neilworms

Any renderings? I believe this is one of the first Urban projects from this company (I think they are the same developers that founded the Dayton suburb of Huber Heights).

Cincy metro is now supported by google maps, if you have a smart phone that should work quite nicely.

Nice photos ColDayMan, were they taken by chance when you were down for the urbancincy party?

^Is it only going to be commercial? It would be nice to see mixed use, bring the neighborhood back.... Though I'm not sure given all the industry if that would work out. Shame they tore down so much back in the 60s...

Was the house on Van Street anything significant?

Also what will happen when college becomes so expensive that noone can afford it anymore... These would make great section 8 housing :evil:

Its very sad that Uptown is incapable of building better infill. What makes it worse is that too often (Euclid being the most recient) they've torn down amazing old architecture to do it. There are economically viable ways to build at least halfway decent infill, as I keep stating over and over again, it happens in Chicago, why can't it happen in Cincinnati too?

Typical uptown properties schlock.

Observations: Cincinnati - people drive either slow and conservative or bat sh!t crazy, not much in between. When caught in traffic jams people tend to leave 6 feet in front of them and go slower than they should, which is annoying because when on 75 traffic would move smoother if they left less space. Finally the most annoying thing is ALWAYS on 71 heading towards the university there is someone going 45 in the slow lane, so you can pretty much never get off at Taft without swerving lanes around someone plodding along at the min speed limit. Columbus - People are probably the most aggressive I've seen in the state (though I haven't driven as much in Toledo or NEO), whenever I merge I'm more likely to be cut off here than anywhere else. Ohio in General: People tend drive slower due to the gestapo highway patrols. (I've gotten 0 tickets in Illinois since I moved here, though in part that's due to not driving much due to good transit, and 2 tickets in Indiana both in Indianapolis but nowhere else.) No one honks their horn unless they are really angry. This is weird, as other states (particularly the northeast and Chicago) people honk their horn for all kinds of minor things. Also, weird observations about Chicago: People like doing U turns in the middle of busy roads, sometimes across major 4 lane highways like Western Ave (which has traffic almost at the level of many Ohio expressways). I don't really understand it either, because Chicago is nearly a perfect grid, it would be a heck of a lot easier to turn left down a neighborhood street and then go around the block to turn around. People also almost never let you in on the freeway unless you drive defensively, and finally they are (maybe Detroit wins here) some of the most aggressive drivers in the Midwest, but this kind of is understandable given the sheer volume of traffic here.

Wait until the nearly identical one goes up on Euclid :(

I saw this through facebook: http://historiclafayettehall.com/ Seems like they are planning on making it into a Resturant/office space next to Findlay Market. Though it was lately profiled in the Enquirer as being a place adversely affected by streetcar cuts. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110410/BIZ01/104100304/1076/BIZ/Streetcar-fate-may-derail-man-s-dreams Still seems like an interesting project. Nice to see development creep its way north of Liberty.

^- Looks like that building is going to add to the blade runner-esque vibe that's been developing in Chinatown lately. That is if the screens shown are all going to be digital.

Take a gander here too: http://wikitravel.org/en/Cincinnati Actually if anyone has anything to add or update to this (particularly the graphics), please do so! I've been doing a lot of work on this to try to update it to reflect the current state of downtown Cincy/OTR.

I think the real question that should be posed is this: was there a cost-benefit analysis posed on adaptive reuse versus demolition? Demolishing the school is going to be real expensive. I've also gotten word that there is a lot of asbestos on site, which is something that will have to removed demolition or no demolitions.

I'd like to know how these meetings go? Why is it that Corryville is so entirely in support of destroying itself? Also, because its an old school did anyone suggest adaptive reuse? I mean a school wouldn't be too bad a thing to convert into student apartments. Finally for anyone who is concerned about what's going on here, whether in Corryville or not, please attend the community council meetings, which are 2nd Tuesday of every month at 6 pm. Also please contact the Cincinnati Preservation Association and let them know that this is going to happen and express your concern: [email protected]

If you want a cool bar and the weather is good, stop by Neons, its on 12th street between Sycamore and Main. They have a big Beergarden, and while you're there order a Christian Moerlien OTR - which is a bit of Cincinnati history. I'd also recommend if you have time, checking out a tour from these guys or at least patronizing their gift shop (Cincy Haus) near 12th and Vine: http://americanlegacytours.com/

A thought, and I don't know if this was floated, but was it feasible to do the bare minimum to stabilize the structures, then encourage developers to fill in the gaps? The gaps being filled in would raise property values and make the area more attractive to investors. Another curiosity, its my understanding (though to make this clear, this is just through rumor, not necessarily fact) that the Alms Hotel Apts are a source of a lot of the crime in the area. If this is reduced this would help revitalize the area. If this is the case, has there been pressure put on the landlords of that building as well as local police to clean it up?

Along these lines, I wonder how much money could be generated via a Kickstarter and a good social media based campaign that would include blogs and new media publications like Soapbox media and possibly using bars to host events to fundraise? I'm not sure if it would be good for raising 100s of thousands of dollars, but it might not be a bad idea to run something like this periodically just to build up a bank of funds for future use towards stablization. Get a good grassroots movement going on, because there are people who care about the architecture, but communication between neighborhoods and different groups in Cincy is very poor. Just some thoughts. http://www.kickstarter.com/ Any thoughts?

I've been talking with those who are on the community council, and for the purpose of fairness, they have made it clear that they are going for an urban perspective. They aren't just aiming the project for Casino workers, they want a mixed income community that includes empty nester bloomers, young professionals and affordable apartment units. Finally, they are trying the hardest they can to get stabilization funds, but they don't have the resources that 3CDC does to be able to save everything. I wish they could have at least saved the Facade of the "Paramount Vodka" building, that one was one of my favorites, and is one of the all too rapidly disappearing buildings that makes Cincinnati completely unique in the Midwest and rare in this country. I'm concerned that because Cincinnati doesn't have much exposure to it, the community council won't understand what good quality urban infill is like and we'll get more uptown prop style suburban apartment complexes. Barring a small handful of Downtown and Over-The-Rhine projects, there is hardly any of it in Cincinnati at all - most of it tends to be suburban style vinyl sided boxes. I hope that they consider what's being built in other cities in Cincy's architectural league and work towards getting developers to build better quality so we don't have to go on a crazy witch hunt every time another decrepit but beautiful old building bites the dust. Finally, take a look again at the article under the facebook comments section, there is a pretty good conversation going on.

I want to make it VERY CLEAR, I was not condoning the method that the University Village neighborhood was torn down in Chicago as an example for Cincinnati to follow at all. However, given the massive amount of money and power in Uptown that is supportive of a flawed urban renewal plan, I figured I would at least suggest that if they aren't going to save the area (which would be ideal) the least they could do is make the infill much better quality. It makes me sick every time I see a pseudo-suburban apartment building replace elegant Victorians in Cincinnati. I basically was stating: stop lowering the bar. Stop building this (which makes the stuff that was built in University village look downright high quality):

Take a quick look at the NY Times census map here: http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map?hp Most of the areas in Chicago that are growing are where the majority of the condos were built. Yes there is a glut of them, and I think converting them to rentals would be a good idea, but a good chunk of the neighborhoods around downtown, the north side, and the near west gained population. Those that lost in those parts of town generally lost less than 10% of population (probably due to lowering population densities due to single family houses being turned back into single families) - the only exceptions being the last part of Cabrini to be redeveloped, part of Noble Square (the last area to be condoized, which probably has the largest glut of unfinished and foreclosed buildings), a small tract in Lincoln Park by the lakeshore which is mostly park, and part of the Gold Coast, which probably lost population due to the economic downturn. The heaviest losses were on the south side (where tons of high density projects have been torn down - some tracts are down around 60% in population!) the far west side, and a few poorer northside neighborhoods like Rogers Park. Secondly, the infill in Chicago while made of cheap materials should be the envy of every city in Ohio. They are really making some substantial looking buildings particularly in the latter half of the bubble. To give you an idea, here are some good examples: Below is the kind of worker cottage that was torn down all over the place... (this one is a bit cleaned up even - normally they are white and have older siding): I'm not sure, but a lot of these worker cottages aren't that substantial, there are some nicer ones like the 3rd image below, but the quality of the infill is so high I'm unless it was one like the 3rd image (one on the right), I'm not sure if I have that big a problem with them being torn down: The problem is, in Cincinnati a ton of buildings that blow all of these out of the water are being torn down. What's replacing them is nowhere near the first image (3CDC probably comes closest with a few infill projects).

Pittsburgh and Minneapolis are outliers. Cleveland is more the norm. Despite the excellent transit Cleveland has, the city and entire region are facing decline. Columbus at least is growing and has Youthful energy, I think these two combined has slowly turned the city into something more urban. The first stage is building more urban on High Street (high rise developments, large brick and concrete apartment/condo buildings), and the other things like better buses in those areas will inevitably follow. Its younger people that are demanding more urbanity and due to OSU's huge influence on the rest of the city, Columbus will be the most likely to develop that for their city. Yes Cbus isn't getting a streetcar, but Cincinnati has to fight tooth and nail to maybe get one, that is if the old foggies living in the past don't stop anything that would be a positive change for that city :P.

Here's an even sillier version of the same thing (a very urban strip mall with apartments/condos on top): http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Chicago,+IL&aq=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=25.484783,57.480469&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Chicago,+Cook,+Illinois&ll=41.908745,-87.6774&spn=0.002914,0.007017&z=17&layer=c&cbll=41.908625,-87.677385&panoid=CteroEBr_eyv57AZOsU8Jw&cbp=12,257.32,,0,2.97 Hmmm because this new board doesn't seem to like streetview links, here is a screenshot, note the bay windows above the 7-11: http://cbswbbm.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/b96-7-eleven-on-damen-in-chicago-0041.jpg?w=600

What part of the state do you travel to? If its anywhere along the coast except maybe Wilmington the its very impoverished. The Piedmont is a whole different story. My brother lives in Raleigh (though he's moving back to the Cincinnati area very soon), and while the area is one giant suburb and not very appealing for someone like me, there is a lot of economic opportunity down there. Its sad that such a miserable place (other than the winter weather - its quite lovely to be able to grill out in December) is such an economic engine. The odd thing about the area is you go to old strip malls and instead of being abandoned they are often retooled into Ethnic marketplaces, with lots of Indian, Arabic, Asian, etc stores/restaurants being setup. Its a weird disconnect as I usually associate these kinds of places with very large very urban cities, but it really illustrates the cultural diversity that the strong economy there attracts.

What about Grandview Hts? That place is somewhat urban its pretty nice and its away from High Street. You can walk to the Drexel (though I heard it closed). Clinton Township I believe was the area I was talking about, yet it seems you go further north then east and your in a hilly area without sidewalks. There are places like that all over Columbus its kind of weird - the development patterns in that city are really bizarre. Oh yeah and to answer ColDayMan, yeah there are strip malls near UC, but they have a much more urban feel than Clinton Township, they have sidewalks around them and the parking lots on them are way smaller.