MuRrAy HiLL

I am looking for a house in the area. I love these, but are too expensive for me. Have they even released a price? People in Ohio seem to be phased by the idea that good design has to cost a lot. I'd say $365K-$370K is fairly up there for most Ohio folk...I believe this is the new build being discussed: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2140-W-17th-St-Cleveland-OH-44113/2108120470_zpid/

perspectus architecture completes merger, doubles office footprint at shaker square Thursday, April 03, 2014 Perspectus Architecture recently completed a merger with HFP/Ambuske Architects, bringing five jobs from Beachwood to Cleveland. Perspectus will remain in its second floor offices on the southeast quadrant of Shaker Square, where it has doubled its office space and is in the process of remodeling. "Our focus is firmly based in healthcare," says Perspectus principal Larry Fischer of both companies. "We saw a lot of advantages in getting together." Staying and growing at Shaker Square seemed like a no-brainer, he adds. "When we were looking for space, we wanted a venue or neighborhood that had a certain cool factor to it," says Fischer, who has expanded from a single 900-square-foot office to 10,000 square feet on the entire second floor of his building in the past 14 years. "We probably couldn’t afford being downtown in the primary core. There's a lot happening at Shaker Square." http://www.freshwatercleveland.com/devnews/perspectus040314.aspx

Afghan, Iraq war interpreters find new home in Cleveland CLEVELAND, Ohio – “Rocky” narrowly escaped a suicide bomber and a blast of friendly fire. “Nadia” was careful never to tell strangers where she lived for fear of betrayal. “Cipher” had a $100,000 bounty on his head. They once lived in a world of sudden death, where war was their workplace and words were their weapons. Now, they face an environment that isn’t as deadly, but in some ways nearly as daunting – Northeast Ohio. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/04/afghhan_iraq_interpreters_find.html

This is right behind MRN's Tudor Arms property...very interesting.

Downtown Residence Inn to be renovated: http://hotelnewsresource.mobi/?p=76721

Connect 'Em All: The Native Clevelander Charged with Making Longstanding Downtown Dreams Come to Life by Vince Grzegorek | April 02, 2014 Jeremy Paris moved back to Cleveland in 2012 after eight years working in the Senate in Washington D.C. to take part in that ethereal revitalization of Cleveland we all seem to feel. He eventually landed the role of executive director of the Group Plan Commission — the body that intersects work between the county, city and private organizations — to make that revitalization, you know, concrete. To wit: the Group Plan Commission hopes to, finally, renovate Public Square, better the downtown malls and build a pedestrian bridge from downtown to the lakefront by the Rock Hall and Great Lakes Science Center. All by 2016. How probable is any of that development? Why are those things important? Paris took a few minutes to answer those questions and more. JP: Public Square really is the heart of downtown Cleveland, and we've never had it be the world-class space that can serve the locus of activity around it. It's a connection point between neighborhoods — the Warehouse District, East Fourth, Tower City — but it hasn't lived up to its billing. If you look down on it, it's all concrete and cut into quadrants. The design is to weave it together and give people something they actually want to use. The design firm that's working on it, James Corner Field Operations, did the High Line in New York, which is now the No. 2 most visited space there. And Land Studio is the project manager here working with them. We're still working out dates on when the new round of designs will be shown. I hope it's within the next month or so. One other thing about Public Square: It's proven that investments in public spaces pay off for cities in a million ways, from money to perception. It's worked other places and we're studying those, but we want this to be something that other cities will emulate. http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/connect-em-all-the-native-clevelander-charged-with-making-longstanding-downtown-dreams-come-to-life/Content?oid=4167876

Greater Cleveland Partnership chair Beth Mooney tells Cleveland to get ready for good times By Robert L. Smith, The Plain Dealer April 02, 2014 CLEVELAND, Ohio--Smarter city schools, a re-imagined Public Square -- connected to the lakefront -- and an airport again busy with direct flights to places Clevelanders need to go. "Today we are pleased to say that we will soon see shovels in Public Square," she said. "And the lakefront plans are in full development." For her two-year term, Mooney outlined goals that include seeing a new Public Square take shape in downtown Cleveland. The Group Plan Commission is leading a redesign of the city's historic center that calls for an iconic pedestrian walkway from the square to attractions at North Coast Harbor. Mooney said work will begin this year and that a new Public Square should be finished in the summer of 2016. Combined with $3 billion worth of construction projects underway downtown, she said, the new commons will help launch the city into an exciting new era. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/04/greater_cleveland_partnership_2.html

Oh I beg to differ :) http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/6dlnrd/ktvu-tv-on-asiana-airlines-crash

Cleveland Gladiators start the season 2-0. http://www.cleveland.com/gladiators/index.ssf/2014/03/backup_qb_rallies_cleveland_gl.html Home opener April 4.

This would add another tourist attraction to the city of Cleveland... Hope it all works out: Cleveland Metroparks considering zip line for the zoo By James Ewinger, The Plain Dealer on March 27, 2014 at 2:22 PM, updated March 27, 2014 at 2:59 PM CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Metroparks system has a plan that will have park visitors walking on air. Metroparks Chief Operating Officer Joe Roszak and Zoo Director Chris Kuhar said a high-rope course would fit well at the Chalet in the Mill Stream Reservation, and a zip line could serve the Metroparks Zoo, which is inside the Brookside Reservation. The rope course is a sort of aerial walkway that would allow park users to tour forest canopy, coming back to Earth by riding a zip line. The zip line is a cable, or series of cables, from which a person is suspended. Some have braking systems while others go down and then curve up slightly, allowing gravity to stop forward motion. It would carry visitors from one point to another on the grounds of the zoo. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/03/cleveland_metroparks_consideri.html

Some Nashville love... Even the comments section compliments Cleveland: Sausage Party: Cleveland, Ohio's Polish Boy Comes to Cleveland Park Posted by Jack Silverman on Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 6:18 AM I started eating Polish Boys in the late 1980s at the long-gone Coventry Pizza in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where they dropped the kielbasa in the deep-fryer. While that seemed just fine at 2:30 a.m. after the bars had all closed, I can attest that JAM’s version, featuring sausage that’s been smoked for hours, is far superior. Furthermore, Cleveland is an eight-hour drive from my house, and JAM’s, just five minutes. If that’s blasphemy coming from a native Clevelander, so be it. You can call in your order and pick it up (651-8120), but I recommend just showing up and eating it there. They have a couple of tables, so you can sit down and eat it right away before it gets soggy. Besides, the Murphys are a lovely family (Joe’s brother Tim works there too), and they enjoy the company. And a word of advice: Don’t wear anything too fancy. More than likely, you’ll be wearing some Polish Boy before it’s all over. http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/blogs/Post?basename=sausage-party-cleveland-ohios-polish-boy-comes-to-cleveland-park&day=27&id=bites&month=03&year=2014

Case Western baseball getting nationally stronger: Spartans bring UAA Championship back home JP O'Hagan, Sports Editor March 22, 2014 Filed under Baseball, Sports, Top Stories The Spartan baseball team is on a mission, and by every indication they are prepared to achieve their ultimate goal: compete for the national championship. The Spartans took the first big step toward that goal over the past two weeks, bringing home their second University Athletics Association Championship in two years. In addition to celebrating their championship, the Spartans stand at 11-3, are ranked 23rd in the nation and have had their third player named to the Division III National Team of the Week. “Our guys work incredibly hard,” said head coach Matt Englander. “It was great to win the UAA, we were able to sweep our rival, Emory, and we are happy about that.” http://observer.case.edu/spartans-bring-uaa-championship-back-home

^ very cool article. Good luck Jeff!

No boutique hotel, but investment: Cleveland State University will renovate and use historic Mather Mansion CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State University has given up on its dream to see Mather Mansion, one of the few surviving "Millionaires' Row" homes that once lined Euclid Avenue, turned into a boutique hotel. Instead it will spend $2.7 million to renovate the 43-room Tudor mansion to become the new home for the Center for International Services and Programs, a program to teach English as a second language and offices for Greek Life programs. “It is important to get it back into use,” Stephanie McHenry, vice president for business affairs and finance, told CSU trustees at its meeting today. The university currently has no central location for international student programs and is increasing enrollment from that sector, officials said. And it hopes to attract more national sororities and fraternities, they said. The renovations would be complete by summer 2015. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/03/cleveland_state_university_wil_3.html

Metropolitan hotel sets September opening, lines up downtown Cleveland management team CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Preparing for the September opening of the Metropolitan hotel on East Ninth Street, Greenwood Hospitality Group has hired a management team for the 156-room property. The hotel will occupy the lower floors of the former Ameritrust tower, part of a redevelopment project now called The 9. The $170 million undertaking also includes 194 apartments, a Heinen's Fine Foods grocery store, offices, event spaces and restaurants. The Geis Cos. of Streetsboro are remaking the complex, at East Ninth and Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, and are constructing Cuyahoga County's new headquarters offices next door. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/03/metropolitan_hotel_sets_septem.html

Geis nears halfway mark at The 9 in downtown Cleveland as financing jells (gallery) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The transformation of the former Ameritrust complex into apartments, a hotel, offices and a grocery store is approaching the halfway mark. But the developers behind the downtown Cleveland project didn't start closing on their intricate financing package -- to pay for that work -- until Friday. For months, construction crews have been running two shifts at the buildings, at East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue. Now the Geis Cos. of Streetsboro expect to add a third shift to ensure that the $170 million redevelopment is completed in less time than it takes many other downtown rehabilitation deals to get moving. The apartments, 194 of them between two buildings, are scheduled to open in August. More than 250 people have called about the units or inquired online, and showings at four models will start this week. The 156-room Metropolitan hotel will be finished in September. And developers Fred and Greg Geis expect the final piece -- a Heinen's Fine Foods store in the historic Cleveland Trust Rotunda -- to debut in February of 2015. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/03/geis_nears_halfway_mark_at_the.html

Very sad.

I really don't like those new case dorms, and I keep trying to like them... It's like they took the crappest architecture from the south side of campus and copied it.

I actually really like it. Cleveland is quietly gaining some positive mojo.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/03/happy_in_cleveland_brunswick_h.html

Some beautiful indoor shots of the Hollenden Hotel 1890: https://archive.org/details/hollendenhotelcl00hand

The Finch Group buys Upper Chester land, starts site work for 177-unit apartment project CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Workers felled trees this week on a barren block in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood, north of the Cleveland Clinic. The activity marked the start of site preparations for the Preserve, the first apartment building at a project more than eight years in the making. After land deals closed Monday, a developer now controls a 4.8-acre portion of Upper Chester, where the initial wave of construction could be finished by June 2015. The apartments represent the first major rebuilding at Upper Chester, a pockmarked stretch of land west of University Circle. The city and various private partners have spent nearly a decade considering plans and amassing property there, in hopes of bringing homes, jobs and pedestrians back to once-vibrant streets depleted by blight and disinvestment. Now the Finch Group, a Florida developer with several properties in Cleveland, is starting work on a 177-unit apartment building at Chester Avenue and East 97th Street. The surrounding blocks are earmarked for more apartments, townhouses, stores, subsidized apartments for the elderly and other construction. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/03/the_finch_group_buys_upper_che.html

A little more detail on the project...from Jewish News. CWRU to transform ‘Silver’s Temple’ into arts masterpiece MGA PARTNERS OF PHILADELPHIA Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 1:30 pm | Updated: 12:44 pm, Wed Mar 12, 2014. Construction will begin next month on an ambitious renovation and expansion of The Temple-Tifereth Israel in University Circle now that the Cleveland Planning Commission has endorsed plans to recast the historic structure for a more contemporary, academic use. Ground will be broken on the Wade Oval project, a performing arts center for Case Western Reserve University at its core, on Wednesday, April 9. The Maltz Family Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s 2010 gift of $12 million to Case jumpstarted the proposed $64 million effort. Milton and Tamar Maltz, founders of the foundation, plan to attend the ceremony. So far, $59.3 million has been raised. The project calls for conversion of the neo-Byzantine 1926 structure to The Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple-Tifereth Israel. The Temple, closely associated with the rabbinates of Abba Hillel Silver and his son, Daniel Jeremy, will continue to be used for High Holy Days and major events, as has been the case for years. Most activities, however, will take place at the Temple-Tifereth Israel’s Beachwood home on Shaker Boulevard, where it has operated a religious school and other programs since 1971. Temple Tifereth Israel is the second-oldest congregation in Cleveland. http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local/article_45899aa6-a943-11e3-8d10-0019bb2963f4.html

New cool place coming to Lakewood: http://www.columbusunderground.com/16-bit-bararcade-expanding-to-cleveland

Darn Seattle and their crazy ideas: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023047646_wheelgondolaxml.html