MplsTodd[/member] may not post much on UrbanOhio, but over on Flickr he has been uploading some great photos that he took in various cities in the 1980s. Here are some that he has posted from Cincinnati.

 

 

Nov. 1983:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nov. 1987:

 

 

 

 

 

So much of this skyline came up in the 80's.

A lot of clean, shiny buildings intermixed with total, absolute grit. I love it and miss this era.

 

In the second photo, what is the red building that can be seen below Carew Tower?

That's the old Pogue's warehouse on Race street (I believe). It's right next to O'Malley's in the Alley

A lot of clean, shiny buildings intermixed with total, absolute grit. I love it and miss this era.

 

In the second photo, what is the red building that can be seen below Carew Tower?

 

That building is still there..I believe it was a Pogue's warehouse at one time. https://goo.gl/maps/RC54TkSDLY82

 

Drury Inn's has owned it for a long time.

Where's that first photo in the 1987 series taken from? I don't recognize it at all.

Judging by the first photo P&G Towers, Atrium II, Chiquita Center, and the office tower at 7th/Walnut were all under construction at once.

^St Michaels Street

I love the freight train parked in front of downtown in that second shot. 

That Ford Ranger in pic #4 is such an Old Man Truck with its aluminum cap, aluminum running boards, yellow fog lights and hubcaps. All it's missing is a translucent green vertical bug shield with aluminum trim above the grill and reflectors everywhere. I bet it got those later.

We need to send that pic of the run down & tired Power Building to the 'Save the Dennison' folk.

We need to send that pic of the run down & tired Power Building to the 'Save the Dennison' folk.

 

It wasn't vacant until 1996.  I have photos of it and the nearby Krippendorf Bulding when they were both vacant in the late 90s.  What's odd is that even though both of them have now had people living in them for more than 10 years, the area doesn't really seem any more active.  That should finally change with the new apartments going up with street retail. 

 

Four office towers under construction at the same time in photo #1.  There was another commercial real estate boom in the late 80s that ended with the bust that took down Donald Trump. 

I was lamenting that the awesome-looking Fred's Place/Cianciolo is now a generic Penn Station, but then in streetview look what's passing by?

 

https://goo.gl/maps/GfcWZTsAJuB2

 

Progress isn't always a straight line.

 

 

 

 

^ I always thought Cianciolos was up a block next to the Dennison and not where the Penn Station was. Penn Station has been there for over 25 years and Cianciolos did not go out of business until around 10 years ago.

^Cianciolos was at 720 Main but this photo is absolutely of the storefront that is now Penn Station.

Todd's "vintage" photos of Cincinnati (and other cities) are just amazing.

He's posted some more from May 1990:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, memories...

Look at those people shopping on Race St. back in 1990.  All of those shops were gone by 1997 or so. 

RIP Party in the PArk

Lol... Peewee's Big Adventure and Do the Right Thing playing at the Esquire. Amazing how much smaller the skyline was in 1983.

That second pic is notable. To the left is the old Fifth and Race Tower. To the right is the soon to be demolished Mabley building and the theater that was attached (I think) adjacent to that Roy Rogers.

Look at those people shopping on Race St. back in 1990.  All of those shops were gone by 1997 or so. 

 

I remember the old Dino's commercials with Pete Gillen.

That second pic is notable. To the left is the old Fifth and Race Tower. To the right is the soon to be demolished Mabley building and the theater that was attached (I think) adjacent to that Roy Rogers.

 

Does anyone have any pics of 5th and Race. I cannot recall what that building ever looked like

It had an open-air skywalk that wrapped around the outside corner.  Two levels of outside-facing retail.  Then there was a 14-floor tower with very small floor plates set back from the corner.  The north third of the block was a small 300-space parking garage. 

^ I do remember going there as a kid, I don't remember what the upper part of the building looked like. There were very few photos out there on it.

 

One of my few memories of the building was a PSA many years ago where an old lady was run over by some kids playing in the atrium area. The one then stopped to pick her bag up and then they had the PSA message. Don't remember much else on the ad, but it stood out from my childhood days.

Not very memorable, this photo view from the sak's construction site is/was probably the best view of it but usually it was hidden from the street by the sky walks Jake mentioned. My only memory of it as a kid was that there was a place called WAH ME and maybe a burger king but it looked like a tired mall even though it was less than 20yrs old. Apparently it was also home of TOMORROWLAND which was Cincinnati's attempt at a Studio 54 type scene. I can only imagine what that was like and assume Pete Rose was there quite a bit.

^ it did not seem like much of a tower. I can see why it was torn down and obviously has not been missed. The 84.51 building is a much needed improvement.

Oops it was Tomorrow's. I googled images for some sweet shag carpeted neon lit club shots but no luck. Found this though. https://books.google.com/books?id=b-sCAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA20&dq=cincinnati%20tomorrow's&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q=cincinnati%20tomorrow's&f=false

 

 

 

"Disco is not a fad...". 

 

No it's not.  EDM is disco by another name. 

Another photo of 5th & Race stolen from the 84.51 thread:

There was definitely a photo posted somewhere earlier in this thread as I remember thinking how awful it was. Also check out historicaerials.com to see imagery from various points in history. Also useful (maddeningly sad) seeing how the highways lead to severe thinking out of downtown.

 

Edit: Here's one from the Enquirer.

 

http://enquirer.com/editions/1998/01/07/tower_400x485.jpg

 

Pretty ugly...

Another photo of 5th & Race stolen from the 84.51 thread:

There was definitely a photo posted somewhere earlier in this thread as I remember thinking how awful it was. Also check out historicaerials.com to see imagery from various points in history. Also useful (maddeningly sad) seeing how the highways lead to severe thinking out of downtown.

 

Edit: Here's one from the Enquirer.

 

http://enquirer.com/editions/1998/01/07/tower_400x485.jpg

 

Pretty ugly...

 

Fill that puppy up with lots of signage and neon and we could have had our own little bladerunner block.

These are so good. How did I miss this thread!

I just noticed that Cincinnati Refined published an article sharing several of MplsTodd[/member]'s photos.

^The first photo with four major office towers going up is still really startling.  That's hardly going on anywhere today.  Think about how Northern Ohio was in sharp decline and how so many Southern cities were languishing in the 80s but Cincinnati was booming.  If Milacron's computers or the tech industry had somehow gained a foothold during that period with all that momentum we might be living in a very different place right now.     

^ Growing up we saw the P&G towers, Chiquita, Center 600 Vine, Huntington Building, URS Center, Scripts Center, Enquirer Building, Atrium 1 &2, First Financial (Chemed) Center, US Bank Building, and Hyatt Hotel all built from 83-91. Add to that the Macy's Building, Millennium Tower, PNC Center and the entire Skyline was built in from the late 70s to 90. I don't think we will see that level of office construction anywhere again because of technology.

 

 

Same deal in Columbus timeframe-wise

Yeah, Cleveland only built about 5 skyscrapers in the 80s, and really only 3 of them are noteworthy: the National City tower (1980), One Cleveland Center (1983), and 200 Public Square (1985). You could probably argue that Key Tower was an "80s tower" despite opening in 1991. It's still amazing to me that Cleveland managed to get such a huge skyscraper. It still dwarves most towers in the midwest outside of Chicago.

I would count the key in that mix. The thing is, 200 Public Square and Key Tower were just so big that they encompassed about 3-4 buildings that Cincy and Columbus were building at that time. I would not look at the quantity of building but the space too. In Cleveland, Key is 70 Stories and 200 Public Square is another 50. If you split them in half, you have 4 30 story buildings filling out the Skyline so Cleveland was quite active too during that time.

Same deal in Columbus timeframe-wise

In Columbus there was the Huntington Building, 5/3 Building, US Bank Building, Franklin Cty Courthouse, William Greene Building, A couple on the Nationwide Campus, there was the Vern Riffe Center, and I am trying to think of what else there was.

 

I would count the key in that mix. The thing is, 200 Public Square and Key Tower were just so big that they encompassed about 3-4 buildings that Cincy and Columbus were building at that time. I would not look at the quantity of building but the space too. In Cleveland, Key is 70 Stories and 200 Public Square is another 50. If you split them in half, you have 4 30 story buildings filling out the Skyline so Cleveland was quite active too during that time.

 

Key is 57 office floors (63 total floors if you count the maintenance floors inside the crown/pyramid) and 200 Public Square is 45 floors but you have a point that for better or worse, they're quite bulky. Also, while it doesn't add much too the skyline, the Marriott at Key Center was built at the same time, and site prep for Fifth Third (formerly Bank One) Center started in 1989.

Both of those should count too. I think anything from 81-93 really counts as far as when Skylines developed. Look at Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, etc. They all developed at that time.

 

Philly is another great example although they did not allow building taller than William Penn prior to the late 80s.

Same deal in Columbus timeframe-wise

In Columbus there was the Huntington Building, 5/3 Building, US Bank Building, Franklin Cty Courthouse, William Greene Building, A couple on the Nationwide Campus, there was the Vern Riffe Center, and I am trying to think of what else there was.

 

 

AEP building,

 

the police station

 

more?

The big difference with Cincinnati as opposed to peer cities is that in around 1991 pretty much all downtown construction sans stadiums stopped until around 2005. There was really nothing of significance developed downtown during that period. Fountain Place was a disappointment at best, it needed to be more. The Delta reservation center was ugly and nothing special. I cant think of anything else downtown that was really developed for a 10-15 year period until 303 Broadway and QCS.

 

Cleveland had more downtown development during that time and even Columbus did too.

As far as skyscrapers go, though, Columbus has had nothing completed since 1991.

^ Not so much Columbus, but there has been activity in Cleveland. Also Columbus had Minerva Park development in the late 90s which counts.

Shoot, forgot about that and Miranova.

As far as skyscrapers go, though, Columbus has had nothing completed since 1991.

 

There has been a bit of action in Columbus:

 

1998 - Fifth Third Center - 302 Feet

2001 - Miranova - 314 Feet

2007 - North Bank Condos - 267 Feet

2014 - James Cancer Center - 297 Feet

 

So, nothing super tall, but two over 300 feet, one close to 300 feet, and another over 250 feet.

 

It seems that we are about to see another skyscraper outbreak in Columbus, although on a much smaller scale than the '80s. In the next 6 or 7 years, we will likely see numerous skyscrapers built in the 200-400 foot range. Market Tower will probably be 400 feet. Millennial Tower will be something like 330 feet. The new building near the Greyhound station will be around 200 feet I think. OSU is going to build another hospital building that will be twice the size of The James (though not twice the height). The new Hilton hotel will also be 300+ feet.

Queen City Square was always lurking out there as the monster that was going to steal tenants.  In 2008 Carl Lindner, Jr. pulled the trigger and caused chaos.  The Rivercenter towers lost their tenants to big sexy as did the 580 Walnut Building.