heightsfan

And just think what it's going to look like in 20 years.

Wow. That is really shaping up to be hideous. Not only does it look like the worst examples of late 1960s/early 1970s architecture, it does nothing to complement or interact with the Breuer tower. Thanks for another great building Cuyahoga County. :shoot:

I've made that assumption multiple times, however, things just don't add up. In addition, I can't imagine Wolstein wouldn't have announced that months ago. What's there to hide? You're not talking about DDR, are you? I thought you were referencing this earlier in the thread, but the East Bank of the Flats is not a DDR project. It's a Wolstein Group/Fairmount Properties project. And although Scott Wolstein's family started Developers Diversified Realty, Scott left the company in 2011. So I was confused as to why you thought there'd be any DDR connection here. I think W28th's only point was that it looks just like something you would expect from Wolstein, who has never done anything remotely urban, having come from DDR--a company that only does suburban-type developments.

Does anyone know whether the interior demolition ever actually started? I walk past this building every day, and from all appearances, things have been completely quiet since this news broke last October.

I do too. It at least breaks up the monotony of the superblock of silver panels.

Um, the County has a legacy of bad architecture to uphold people!!!!!

[quote Did we already know that Heinen's would be combining the Swetland Building to the rotunda? Seems like a pretty cool idea and helps even more to bring some storefront-age to the dead zone on Euclid. Yes.

Former Sergio's space in University Circle, perhaps.

A 3-month build time; that's insane for a building that size. Wonder if someone made a typo and meant to say July 2015.

Maybe if you flipped the whole building 180 degrees it wouldn't be so bad (so that the podium portion fronts the Mall). But having the tower side smack up against the Mall looks, well, awful. Overall, I find the design pretty underwhelming.

Hard to believe the final product is even more dull, uninspired and banal than the existing (soon to be torn down) Interbelt Bridge. Congratulations, ODOT! Mission accomplished.

I wonder if Le Méridien would make such an announcement without the financing being lined up first? I think Kimpton announced well before financing was finalized on Schofield.

This is wonderful news!!!! Soon we'll only have one bombed out building left on that stretch of Euclid, CAC, which hopefully gets converted to a Crowne Plaza or apartments. Finally, after 12 years of enduring it, my depressing daily commute from 12th to 9th, is nearing an end!!

What about endless discussions of whether a building will have 100 or 120 units? Where should those go?

Why don't we all calm down and wait to see what the final number is, which I expect will be announced within the next 6 months. Honestly, are we really getting all aflutter over a 50-100 room differential in the estimates that have been tossed around in various media outlets?!?!

That Walgreens brings in a ton of people who aren't residents of the area. It is an attraction unto itself. The rotunda seems like a good location for all those CSU kids who live up there to get food anyhow. Put in a sushi bar as well. A coffee shop. Regular wine and beer tastings. If they pretty up the interior with restorations similar to the Walgreens project, it will be a draw from those both within walking and also driving distance. I'm sure it does. So does the West Side Market. But lot's of people who go there to see it, don't actually buy anything. You still need a steady customer base. That inevitably exists in Wicker Park, not sure it does yet in downtown Cleveland in a location where you need to rely almost principally on foot traffic.

Wicker Park alone has a population of 26k, never mind the fact that it's surrounded with tens of thousands of residents within a mile in every direction. Also, that Walgreens is right on an L line. Not really a fair comparison to downtown Cleveland, as much as I wish it were. The reality is that grocers' margins are extraordinarily slim; it's a volume-driven business. You need people flowing through constantly, all day, not just at the lunch hour. I agree with you on the restaurant and pub front. What we don't have though is a truly hip, urban hotel bar.

While I would certainly welcome a major grocery store downtown, I continue to believe that this is the wrong use for the rotunda. Would much rather see it utilized as a restaurant or a cool, hotel bar, something totally lacking in the core of downtown. A grocery store in the rotunda would also seem to have some real challenges. In a market like downtown Cleveland, where you can't necessarily rely solely on the downtown population to sustain your business, it would seem to me that a grocer would need to have some readily accessible parking for those who commute downtown. Doesn't seem that the rotunda would offer that, unless you're willing to pay to park in the parking garage on the other side of prospect, and then be willing to haul your groceries on a pretty good trek to the car. For those reasons, I think that a grocery store fits much better near the Greyhound station, where you can serve the downtown population, but also accomodate commuters with some available parking nearby, even if that means a surface lot or (preferably) constructing a garage attached directly to the grocery store.

Too bad MetroParks can't also take over the city-owned and controlled portion of Gordon Park. That place is just a wreck. Parking lot and roadways are approaching a moon-like, cratered surface. Baseball diamonds are in beyond poor condition; restrooms are a wreck; just an overall tired, worn appearance. Not to mention the lack of any sort of security presence.

Couple guys hauling more debris out of the Truman Building the past two evenings, with the building lights on throughout. God let's hope this thing gets fully underway soon.

Cleveland Athletic Club building could be in line for hotel makeover By STAN BULLARD 12:43 pm, February 4, 2013 Plans to rejuvenate the shuttered Cleveland Athletic Club building, this time as a Crowne Plaza Hotel, surfaced today, Feb. 4, as hotel management and development concern Dellisart LLC of Roswell, Ga., announced it has been awarded a contract to operate a 194-room Crowne Plaza there. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20130204/FREE/130209933 Should this get its own thread? Btw, while this is fantastic news, I can't help but continue to fret over the Schofield Building/Kimpton Hotel conversion. Those guys just can't seem to close the deal.

I wonder if the list was confined to evaluating the top 50 nationally-ranked universities. If so, the ranking is not wholly unfair. But if encompassing all college campuses, the ranking is an absolute joke. I mean, even within Northeast Ohio, how can you say Case's campus is less attractive than CSU (a brutalist masterpiece) or U Akron (a whole big mess). While the South Side of campus is not great, the North Side is fairly attractive, especially with CMA, Severance Hall, Allen Memorial, Glidden House, Temple Tiffereth and other highly attractive buildings all integrated into the campus.

The lights have an adverse impact on bird migrations.

Sounds like it's time for the County to commission another study. :laugh:

I don't really see how the Opportunity Corridor would affect RTA rail ridership. The idea is to create access to University Circle for those living south of Cleveland and normally have to take 490 to 55th up to Carnegie. I don't think those folks are currently (or would even consider) taking the rapid since it isn't an option for them. The other folks the Corridor would really help are near East Siders (particularly from the Heights) who have terrible access to the interstate and Hopkins. The net effect of the Corridor would be to substantially alleviate Carnegie traffic, which in my view is a good thing since Carnegie is far too automobile centric. As for those folks in the forgotten triangle who may be taking the red line to University Circle, I doubt many even have cars, or if they do, would be willing to expend significant resources paying for University Circle parking. Consequently, I really am finding it hard to believe RTA traffic would be substantially impacted in any way. To the extent additional parking in UC is needed, it's a great way to develop that sea of surface parking at the Clinic, even if it means a few more garages.