybe two contractors that can replace the windows, window pane, window seals, etc. in a way that it does not subtract for the arch integrity of the building. Its labor intensive and one change on a window can alter a building. It is serious business and the bill was shall I say...........priceless! :x. This and the elevator are the one thing I hate about living in a historic building! Has anyone here considered installing interior storm windows? I just read about them a month ago or so and I'm considering putting in a few to try it out. Basically you get a piece of plexiglass cut to fit inside your window frame and attach it with a magnetic strip. It forms a good seal, and the plastic is a better sound / heat insulator than glass. I've ordered samples from Magnetite and Modern Plastics but I haven't had a chance to put any windows together yet. Anyway, it's an idea.

I can sympathize. I tried to go into reporting when I got out of college, and the jobs were few and far between, and the pay worse. I interviewed at a local suburban chain, full-time reporting job plus covering city meetings in the evenings, and they offered $350 per week. That job required a bachelors degree. I don't think people realize how bad most reporters and editors have it. A friend of mine was writing in Oregon. The same year he won a state AP award, he found out he just missed qualifying food food stamps. You could try blogging. There's some pretty good open source software out there, and you can usually find a host that will give you a domain name, database access and basic setup for less than $10 a month. You can do Google Adsense... some people have made some money that way, by generating lots of quick, targeted content that gets picked up by other blogs. But I don't think it's a way to really pay the bills.

Man, this intersection could use some work. It has to be one of the most confusing places in the area. You can't turn certain directions from each approach, and you can only circle back around on the northeast side. The neighborhoods around there are confusing as hell to get in and out of, too. I think left turns are against the law in Shaker. Another complaint in their plan is the north-south streets. I've noticed that Lee road, from 480 all the way up to Cedar, is a major pain. It seems like there are traffic lights every other block and they are timed really poorly. I was hoping the plan would call for some major TOD, like a rapid station integrated right into a mixed-use building.