RealAdamP

I wouldn't say that $1,000 a month is affordable. In fact I think it's disgusting to be charging that much for a building that has j-box holes left in the drywall, flooding stairwells, paper exit signs, the "exposed" look with 7ft ceilings so hallways feel like a maintenance tunnel.. I know several people that didn't have their hot water turned on in their apartments. You are right that the building as a whole ticks a lot of boxes for amenities, but it ends up spreading it thin trying to do all of them. The whole site does not feel ready yet. There's no bike racks. It took them months to get the signage for the street fixed so that there was a drop off area so that people didn't park in the middle of the road anymore. The small grass area on stratford and straight has turned into the only place where people can walk their dogs.. I agree that as a proof of concept it works, but it should've been refined more. I'd much rather have adequate lighting for the sidewalks around the building rather than having an ikea showroom of a lobby. This is how I feel about it. Since UC leases a large majority of these places as well to offload students while they get the on campus housing figured out, it makes it feel like students are getting tricked when it comes to these developments. I can't imagine moving into an apartment with no hot water going too well in OTR or somewhere similar.

The master plan shows a pretty big overhaul of UC's entrance, including removal the guard house. Which is an ... interesting proposal. Also in the second link, they propose a good chunk of public spaces with art and all the "insta" looks. I'm torn on this since every place that people are allowed to gather in this area tend to bring out the worst in the community. This development being next to the high school also would not help in any way. Hopefully they'll have more security or police patrols in the area to keep it calm. From what I remember, they have the approval for building the buildings, but have not gotten specific permits or submitted plans yet. These proposals have the "Document Design" vibe to them, so it's a ways out. Edit: It'll be interesting to see if the 25 story tower gets reduced or spread out over time.

You are correct, I was under the assumption that this was a study to scrape McMicken name from everything. I know know it's just removing the name from the A&S school.

As a student at UC, I have no idea why this was even necessary to make a study for. A vast majority of students don't even know why it's called McMicken hall. Let alone know who the guy is or even have classes there. I agree with @jmecklenborg, this is just some filler for resumes of the committee members. I pray that they don't start messing with the building itself trying to make it "appropriate" for the student body

I've been told that Messer Construction will begin demo work on the fountain square buildings sometime in december. Supposedly there will be a announcement about what is coming there soon.

Maybe the Bang Bros Center?

Rough sketch from the renderings. Yellow is the new road with blue being building outlines. From what I know, these buildings are made so that companies can put offices near UC for easy access to co-op students and new grads. They have shuttles going to the area, and allow parking permits. The newest master plan calls for mixed use buildings, U-square-esq, along the sides of MLK from campus to the freeway, however. Also, the plan is to keep the student housing near campus, by backing privately owned student housing e.g. Stratford Heights, Stetson Square.

Pavillion is/was the place to go. Looks like they're telling people to go to another 4EG bar though from what I've heard.

Construction progress on the DAAP Sculpture Studio as of Oct 20.

All the drug dealing from findlay park moved to the area around grant park. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if you got yelled at if you tried to take any photos around that area. I feel there's a lot of people who are dead set on keeping OTR free from any change from what it was 15 years ago. I was getting some street level photography south of Liberty street on Elm street and had people yelling and threatening me for whatever reason.

The draft of the Quality of Life Plan they talk about is here. I agree with jmecklenborg, they're completely contradictory on the future of Avondale. I agree that the history of the neighborhood needs to be preserved, but I don't know how they plan to avoid any increase in land value if they want to address the blight, empty lots, and mobile phone stores with barred up windows along Reading.

Can confirm, they move quite a bit in storms. The deacon is a bit better, having a little bit more concrete and steel used compared to usquare and the verge. I don't think the quality of the student apartments will be able to pass as well in any west development. I know most people living in the student apartments complain about how the buildings constantly have problems with water temperature, fire alarms going off, and faulty electrical systems. I feel most of these attract slumlords who don't seem to take care of the buildings. I know most people in college avoid them. I think the west end will most likely see a lot of rehab'd lofts in the large industrial buildings.

I need to get some more updated photos, this was taken Sept 19. I don't think the new studio is going to have the non-skillion roof part at all. They only poured foundation for the skillion roof part. Currently they're putting corrugated metal roofing and insulation up.