neilworms

Demoing these buildings was nothing short of a tragedy, and I've seen the renderings for the firehouse row they are ugly low quality infill buildings. Cincinnati should have done better and the WHRF should be ashamed of itself.

The best decision the elites who put 3CDC together made was hiring someone from outside the region to head it. Stephen Leeper is from Pittsburgh.

I'm not a fan of the EPA building either. The fact that this isn't in the national consciousness is because Cincinnati almost never is in spite of its wealth of historical buildings. Historically the area that the EPA covered was very dense by Midwestern standards but not as dense as Boston of course. Boston City hall was the result of tearing down Scollay Square which had a touch of a Piccadilly Circus feel to it for a dead lifeless urban plaza that's overwhelming and oppressive, though as I understand it wasn't that way originally but due to some bad engineering decisions the fountains and performance stage they had to lessen its oppressiveness were deactivated leading to the bleak windswept plaza we have today. Still even with those fountains/stage its a downgrade from Scollay Square.

I think Brutalism is being torn down at a fast clip the way Victorians were in part because they are responsible for so much urban destruction themselves. Boston City Hall was a crime against humanity. I do like some examples of Brutalism but on the whole its a very tough style to love, doubly so given its history in failed urban renewal schemes.

Years and years of Cincinnati shooting itself in the foot despite its "embarassment of riches" leads to this mentality. Cincinnati's local culture is so bonkers compared to the rest of the country that surrounds it and things that are givens elsewhere are difficult endeavors in Cincinnati which lead to people who don't quite follow the norm being frustrated with everything to the point of being pretty darn distrustful.

1 bus every 4 hours without good transit links on the Cincinnati side hmmmm. At the very least when I plug Cincinnati to Dayton in on google maps it won't say there is nothing connecting the two via transit...

Dude, I've traveled the world and you gave me shade about doing so and not caring about Cincinnatians opinions. You know what I don't give a darn because IMO I think the prevaling idea is wrong. Sometimes living elsewhere gives people perspective and perspective I see lacking. These buildings are valuable to everyone in the country except ingrates in the Cincinnati area who can't see the forest through the trees.

Cincinnati is one small region in a globally connected world that increasingly is full of losers and winners. Cincinnati is coasting, but in order to be a winner particularly in the economy we have now you need to be accepted into their club. St Louis is as historic as Cincinnati is, both were at one point the largest city in the Midwest and are significantly older than most other Midwestern cities (like Chicago Milwaukee etc). In 1870 Cincy, Chicago and STL were equals in terms of importance and what kind of galls me is that STL and Chicago own that history* and are proud of it, Cincinnati loves to bury it. The more I read about Cincinnati's history the more it comes into focus that this is what's happened (and even from my horrifically alien non native grew up closer to Dayton perspective it was obvious to me that Cincinnati had a deep history and was very important at one point just because of how architecturally different it is than any other city around it - you don't have neighborhood after neighborhood of brick row-houses and tenements in most Midwestern cities - these are only found in cities that are historically important). Your post btw proves that out - its a huge cultural problem IMO and holds Cincinnati back from really embracing what makes it unique and what could make it more than just a city that's coasting btw. Though I have a weird feeling that mediocrity is comfortable to a lot of people so why not strive for excellence when you could just do what you are comfortable with even if said thing isn't good for you in the long run? (*and yes STL is really bad at preservation, but it has much deeper structural regional economic problems than Cincinnati does and I only bring up that STL owns it due to my experiences in the city, they do a lot more outreach to other places and generally talk more about their history on a whole than Cincinnatians do- Cincy's prevaling culture devalues things that makes it unique and values the things every other city has usually - like being proud of the bengals, but not a neighborhood full of old rowhouses not found anywhere else in the midwest except maybe STL...)./

The first one is part of the reason why Cincinnati is not known on the national scene. Its supposedly useless old buildings are extrodinary in terms of most american cities, to the point that people would actually have a desire to visit Cincinnati if they knew about them and if more locals gave a darn about them... OTR is a lovely place and will continue to get better. It is an investment in the future. When an entire area of the city has been neglected by city government, county government, exodus to the suburbs and overall neglect, buildings become useless because they cost too much to bring up to code, replace and entice people to develop the area. The city was smart to spend the money on the trolley system because it brought attention to OTR. Now we are building a new MLS stadium and developing adjacent areas. The stadium is also an investment for the future. My guess is more people will discover OTR because of the MLS and the streetcar system than any ad campaign. Kids will remember the ride on the streetcar attending a soccer match walking thru the "old town". They will become adults and many will consider moving to the city because of their positive memories. The Art Academy, School for Performing Arts, the Shakespeare theatre, the CSO, Washington Park and Findley Market are all parts of the bigger whole. All of these developments announce to the general public that OTR is a place to visit or be. It took a herculean effort to get people like you to accept OTR for what it is. The thing is that while OTR is by far the most impressive of an impressive collection of historic neighborhoods that Cincinnati has, there are other neighborhoods that have just as much potential value as OTR does particularly when packaged as a whole. To explain, think of this on an advertising bilboard - "See Cincinnati one of America's most historic cities!" (its a phrase you almost never hear even though its true - and what could catalyze that is you know taking care of a few more of these "useless old buildings" and turning them into what OTR has been turned into, which I don't know if you remember was also considered useless by much of the city up until about 2010ish).

The first one is part of the reason why Cincinnati is not known on the national scene. Its supposedly useless old buildings are extrodinary in terms of most american cities, to the point that people would actually have a desire to visit Cincinnati if they knew about them and if more locals gave a darn about them...

What beautiful old houses / apartments were torn down for that ugly thing and when?

People wonder why Cincinnati is unknown on the national stage.... this is why in spite of you guys having a huge stock of historic housing that is on par with several major us tourist destinations. This stuff is valuable believe it or not!

What really shocked me is that San Francisco's bars close at 2:00 am as well. If there was one place I thought wouldn't have last call its there. The only cities I'm aware of with a very late last call are Chicago (two tiered system, there are bar liscenses for 4am and 2am bars with some 6 am bars grandfathered in), New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and I actually heard from a someone that Louisville allows for late night bars is that right?

More pocket parks, right next to benches that supposedly kill people.

Yeah a lot of these hillside lots were previously inhabited and only are empty due to the lack of bedrock and soil erosion / landslide type issues.

I think they mean a landmark in the general sense. A place people flock to, take pictures of, associate with the city. That's exactly what I meant. There might have been an early 90s attempt to make a marketplace there (much earlier there was an actual market in the middle of the street) but it seems to have vanished without a trace other than those obviously early 90s signs.

Makes Court Street more desirable, the fact that it isn't considered a landmark is a testament to how Cincinnati treats its built environment :/

That alumni center was of prairie School construction - which included but was not exclusive to Frank Lloyd Wright. One would think if Frank Lloyd Wright would have designed it it would have been known he had a building on campus, but I don't put anything past Cincinnati not caring about such stuff... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_School

EMC was based off of a concept that's really popular in Chicago. I'm sad to see it go because these kinds of small urban markets come in handy for neighborhood residents who don't always want to go to the grocery but still are willing to pay the extra cost (that and high quality goods). Hoping that this doesn't set back urban markets in Cincy a few years.

Being critical isn't equal to being miserable.

Oh they have a vision, its just a really terrible pseudo suburban one that has little regard for how unique Cincinnati's historic vernacular architecture is. Its a tragedy that no one calls them out for it either.

U Square at the Adams. Even on the high end most of these apartment blocks are post modern messes. I don't know why they couldn't have taken the italianate corner and made it the whole building its not hard.

The church is already gone :(. Corryville is such a tragedy. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1333443,-84.5058011,3a,75y,132.74h,73.56t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1ssA86PaHgQY2jwcLf4rPlBA!2e0!5s20161001T000000!7i13312!8i6656

The diner is kind of a cultural landmark, its a perfectly preserved 1930s diner aimed at a working class audience and is considered a local landmark for its longevity and representing a pretty much bygone era. I wasn't giving a one to one comparison with Cincinnati it just was the best example I could think of where a mega development worked around an older established building - I wanted to illustrate that yes it can be done don't let the developers tell you otherwise. I don't really think of this as a NIMBY victory either as the whole area was pretty desolate before those developments came in - it was a warehouse / industrial area probably urbanrenewed back in the mid century. Chicago is pretty bad at preservation, I'm not as up in arms about it as I am with Cincy as Chicago does a lot to make itself stand out and Cincinnati has a very hard time branding itself in spite of itself. (that and Chicago's neighborhood building stock outside of the loop isn't generally as impressive as Cincinnati's - I'd also make the same arguement for San Francisco or Boston just having better neighborhood vernacular)

Again, the commerical stuff could have been built on a smaller footprint to accomodate the old development. Its not a hard concept here's an example in Chicago where a historic diner was saved: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8673165,-87.6392218,3a,45y,56.37h,94.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1si1s6fRBryLl003m8tIF-1w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 The original plan called for it being torn down, the community faught back, the developers who devleoped the bank of america next door and the shopping center that surrounds it built around the thing.