hopefully they'll at least upgrade to vinyl siding for the new front.  that would be amazing. 

 

but really, what happens to the front?  are they really going to construct an appropriate facade?

I was sure I had posted the Planning Commission approval regarding the demo of this building, but I can not find it.

I am recalling that it was not even discussed. They said something to the effect of "vacant building... demo... Euclid Corridor... approved."

I do not recall anything about a refacing or surgical demo.

Anyone noticed the movement of heavy equipment around the Doan Electric Building on CSU's campus?  Maybe some more "surgical demolition?"

I heard a rumor that CSU was trying to get Kent State's architecture program to move in there. But that would be a long way off. Don't know what's going on with the machinery. Musky?

I don't know where Doan Electric is at, but I do know there is a $17 million renovation and addition going on at hte main classroom presently.  This is located at 22nd and Chester.

Doan isnt going anywhere, CSU wants to keep it around as an as yet to be determined incubator type of building, dorm, or your rumor ^^. Equipment is probably for the mainclassroom renvoation, as it has the closest crappy parking lot (really can't ruin it anymore) to the site.

Just storage for the Administration Center project.

Remain Calm - all is well.

From the Sun News:

 

Building has seen better days City officials want former factory building on West 85th torn down

Thursday, December 21, 2006

By David Plata

West Side Sun News

 

Demolition appears to be in store for the 1920s-era MarshAllan Building, a former factory where scenes were filmed for "The Light of Day," the 1986 movie starring Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett.

 

Half of the roof of the two-story building, covering some 150,000 square feet, collapsed about three weeks ago, and the city is seeking to raze the structure. No one was in the building, which has been closed for more than a decade.

 

Two buildings are on the site, at West 85th Street, just south of Franklin Boulevard. Rail lines run behind the property.

 

Councilman Matt Zone, D-17, in whose ward the building is located, said the dilapidated roof fell in on its own, without help from rain or wind or snow. He said the city building department is in talks with the owners, seeking to have it torn down.

 

"It's a safety hazard," he said. "The building is old and deteriorated. It hasn't been occupied for 10 or 12 years."

 

The building, just south of rail lines, was opened in the 1920s by Harry Bedol, who named the MarshAllan Manufacturing Co. for his twin sons, Marsh and Allan. The company made TV trays, steel skillets, housewares, and promotional and novelty items.

 

The company also was said to be the world's largest producer of barbecue grills.

 

Ed Rybka, city building and housing director, said the city is in discussion with the two brothers, who still own the property, to have the building razed.

 

"They're planning on bringing this building down," he said. "We think it's beyond salvaging."

 

Rybka said the city will do an environmental assessment of the property. He said if the city has to tear it down, it will bill the owners for the work.

 

Jeff Ramsey, director of Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, said there were plans about three years ago for a housing development on the site. There are two buildings on the property one with two stories, where the roof collapsed, and another with four stories, just to the east.

 

The plans were put together by Rysar Properties, which also was developing the 20-unit Painters Loft condo development on Franklin Boulevard, between West 80th and West 84th Streets, just across from the MarshAllan property.

 

While Rysar was tied up with the Painters Loft project, Ramsey said, the Bedols retired and closed their business. He said they sold the four-story building, which would have been redeveloped as condos, while the two-story building would have been razed and replaced with stand-alone units.

 

Instead, the four-story building is now used for storage, he said.

 

Ramsey said it would be difficult to redevelop the two-story building alone as housing.

 

"The site is not big enough to have enough units where it would feel like a residential setting," he said, adding that the site would be surrounded by industrial and commercial properties.

 

He said the best redevelopment probably would be as some type of manufacturing or warehouse use.

 

"The back wall is buckling and looks like it's ready to collapse," he said. "If that wall collapses, it could fall on a train that's going by, it could collapse onto 85th Street and hurt pedestrians. It appears to be a pretty serious safety hazard."

That's actually a scary building. You ride past it on the Red Line, and you can see the wall facing the tracks starting to bow out toward the tracks! The vibration from the passing Red Line trains, and especially the passing freight trains on the adjacent NS tracks, can't be helping.

Can they add this site to the Industrial Land Bank?  Sounds like a logical addition to me.

Driving on the Shoreway the other day, I looked down -- as is my custom -- at the beautiful old salt mine building to the west of the Port, north of the highway. I was horrified to see what appeared to be the beginning of demolition on at least two sections of the building. Does anyone have more information??? This would indeed be an outrage.

^Salt mine building or Garret Morgan water plant?  I noticed that too (with equal horror) and snapped a photo which I'll post this weekend.  A seriously cool building...seriously pissed me off.  Seriously.

 

Also, what's up with the massive gutted industrial building north of the Red Line tracks just east of the West Boulevard station?  Demo or rehab?

^It must be the water plant. Thanks for the correction. How is this getting no attention??

A couple photos of the plant can be seen here: http://www.clevelandwater.com/community_relations/history.html#morgan_plant

 

As for the big building near West Boulevard, that's the Trinity building and it's on the chopping block. The land is being cleared as part of the city's industrial land bank program, and you can find more information about it in the "Industrial Land Bank" thread. While I don't support this demolition either, I understand there is at least a new use lined up for the land.

Thanks blinker for the info about the Trinity Bldg.  Man that thing looks massive from the rapid.  I'm sure the inevitable one story corrugated metal structure built in its place will be just dandy (sob), but at least there will be some jobs there.

 

Thanks also for the link for the Cleveland Water site- I didn't know about the Parma reservoir- pretty cool.  Reminds me how nifty the old reservoir in Ohio City must have looked way back when and the elevated promenade surrounding it too.

 

As promised, here's my photo of the Garret Morgan water plant under demo...

 

 

Bonus photo: looking out over the old river channel, just to the side of the water plant, at the layers of infrastructure and industry:

I love the second shot. I don't like the first (because of the subject matter).

 

Is this the same thing that the city's Division of Water website refers to? (about 2/3 the way down, at http://www.clevelandwater.com/system_overview/plant_enhancement.html ):

____________

 

G. Morgan West Reservoir Project

 

Following construction of the new East Reservoir, the 20 MG (million gallons) cell of the existing reservoir will be demolished. This project includes demolition of the existing reservoir and construction of a new 20 MG reservoir to occupy the location of the demolished reservoir. Temporary and permanent underground conduits and yard piping will be constructed to maintain plant operations during construction. This project provides instrumentation and controls, roadways, drainage, and site/civil improvements.

 

Design efforts are scheduled to take place from fall 2004 through fall 2005. Construction is expected to begin in early 2006 with completion forecast for summer 2008.

My first guess would be they would keep the design standard of the currnent campus: dark brick, clay shingles, etc.

Since this is what was done with the building just completed.

wow, are they really knocking those down?  This is such a beautiful set of buildings!  Are they seriously not able to keep the external structures?  I find it hard to believe that they'd be able to replicate what's already there...

 

I've eyed the building at W. 85th Street, across the tracks from the Painter's Loft for some time as well.  That would've made a very cool loft building, but hey, if the thing is falling down on its own, they're going to have a tough time selling units...  I always envisioned that bridge as a new Red Line station and as a new link between the north and south sides of eastern Cuddell.  Ah well...

 

 

And I don't understand why the MarshAllan building (post demolition) on West 85th Street couldn't be the site of new residential construction. I don't think it's isolated from other residential. It's in a narrow plot of land between residential areas, is next to a new drug store and, like MGD says, could be a good spot for a Red Line station. This is one that should be given more open-minded thought.

Sun New:

 

Nursing school's out forever - MetroHealth to replace building with green space

Thursday, January 04, 2007

By David Plata

West Side Sun News

 

It was built in stages, beginning in 1914 and concluding in 1930, and is being torn down now, more quickly but just as methodically.

 

It's the old Quad Building at MetroHealth Medical Center, for years the home of the hospital's school of nursing a three-year program that was discontinued in 1996.

 

"It was a beautiful building. There was a lot of marble in it," said Carolyn Rogers, MetroHealth archivist, who worked in the building about 13 years, first as secretary in the nursing school and then in the quality department.

 

"You walked into a beautiful foyer, the double winding stairs went up," she said. "It was beautiful. In its time, it was state-of-the-art."

 

While the 100-year-old nursing school closed in June 1996, after its last graduating class, the building itself remained in use until September, housing various administrative and computer systems offices.

 

Julie Short, a hospital spokeswoman, said the school alumni association will save many of the old bricks for former students and others.

 

"They are setting aside several hundred bricks to give to some of the nurses and people who went to school there," she said. "They're not tearing down every single piece and hauling it away."

 

The Quad so-called because it had four sides, with a courtyard in the middle fronted on Valentine Avenue, across from the main hospital building, then called Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital.

 

While the demolition and asbestos removal cost now is nearly $3 million, it could not be determined what it cost to put up the building, or the three additions put up over the years.

 

The original building, in addition to classrooms, science labs and a library, also had 140 bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a dining room and kitchens, a roof garden and a swimming pool.

 

The quadrangle, which covered 162,550 square feet, including all four floors, was completed with three additions, put up over the years.

 

The first, in 1924, included 72 bedrooms and four bathrooms. Another wing addition, in 1927, included 45 rooms, three baths and a laundry.

 

The quadrangle finally was completed in 1930, including a large auditorium, 120 bedrooms and three more bathrooms.

 

The demolition is expected to be completed in April.

 

Plans are to plant grass and trees on the nearly 2.86-acre site and keep it as green space for visitors and hospital employees.

Is that the building on the west side of W. 25th?  If so, this is a real shame.

No, it is east of the parking garage, off of Valentine.

Still a shame.

 

 

Is that the building on the west side of W. 25th?  If so, this is a real shame.

 

I thought the same thing, thanks for clearing that up Musky

I think that's pretty much torn down already.  I parked over there the other day. 

Here's the word from RTA:

 

The front building at 6611 Euclid will be asbestos abated and demolished.  It was most recently being used as a warehouse.  It was not listed on the historic register.

 

RTA solicited and received a joint development proposal in March.  They signed a memorandum of understanding and continue to evaluate the proposal towards an anticipated RTA board approval later this year.  They are happy with what will become of the building and what it will do for the area.

 

That's all the specifics I could get, as there is nothing final to date.

 

I remain very concerned...

 

Unfortunately, at this morning's RTA Board Committee meetings, the announcement was made that the proposed joint development is off, as the proposer has officially withdrawn for reasons undisclosed. Plans at this point are to button up the front of the building and revisit joint development opportunities in about a year, when Euclid Corridor development is further along and timing may be more conducive to a successful joint project. MidTown Cleveland, Inc., is heavily involved with, and interested in, keeping the remaining structure standing.

 

It was also mentioned that the remaining structure is free and clear of any asbestos contamination, as is the rest of the site. Anyone care to see if Zaremba or someone is interested in doing anything with this? Michael Schipper of RTA mentioned that the top floors have an unobstructed lake view...

Well, we've already got a few other huge vacant warehouse spaces in the vicinity... this doesn't surprise me... what did surprise me when I first heard of this was that RTA was able to "secure" a joint development.  Shouldn't they have gotten something signed before they started demo?  Another one bites the dust...

So a partially demolished building will front Euclid Avenue for at least a year. WHAT THE HELL??

This is unbelievable!  They tore down the nice facade so they could have an extra 2' of ROW, and are now going to leave the ugly husk of the rest remaining?  WTF!  Who is the HIIC (Head Idiot In Charge) over there?!

That would be Mike Schipper, RTA's Deputy General Manager for Engineering & Project Management. He is a major-league asshole (personality-wise) whose philosophies seem to come from the Albert Porter School of Disemboweling Cities.

I think that's pretty much torn down already.  I parked over there the other day. 

 

Drove by today. About 3/4 of the building is gone. It looks like they are trying to save the larger trees that were located in the courtyard.

Thanks for the visual, Musky.  That too is a nice building, but I guess I can live without it.

The old DeLorean Cadillac dealership on West 117th Street is completely gone. I know it was discussed on some thread last year, but I cannot find it. Anybody recall what is being built there?

One of the abandoned red-brick structures on the north side of Chester Ave is down - if I remember right (normally I'm a Carnegie man so I don't always go down that road) it had some old signs about a nursing home or something along those lines....anyone else go past it?

Does it feel to anyone else like there's a surge in building demolition right now? Maybe it's just a jump in posts, but then again, I've been visually jarred by unexpected demolitions a couple times over in the last couple weeks (including the Chester building that JeffreyT described) ... in a way I don't remember in the last four years. Do plans for demolitions get approved by a city agency (Planning Commission, etc.)? If so, does the city have any kind of comprehensive strategy regarding preservation standards (historic or otherwise)? Relatively unlearned about this topic and feeling a little woozy.

There may well be an increase but I think it has more to do with this forum being an effective vehicle for raising awareness. The PD isn't going to report on a single demolition - they'd likely lump it together with another topic. Demolitions have to go through a permit process but how strictly that's enforced is anyone's guess.

 

 

One of the abandoned red-brick structures on the north side of Chester Ave is down - if I remember right (normally I'm a Carnegie man so I don't always go down that road) it had some old signs about a nursing home or something along those lines....anyone else go past it?

 

Not only did they take down the building, they also cut down a great number of trees on the site.  This building had a very pretty-looking chapel building attached to it. I am very disappointed that this was taken down. At least they could have left the trees and not have created such a huge gaping hole on Chester.

 

"The old DeLorean Cadillac dealership on West 117th Street is completely gone. I know it was discussed on some thread last year, but I cannot find it. Anybody recall what is being built there?"

 

I read somewhere, I believe in that free Lakewood Newspaper, that the old DeLorean dealership site has been purchased by ALDI who will build a new store there, though they've subdivided the lot, so there may be something else there as well.

 

"The old DeLorean Cadillac dealership on West 117th Street is completely gone. I know it was discussed on some thread last year, but I cannot find it. Anybody recall what is being built there?"

 

I read somewhere, I believe in that free Lakewood Newspaper, that the old DeLorean dealership site has been purchased by ALDI who will build a new store there, though they've subdivided the lot, so there may be something else there as well.

It is going to be an Aldi and a Fifth Third Bank. 

Ick.  A shame that prime TOD land is going to be turned over to such a low intensity use.

 

Also a shame that the building on Chester was demolished. 

 

I also have noticed a surge in demoes.  Although maybe it's just improved visibility from the info presented on this board, I sometimes get the feeling that the consensus that seemed to be forming around historic preservation in Cleveland during the '90's has become less influential of late.

^AAARRRGGHHH

 

 

That completely ruined my day.

What a complete waste.

With all of the housing nearby in Lakewood coming online, I was expecting the trend to continue here.

Talk about a boulevard of botched opportunities... I really hope someone in charge reads this because they obviously lack any sort of vision. I thought there was some kind of development agreement along the Cleveland/Lakewood border to promote better planning? More like promoting a string of steaming horsesh!t.

 

You have a redone Rapid Station, a neat little historical strip on Madison, the Graftech buildings... Birdtown in walking distance, Rockport Square just to the north...

 

But no - god forbid anyone actually utilize the potential! Instead, we have the asphalt-swathed Home Depot and Target (even further back from 117th than H.D.), fast-food drive throughs galore, and now a low-end grocery store and yippee-f#cking-skippee, a bank branch! How about some check-cashing joints while we're at it! When asked, I tend to describe the area around Berea Road as dumpy but I thought that at some point, a sensible redevelopment plan would come along. I'm glad some bonehead planners have insured that 117th will maintain that rep for quite some time. :roll:

Lakewood probably doesn't care about the aesthetics 117th. I'm sure their thought process goes like this: put as much retail as possible on the strip in order to get all the Cleveland dollars that they can.  Its a tax policy. Sucks.  Either they don't understand TOD or they just don't believe that the market would make that site viable for anything but crappy retail projects.

The question is: was the City and its Planning Dept involved as soon as they knew that the status of that site was in flux?  I would doubt that anyone looked at that site and said "Let's put a discount grocery here!  That'd be great!".  I don't know, but it seems more likely that Delorean sold the property, Aldi's bought it to put up their standard store, and now the City can't do much about what happens there unless it doesn't fit existing statutes

^^What's especially paradoxical about the demo on Chester (a building called Madonna Hall) is that literally across the street, the chintzy Woodhaven townhouses -- built to about a 20-year standard -- continue to rise. Meanwhile, a sturdy brick building is torn down. The waste of energy is mind boggling.

Spitzer bought the Delorean dealership and was considering making it another dealership. Instead, they decided to develop it with the Aldi's and 5th/3rd -- neither of which is 1/2 of what it could have been.

Just to reinforce how much of a planning f#ckup the West 117th corridor has become:

 

The good - RTA's redeveloped West 117th/Madison station, with a more prominent structure that's closer to the sidewalk and a small but modest parking area. Good job RTA!:

 

The bad - an overview of how the 5/3rd/Aldi project could have redeemed a very prominent corner (West 117th at Madison). Even as set back as the Home Depot is, there's a small outparcel plaza that although not pedestrian-friendly is at least somewhat accessible:

 

And the ugly - Fugly as it were, a photo from the curb lane of West 117th showing just how far from the street the Target is. If you want to be known as an idiot extraordinaire when it comes to site planning, I don't think there are better examples than this. Simply turning the structure to a east-west alignment with one end fronting West 117th would have been better than this sh!t but apparently that's too much for some people to grasp:

 

I have to drive past this crap every damn day.

I live by it.

Where? We're practically neighbors?

No.

I live south of Lorain on Fidelity.

You live about as close to that area as I do.