May 9, 20169 yr I think the only streetscaping associated with this project is new sidewalks on Sycamore between the two halves of the park and maybe a little bit on 13th between Ziegler Park and the basketball courts. A 13th Street overhaul would definitely help link together a lot of attractions--Washington Park, Vine, Walnut, Main, and Ziegler Park.
May 9, 20169 yr I think the only streetscaping associated with this project is new sidewalks on Sycamore between the two halves of the park and maybe a little bit on 13th between Ziegler Park and the basketball courts. A 13th Street overhaul would definitely help link together a lot of attractions--Washington Park, Vine, Walnut, Main, and Ziegler Park. It seems there are opportunities for 1,2 or even 3 smaller pocket parks along the way as well, particularly if they would be mandated with new infill. A cool open space/experience corridor in the making.
May 9, 20169 yr I think the only streetscaping associated with this project is new sidewalks on Sycamore between the two halves of the park and maybe a little bit on 13th between Ziegler Park and the basketball courts. A 13th Street overhaul would definitely help link together a lot of attractions--Washington Park, Vine, Walnut, Main, and Ziegler Park. It seems there are opportunities for 1,2 or even 3 smaller pocket parks along the way as well, particularly if they would be mandated with new infill. A cool open space/experience corridor in the making. I like your idea for some kind of corridor but I would advocate for new infill development over new pocket parks. The existing pocket parks tend to become dog poop swamps. Also I have have to call the cops on several occasions on bad human behavior in the pocket park behind my house. www.cincinnatiideas.com
May 9, 20169 yr My entire thesis project revolved around the creation of a pedestrian corridor from Washington Park to 12 and Main utilizing only vacant lots. It is definitely an interesting idea, but in retrospect I'd much rather all those lots be filled with buildings. Revamping public ROW to be more pedestrian is a good substitute that doesn't require taking potential redevelopment off the future table.
June 1, 20169 yr The Park Formerly Known as Ziegler Park has been transformed into... a (temporary?) parking lot made of the straightest and freshest of orange lines.
June 1, 20169 yr The "Woodward Lot" is closing today, and those monthly parking pass holders will start parking in the temporary lot in the former Ziegler Park and basketball court. Once people start moving into Alumni Lofts, they will park in those temporary spaces as well, as the garage under Cutter Playground won't open until January 2017. It seems strange but I guess they needed to phase it like this in order to begin work on the pool and aquatics area that is replacing the parking lot.
June 13, 20169 yr I remember hearing that the new pool at Ziegler will be managed by a third-party company, different from the other CRC pools. Does anybody remember the name of the management company? I think there was also talk of a slightly different pricing structure... but I can't remember what was proposed. On blazing hot days like we had over the weekend, I could imagine the pool being a very popular spot, and so I hope the pool will be well utilized. I'd love to see it managed in such a way that it serves a diversity of ages and demographics throughout the day and into the evening. Most CRC pools close by 7pm and have only very limited weekend hours. Public pools tend to attract controversy, so it'll be important that the management be sensitive to the diversity of demographics in OTR who might want to use the pool. The rules/policies need to be structured in such a way that makes everybody feel welcome.
June 13, 20169 yr ^ I don't recall reading that, but I wouldn't be surprised if 3CDC is responsible for running the pool instead of CRC. If that's the case, they could either run it themselves or outsource it.
June 13, 20169 yr 3CDC (or perhaps the Recreation Commission) announced that they were hiring another company to manage it. I just can't remember which one it was. I wanted to look to see if that company had any experience managing pools in diverse communities, since it raises a unique set of challenges.
June 13, 20169 yr The "Woodward Lot" is closing today, and those monthly parking pass holders will start parking in the temporary lot in the former Ziegler Park and basketball court. Once people start moving into Alumni Lofts, they will park in those temporary spaces as well, as the garage under Cutter Playground won't open until January 2017. It seems strange but I guess they needed to phase it like this in order to begin work on the pool and aquatics area that is replacing the parking lot. I also heard a rumor that once the Alumni Lofts residents start moving in, they will be given spaces in the temporary lot, and the monthly parking pass holders will be shifted to some other lot or garage. I'm not sure where that will be, but ABM also manages the Parkhaus Garage and several other surface lots downtown.
June 23, 20168 yr Old pool building being demolished: The pit: Woodward Lot being demolished: Aerial views: As seen from the Carew Tower observation deck:
June 23, 20168 yr Well THAT'S impressive. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
June 23, 20168 yr Great pictures. Is there a timeline for when all of this is suppose to be completed?
June 23, 20168 yr Aerial views: Awesome shots, Travis. Enjoying the drone, I see. For anyone curious, the brick you see in these shots is from Engine Alley, according to this Sanborn map.
June 23, 20168 yr It would be cool if they exposed them and kept them as part of the park. I don't really know what the site plan looks like, though.
June 23, 20168 yr It would be cool if they exposed them and kept them as part of the park. Too late. They're gone. They also found a basement, or at least a retaining wall, that runs along that alley. That wall was getting excavated this morning.
July 19, 20168 yr Updated aerials from the beginning of July: New signage around the construction sites:
July 26, 20168 yr Another update on the parking situation. Starting September 1, the temporary parking lot will be used by Alumni Lofts residents. They will park there until the new underground garage opens. As a result, anyone who is currently leasing a parking space in that lot (including me) will be kicked out. We have the option of transferring into the Alms & Doepke garage until the new garage opens.
October 3, 20168 yr Garage construction is moving along pretty quickly, and walls are starting to go up in the pool area.
March 15, 20178 yr A public information session about the new park will be held at the Rothenburg Library on Tuesday, March 21 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
March 15, 20178 yr You can also find the latest renderings and information at http://zieglerpark.org/
March 23, 20178 yr The city has painted the new mid-block crosswalk that will link the two halves of the park: ...despite the fact that the sidewalk is closed on the east side of the street so you can't actually use it yet. According to the project plan, traffic calming features will be installed including a bump-out on both sides to make this crossing more pedestrian-friendly: ^ In that plan, though, you will notice that the crosswalk does not line up with the actual path that you would want to walk. For some reason, our DOTE just can not figure out the right place to put crosswalks. It reminds me of how they screwed up all of the Mehring Way crosswalks for Smale Park.
March 23, 20178 yr The bumpout is fine, but why would they not put the crosswalk between the pedestrian path and the staircase, in line with Woodward?
March 23, 20178 yr They have had traffic monitors there for months. They stand mostly in the white line area. So, I think the white lines are not there for locating the future crosswalk but are there for the construction workers.
March 24, 20178 yr This one will be a real challenge. Sycamore is a main artery for police, fire, and EMT, including constant runs up to pill hill. And, the folks come down the hill from Christ Hosp like idiots. I have see a dozen accidents, some serious since I have been here. How they can calm traffic meaningfully will be quite interesting to see.
March 24, 20178 yr The bumpout is fine, but why would they not put the crosswalk between the pedestrian path and the staircase, in line with Woodward? I agree with you - the path they've designed will be awkward for a pedestrian walking along the Woodward Pedestrian Corridor. I expect many will just jaywalk. I assume the traffic engineering rationale behind this design is to put the cross walk next to the garage entrance so that cars coming out of the garage see any pedestrians in the crosswalk. That would explain the location of the crosswalk along Mehring, which is next to the garage as opposed to lining up with the Walnut St steps. But that thinking seems mistaken, especially here on Sycamore where there will be bumpouts for the crosswalk. The bumpout on Sycamore will force drivers to slow down and look for pedestrians... so I'd really like the crosswalk to line up with the steps and the "Woodward Pedestrian Corridor".
March 24, 20178 yr The bumpout is fine, but why would they not put the crosswalk between the pedestrian path and the staircase, in line with Woodward? I agree with you - the path they've designed will be awkward for a pedestrian walking along the Woodward Pedestrian Corridor. I expect many will just jaywalk. I assume the traffic engineering rationale behind this design is to put the cross walk next to the garage entrance so that cars coming out of the garage see any pedestrians in the crosswalk. That would explain the location of the crosswalk along Mehring, which is next to the garage as opposed to lining up with the Walnut St steps. But that thinking seems mistaken, especially here on Sycamore where there will be bumpouts for the crosswalk. The bumpout on Sycamore will force drivers to slow down and look for pedestrians... so I'd really like the crosswalk to line up with the steps and the "Woodward Pedestrian Corridor". There's probably still time to provide feedback on this if you send it in to 3cdc. They had a public meeting at Rothenburg just this week to discuss the park. www.cincinnatiideas.com
March 24, 20178 yr I have a strong feeling that the existing crosswalk in the picture has NOTHING to do with the location of the actual future cross walk that you can see called out in the site plan diagram above. edit: oh wait I see it now, what the hell.
March 24, 20178 yr Can you guys imagine the cool sh!t they find excavating in that area? Anyone in the field of construction/engineering: Do they ever have someone on site to make sure anything of interest or historical value gets collected properly? I'm curious, because I can imagine some construction crew members might find something and think nothing of it.
March 24, 20178 yr Construction docs are often just suggestions, I wouldn't get too hung up on anything just yet. I've seen contractors torch cut a beam in half and re-weld it later because they wanted to install it before the footer had been dug.
March 24, 20178 yr Can you guys imagine the cool sh!t they find excavating in that area? Anyone in the field of construction/engineering: Do they ever have someone on site to make sure anything of interest or historical value gets collected properly? I'm curious, because I can imagine some construction crew members might find something and think nothing of it. The north end of the garage is built along 14th Street where Abigail Cutter owned a row of 15 or so rental houses. Since she was a principal of the Underground Railroad (forgotten by the Freedom Center in favor of slave pens and the like) there is no doubt that those houses had artifacts from the era. The houses were flattened when she and her husband, William Woodward donated the original school property and park. Sadly, there was no archeologist or historian on site that I saw while they dug up the park.
March 24, 20178 yr This one will be a real challenge. Sycamore is a main artery for police, fire, and EMT, including constant runs up to pill hill. And, the folks come down the hill from Christ Hosp like idiots. I have see a dozen accidents, some serious since I have been here. How they can calm traffic meaningfully will be quite interesting to see. You would hope that eventually, they would add more bumpouts along Sycamore all the way from Liberty to Central Parkway, to discourage speeding in this section. Also, there will probably be an increase in the amount of local traffic using this stretch of Sycamore (entering/exiting the garage) which will naturally slow the people that are just travelling through.
April 13, 20178 yr The garage is now open for monthly pass holders (presumably just Alumni lofts residents at this point) even as construction continues on the stair and elevator access to the garage. Also, most of the sidewalks around the park have been torn up and are ready to be replaced. Unfortunately it doesn't look like any of the utilities along Sycamore are being buried at this time.
April 13, 20178 yr I guess I never really paid attention how much the ground sloped down from the northeast to the southwest corner of that lot. I sort of had it in my mind that the garage entrance would be more like Washington Park, not at-grade. “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
April 13, 20178 yr It's a definitely a "woah" moment when you see the new garage for the first time. Previously, there was a long, sloped ramp that started at the corner of 14th & Sycamore, so the height of the playground was disguised. I don't think the garage entrance will be so prominent once we have some mature trees out in front of it like the renderings show.
April 13, 20178 yr The street was completely open within the last couple of years and all of the utilities could have been buried. As for the garage level, this was played down in the promo photos most of which imply the north end of the passive green at street level of 14th St. such that one could walk along at 14th St. and Sycamore and view the surface of the green space instead being 10 feet below its grade.
April 13, 20178 yr 3cdc is looking to acquire and win a competition for a 50 to 100k dollar grant to hire play ambassadors for ziegler park that will monitor the safety and well being of neighborhood kids who are playing at Zeigler Park. Here are the details to vote: http://act.usatoday.com/submit-an-idea/#/gallery/60015351/
May 20, 20178 yr Anybody know when the new Ziegler pool is scheduled to open? Their website says "early June"... but I haven't heard a specific date: https://zieglerpark.org/feature/pool/season-passes/
May 22, 20178 yr Those season passes are expensive.... At least for higher income earners. Low income residents seem to pay close to what CRC charges.
May 22, 20178 yr This pool shouldn't be different than other city pools. It should be operated by the CRC, not 3CDC, and the CRC city-wide membership pricing should include access to this pool. Anyone should be able to take a swim for $3 a day or $35 per year. It seems to me the pricing strategy was designed entirely so that 3CDC can claim they aren't "gentrifying" the neighborhood.
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