w28th

Good to hear. That really is one of the most well put together buildings in OC. The glazed brick on the exteror is very common in Ohio City and all the structures are on prominent corners in the neighborhood; West Virginia Building at W28th and Bridge, the building that Johnny Mango is in at Fulton and Bridge, and the building of question on Franklin Circle. Also, I wasn't aware that Franklin Circle had such a colored past. Interesting stuff.

Yeah, not much of a difference with that poor effort, but if the whole building was professionally cleaned (it looks like Peter Lawson may have just washed it with a washcloth for God sake), it would make a huge difference. The precast units just give the building so much depth and play on shadow, something the NCB Tower, Erieview, Federal Building, and Fifth Third buildings can't compare to. I honestly think this may be one of the most interesting structures in the city and would certainly be an architectural travesty if this comes down.

Glad to see it's coming together quickly, but I'll pass on the wavey top and clumsy arches at street level.

Looks like 8Shades beat you to the punch by 15 seconds KJP. Could this be the closest multiple postings of an artile in UO history?

Sooo, if someone had their camera and ran out this afternoon to take a pic, would the powerwashing be evident? You got it. It's visible but not blatently obvious. I would have liked to have taken it myself, but no camera in hand.

The old building is not too architecturally significant, but it's part of an almost "still life" appearance that is currently created by the Breuer Tower, Rotunda, and the 1010 Euclid Building when viewed from the NCB Plaza (I hate that plaza by the way). Here are some pics from a recent jaunt down Euclid Avenue that focused on the Breuer Tower and the rest. Also, I've heard that a cleaning crew was power washing a precast concrete module on the E9th side of the building to see what condition the concrete is in. It's visible to the naked eye, but I think cleaning the windows and marble facade would make the most significant difference. Could this be a sign of a changing opinion to keep the tower in the County Administration? I sure hope so.

Last post was refering to the vertical windmill, but the student center building by Gwathmey is just simply uninspiered. Get an architect who is looking to the future instead of trying to create some neo-classical/modern statement. I just had a very in-depth conversation with a musician who related music to architecture and said, "why would I try to make music to sound like it was done 50 years ago? The reason people think James Brown and Thelonios Monk are still relavent today is because it was ground-breaking at one time and we can appriciate that. There is no reason to copy it and try to reinvent it, because if they do, it's all bullshit in a way. Create your own ideas." This is so relavent in architecture, and it's just a shame that CSU doesn't realize that we don't have to copy off of the Akron Public Library to make a statement. Be inventive for once CSU.

This thing should be put in the heart of CSU, right at E14th and Euclid. Expose the emreging technogoly.

As preliminary as those are, it looks as though Gwathmey will disappoint once again. What the hell is that pyramid in the center? Take a look at U Cincinnatti's student center by Thom Mayne and see what we're missing out on.

Speaking of Hotel Bruce, why hasn't anything been done on the site for more than a year?

Yeah, I've assembled a team of former Kent Staters, and can't wait to get going on this. It's going to be interesting to see what other teams come up with as well. I really think this is a big step forward in terms of making this city more design consious one. I especially like the line on the flier for the competition: CLEVELAND, DESIGN CITY A little play off the old postcards that used to say CLEVELAND, FIFTH CITY. Very cool.

I received this email yesterday about an up coming Cleveland based design competition. This is exactly what our city needs to start an ongoing dialogue about what this city should become. It looks like this will be an annual event. Dear Friends & Colleagues, For the past nine months, Brad Fink and I have been meeting with local, civic-minded design and urban planning professionals, as well as government leaders and service providers in the Cleveland area to discuss the concept of initiating an annual Cleveland Design Competition. Each year the competition will focus on urban design and the built environment at an under-utilized or high-profile site within the city. Through these annual competitions, we hope to stimulate thoughtful design solutions to the challenges of urban decay, provide a forum for the expression of ideas in the local design community, and attract national attention and talent to Cleveland as it re-establishes itself as a leader in art, culture, and design. The focus for this years’ competition is a complex site adjacent to Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood at the Cuyahoga River’s edge – Irishtown Bend. We expect that this exciting design challenge, together with the presence of nationally and regionally recognized jurors, will draw significant participation and receive positive national attention to Cleveland’s unique urban challenges and design opportunities. The site is an approximately 15 acre parcel of land located on the Cuyahoga River; roughly bound by W.25th Street, the Detroit Superior Bridge, the Union Terminal Viaduct, and the Cuyahoga River. Much of the site's complex history and current site constraints will be defined in the Competition Brief that will be available on the competition website (www.clevelandcompetition.com) around mid-January. The website for the competition is up and has a teaser ad that shows the north end of the site at the Detroit-Superior Bridge. The competition is scheduled to launch mid-January 2007 with a submission deadline at the end of April. The competition is being administered by an Organizing Committee comprised of myself, Bradley Fink, Cleveland Public Art, and Kent State Universitys' Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, with encouragement and support from the Cleveland chapter of the AIA. We have set up three levels of sponsorship for the competition; all of which result in varying levels of valuable marketing acknowledgement for the sponsors and their firms. The established levels were set up to give potential sponsors a framework from which to decide how involved they want to be. We are currently approaching local architecture firms for sponsorships, and have begun the process to apply for grants for next years competition. While we have not yet approached any other kinds of businesses for sponsorship involvement, we certainly would not be against it. If you know anyone that you think might be interested in participating in the sponsorship program for this year, please have them contact me at [email protected]. We are currently talking to candidates for a four-member jury that will consist of two nationally recognized jurors, one regional, and one local. Prize levels for the winning submissions are defined in the Competition Brief that will become available in January. We have also been meeting with the organizations that own the land the site sits on, and they are very interested in being a part of the competition process. While the competition is an Ideas competition, and no real project is promised/offered for winning submissions, there has been public discussion of what to do with some of the land located on a portion of the competition site. We will be sending out teaser ads via email over the next month. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think may be interested in participating in this competition, and urge them to email us at [email protected] with their email address so that we can add them to our distribution list for the competition. Also keep an eye the web site (www.clevelandcompetition.com) over the course of the next month for updates and the official launch of the competition. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to email us, and we will answer them as soon as possible. Thank you for your interest in participating, we are looking forward to a great inaugural year. Best regards, Michael Christoff Bradley Fink

C'mon, it's cutting edge technology people, we should flaunting tis kind of thing.

Worried about people "making fun" of the university. That's one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in a while.

The structures are basically suburban restaurant buildings that were built next to the river in the early 1980's.

I noticed on my way to happy hour at House of Cues last night, that they were testing out the lighting at the very top of the tower. They were turning it on and off every 30 seconds. I couldn't snap a pic, but it really does look incredible.

The "trench" in the middle is where the waiting stationswill be for transitriders. It switches from center median loading downtown to sidewalk loading areas in midtown and then back to center median loading in University Circle (am I correct in this statement?).

It was a packed house at the Natural History Museum, complete with free appetizers and booze to loosen up the crowd of nearly 500. After screening the documentary the panel consisting of Chris Ronyane, Tom Bier, a rep from the Lincoln institute and a couple neighborhood representatives whos names escape me, responded to well articulated questions from the crowd. Nearly all the questions were positive in nature and looked to pushed this city forward, but some of the answers were some of the same old reactions from Tom Bier. Chris Ronyane was his typical energetic self. A couple good questions were: *Why does ODOT continue to aid suburban sprawl with adding freeway entrances in the greenfields of the exurbs? *Has the city of Cleveland thought about some sort of urban farming to employ and feed city residents? *What kind of development should happen within the city? We don't need more check cashing stores in the low income neighborhoods. *Short comings in the city zoning processes (one woman actually had to cancel opening her store near Deaconess Krafft because of bureaucratic BS). Overall a positive experience, I just hope the dialogue continues and filters into real results. Anyone else check it out?

From renderings shown previously, it looks like the office tower will be marooned in the curve of the Waterfront Line in sort of Rockside Road configuration. It's obviously not set in stone, but it would be a huge missed opportunity to integrate a large piece of office space into the new urban fabric. I don't really trust Wolstein for some reason (doing suburban strip malls for decades may have something to do with it).

I went to a christmas party thrown by Mr. Howells and other investors last night in the Park Building and the model suite is completed. Not necessarily what I prefer design-wise, but it means they are full go on this project.

The Southington does not wrap around to Public Square. From west to east it goes; Park Building, May Company, then the Maron ownerships start. But yeah, the Park building is a big chunk out of vacancies. Kick ass.

It is a terrible use for the Ontario storefront, but the thought of building more residential units atop it are quite intriguing.

The colors don't really work together.

OSU's architecture program isn't even accredited the last time I checked. Students from there have to go to other architecture schools to even get a bachelors. What's the point? For the most part, engineers worry about whether or not the buildings stand up anyway. Basically it comes down to getting a better design education at Kent, and a better technical education at UC. Or you can just go to ITT Tech for a two year degree and get the same experience as UC. ColDayMan's comments are as legitamite as an OSU or U of Miami architecture degree. Oh yeah, and I wouldn't take not being a part of Ohio as an insult Cincy. Who's too sensitive??? :wink:

UC is a fine school if you want a more technical education in architecture as opposed to a more theoretical/design oriented line of course work at KSU. Studying/living/partying in Europe for 5 months under a world renowned architect, instead of spending summers as a drafter as part of UC's education, is also an advantage of Kent State in my opinion.