Htsguy

^Columbus building heights from World Almanac: Rhodes Tower 41 stories Levesque-Lincoln Tower 47 stories William Green Building 33 stories Huntington Center 33 stories Vern RiffeTower 37 stories One Nationwide Plaza 40 stories Franklin County Courthouse 27 stories AEP Building 31 stories Borden Building 34 stories Three Nationwide Plaza 27 stories

I know I just keep repeating myself but a great skyline "does not a great city make". Houston and Dallas have impressive skylines and are just faux cities in my opinion. Boston, San Fran and Seattle do have great skylines but that it not what makes them great cities or a place I want to visit. Among other things it is their street life and energy and good architecture of all types including low rise.

^Agree 110%.

^I am less concerned about the skyline and more concerned about what is going on on the stret level. That is what makes a city.

Given the discussions on various threads on this board, nothing in that article makes sense except the fact that it appears poor planning could put the county in a financial pickle (at least they caught it in time and will not go forward with the administration center to the detriment of sound finances). Sometimes I think Hagan just likes to hear himself talk. If I were e and y, baker, huntington, eaton or squires why would I go to that costly site when I have Wolstein, Jacobs and Stark courting me (and all are much futher along). Looks like Jacbos may have won again in unloading the property on the county.

^That response is classic Bill Fullington. Very smart guy and he knows how Jacobs Group likes to "play the game" after many years of employment with them and now as a consultant, with Jacobs as his major client. Very much like the PR people who handle Hollywood types. If they want you to know something, they will send out an unsolicited press release with glowing information about their client. If they want to keep something under wraps (like who their client is dating) they will issue carefully worded denials (and then you learn later that everything was true). The thing will Fullington's current response is that you could have probably made that inquiry 10 years ago and received the same answer . A developer will always say he is working on developing a property, especially such a key parcel. The problem is that this could mean they have 3 major leases in hand and are going to the Planning Commission with the design next week or it could mean the parcel comes up as agenda item number 10 at the regular Monday morning meeting and is discussed for 30 seconds. This is not a knock on Fullington. He is just doing his job (something he does very well) and is a nice guy.

I was speaking with one of my part time employees who works in marketing for the Cleveland Clinic and she indicated that the plan is to soon demolish the US Bank branch on Euclid and some if not all of the buildings behind it including a the former school building that the Clinic uses as offices. She could not say what if anything was going up. She works in one of the buildings and her department is being moved out to Beachwood (I think part of the old MBNA campus).

^That makes total sense. It seems that to a certain extent his vision got ahead of the financing cart and reality in this regard is starting to hit home. Maybe more of a reason for the back tracking and his current emphasis on the Jacobs threat.

^Correct.

^Map Boy, I am glad you brought that up. I have been intending to inquire about that "bunker" on this board for a while as I wondered who owned it and whether it may be possible that it will be torn down as part of the Avenue District. It really takes away from that portion of the development and the street scape in general.

This whole "jacobs thing" has come up rather suddenly. So what is he doing, dusting off the architectural plans for the old Ameritrust Tower (which I actually liked and which I believed was about 60 stories) or does he purportedly have a new design. If he does (or in reality "they do"...don't know how really active he is) and it is something he is showing prospective clients (say e and y, baker, eaton), it has to have been in the works for some time as your cannot buy plans for a major skyscraper at Target. Funny that we have not heard about this "design" to date if all of this is true. You would have thought somebody at one of these companies would have leaked something to somebody (if only in a drunken stupor at a cocktail party). I really have to question much of this but am willing to be proved wrong with some hard facts which seem to be missing.

I guess my question is, if Stark is a "loser" to Wolstein and Jacobs and he does not believe his original plans for Pesht will work due to excess capacity, what is he going to do with the prime real estate he and is partners have accumulated. Does it stay miserable parking lots or does Stark re-group with a scaled down version of his original plan or even a new concept that at least gets something built on the vast windswept wasteland between W. 3rd and W. 6th. Are we looking a parking lots for the next 30 years because they will make $$$ for the owners (especially if Jacobs lot on Public Square is developed). In other words will Stark be throwing in the towel completely or try to roll with the punches. If he doesn't do something he is going to lose a lot of credibility. Truly, it is really amazing how his "tone" has changed in such a short period of time.

^Well this is something completely different. Especially the "not at all part".

Many years ago I was had a discussion with a City Arch. employee at a party and he mentioned that they did an entire site plan for the Peninsula for Forest City (sounded liked it followed new urbanism principals with lots of townhouses and apartments above retail, pocket parks etc...this was all verbal with lots of alcohol flowing and quite some time ago so don't hold me to it) but that for whatever reason (he just rolled his eyes) Forest City had little interest in following through. It is ashame that FC is so active across the nation and ignores a prime piece of real estate right outside the windows of its headquarters (although I am sure it will cost a pretty penny to develop as I bet it is a environmental disaster).

^If I recall correctly (may be wrong), but one of the original developers (founders) of Miami, Florida was from the Ohio Miami Valley and that is how it got the name.

I know Solon. This will never happen.

Since a couple of posters mentioned high schools (example: St. Ignatius in Cleveland) I would have to say by far the prettiest high school campus in Ohio that I have seen is Western Reserve Academy in Hudson. While I am biased, hands down prettiest overall campus in Ohio is Miami. Kenyon, Oberlin and OU also very nice.

Obviously physically and financially impossible. Why report such nonsense?

^I always had a gut feeling that Continental might expand at Hopkins because of the cogestion at its other two hubs, especially Newark. As part of this expansion I thought more international flights out of Cleveland made sense since these are basicaly feeder flights and are not dependent on all the international passengers living in the region where the airport is. Continental could easily direct many of its regional flights from the Midwest and the Eastern South to Hopkins for multiple take offs to Europe. Anxious to hear details on Friday to see if this is actually the case.

8Shades...your right I was thinking of the Gospel Press. I thought I might be confusing the two projects.

^^Curious (and some what unrelated to Pope's plea), have they started the rehab of Tower Press. When is it suppose to be completed?

^I am sorry Pope but I do have to respond to ClvIndr's post. While this is obviously only my personal opinion I have to take exception to your assertion that my posts are "childish and argumentative". Ok so maybe childish is in the eye of the beholder and is subjective, but I am rarely argumentative (just on occasion) and especially compared to most posters. It is clear you really have not read many of my post and were in the mood for a quick cheap shot. I go out of my way to be polite to other posters (often self editing myself) and I will note the fact if I am not an expert on a particular subject I am commenting upon. Most of my posts "ask questions" or provide "information" and I tend to avoid "debates", although sometimes I will make a quick zinger (which is very common on this board) in connection with institution or third party public figure (my favorite is of course Kassouf). I don't attack fellow posters and certainly would never tell anybody to "grow up". Again, my opinion, but I think I am one of the more respectful posters on this board and it is again clear that you really don't know much about me or are familiar with the majority of my posts . My post was more about free speech than Cleveland. I am huge supporter of the city and love it dearly. I have BEEN AROUND and don't have an inferior complex about my city like many people do. Nuff said.

^Why can't somebody have an opinion about something, good or bad, without it being "so Cleveland". Such a statement is just a childish debate technique. People in other cities state there opinions freely about similar topics and don't think twice that they are allegedly doing damage to their city as a whole.

^Amen KJP....No Jerry, transit oriented development like in DC.

^Thanks for google information. I was going to do a search as well to see what Orion is all about but will not waste my time. I am anxious to see some of their work as this project could have a major impact on the Heights. Clearly we don't want what was done across the street. Coral disappoints time and time again. Glad they did not get the South Euclid commission which they were apparently seeking.