There's nothing particularly significant about December of 2008 aside from the fact that it's when I once made an attempt to photograph and document what remained of the Skywalk system in Cincinnati. The original feature on my website was Flash based and when it went away, I never bothered restoring it. Then I got the idea to re-share the photographs and actually found myself noticing how much the city has changed in just over a decade, how much I originally enjoyed shooting/writing about stuff like this, and it brought up a question I had. 

 

I'm not trying to simply post here and push you to my website, but if you want to read the full piece it's here.  

 

My main reason for sharing here on UO is a question that came up as I was finishing up the post for my site. I'm hoping some folks might know/remember and I hope this UO post starts a discussion. I'd love to hear about the Skywalk in its heydey.

 

Background:
I originally shot these photographs not with artistic reverence in mind, but rather as a documentation. When I wrote the original 2008 post, I noticed that I had missed some parts of the Skywalk. 10+ years later, including five years working Downtown daily and I realized I missed even more. In addition, the system has had segments removed over time. As I was writing this 2020 post, I was studying one of the "maps" I documented:

 

 

^ The day I was out shooting these, the convention center was closed so I missed the Skywalk bridge between it and the Millennium Hotel. The circle shows a gap in the system. I don't recall what building was once here and I believe it was demolished for the failed attempt at luring a Nordstrom Department store (today it's the 84.51 headquarters). 

 

On the eastern side of that gap, over Race St. was the closed Skywalk bridge from Macy's/Fountain Place:

 

And to the south of that gap, was another closed Skywalk bridge from Saks Fifth Avenue over W. 5th St. towards what was then an empty lot (again, now the 84.51 Building): 

 

 

^I pulled that screenshot from Google Street View. It shows this bridge existing in 2007, but gone by 2009. I don't think it was there when I was shooting in December 2008, but I could be wrong. 

 

All this to say: these dead ends/bridges converge on one point. If there was once a building there with Skywalk connections, the map would've looked like this:

 

 

And if those connections existed, at one point there was also a bridge over Vine St. that continued over Fountain Square to Walnut St. (demolished during the Square renovation). That means the map would've looked like this...

 

 

..which means, one could've (theoretically) at one point walked from the garage at Central/6th all the way above ground/through buildings to the riverfront arena and down to the riverfront (a bridge did connect to the skywalk system over Fort Washington Way to Riverfront Stadium which itself was connected to US Bank Arena). Like this...

 

 

Does that seem right? As a kid, my interactions with the city/Skywalk were pretty limited. 2008 was the first time I really tried to go looking at it. Here in 2020, I still have questions haha. 

Also, some other interesting tidbits:

• I've read that the first segment of the Skywalk was built to connect the convention center with Fountain Square. Technically, a connection like that still exists today. But I don't think it's the original one?
• If you look closely at the map above, you can see how Fountain Square was modified with a sticker hastily placed over it/over the former northern Vine St. bridge.

• Below the Millennium on the map, a Sheraton Four Point is denoted. Where was this at? Was this part of what is now the Millennium?

 

Anyways, I hope this spurs some conversation. When I threw these up again, I thought it'd be a quick post, but here I am quickly sucked back into a world of seemingly insignificant local infrastructure history. 

 

Again, if you want to see the full post, it's on my website here. There's also questions about the weird Skywalk above "shapes park," a look at Tower Place, and other random stuff along the way. Also some pondering on whether or not Music Hall's bridge was once envisioned as part of a larger system. 

I made a goole map of each section back in 2012 as part of my UrbanCincy story on it.

 

But yea, prior to the first demolition of the skywalk in 2006 (Fountain Square over Vine) you could have walked from the Convention Center to the Ball Park and never be at street level.

10 minutes ago, JYP said:

I made a goole map of each section back in 2012 as part of my UrbanCincy story on it.

 

But yea, prior to the first demolition of the skywalk in 2006 (Fountain Square over Vine) you could have walked from the Convention Center to the Ball Park and never be at street level.

 

I should've known to check Urban Cincy. I also should've texted you and @taestell, but I'm usually writing this crap at 3 AM. Thank you, @JYP!

10 minutes ago, Gordon Bombay said:

 

I should've known to check Urban Cincy. I also should've texted you and @taestell, but I'm usually writing this crap at 3 AM. Thank you, @JYP!

No worries. Also @jmecklenborg may have some photos. 

 

His old site is strangely still going... http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/

The CAGIS online map explorer has imagery from 1996, pretty high rez, i think 6" pixel.  You can see the straight shot of SkyWalk from the Convention Center thru Fountain Square, thru to across Main St.

 

https://cagis.hamilton-co.org/cagisonline/

As recently as this past winter I used the Skywalk weekly to get from my office at 3rd and Plum to the Westin/US Bank tower for a project I had there.  I found the Saks window displays to be one of the saddest places, because they were really well done and frequently updated, yet hardly ever seen. At some point, the southwest-most entrance, in the garage where "Budget" car rental is, was locked and had a badge reader added. With Convention Place on the chopping block, that shortcut is short-lived, anyway.

 

32 minutes ago, Gordon Bombay said:

^ The day I was out shooting these, the convention center was closed so I missed the Skywalk bridge between it and the Millennium Hotel. The circle shows a gap in the system. I don't recall what building was once here and I believe it was demolished for the failed attempt at luring a Nordstrom Department store (today it's the 84.51 headquarters).

 

Here's a good post about the building that was demolished at 5th and Race - it had a retail/dining mezzanine at the Skywalk level, and this guy was really mad they tore it down:

 

https://forum.urbanohio.com/topic/15000-cincinnati-in-the-1980s/?do=findComment&comment=908630

 

Quote

• Below the Millennium on the map, a Sheraton Four Point is denoted. Where was this at? Was this part of what is now the Millennium?

 

It looks like the south tower used to be the Sheraton:

 

https://www.emporis.com/buildings/122084/four-points-by-sheraton-cincinnati-downtown-cincinnati-oh-usa

 

I always thought it was odd that the Millennium had two separate towers, it makes sense it used to be two distinct hotels.

@OldBearcat Thanks for sharing that CAGIS map, that's super helpful! Sounds like that link was the initial part of the system constructed then?

 

@Ram23: I truly wonder if Saks does good business. I always forgot it was there and occasionally found myself in need of quickly grabbing nicer clothes for some meeting or function I had forgotten about (as I worked in jeans and sneakers). Macys always came in handy or I'd run across the river to Target. I always forgot about Saks. Speaking to another friend today, apparently the PNC building also has a badge reader on its skywalk—you can still access other parts of the block, but to get into that particular building, you need to go to the street and take the elevator back up. Thanks for the link on the 5th/Race building. Gonna dig into that later. And in regards to the Sheraton: I think originally both buildings that are/were the Millennium were both Stouffer's once. Stouffer's built the Inn (older building) first, then added the second tower and it became "Stouffer's Cincinnati Towers." Looks like they became Millennium/Sheraton before joining as one Millennium. 

 

So here's another random question, two questions actually: of art!

1) A reader on Facebook pointed out that there used to be a Yoko Ono art installation near the Skywalk/Contemporary Arts Center (I think the old CAC by Gov. Square). It was a "a single black line and had some saying." Anyone remember this or have a picture? I feel like this question was made for @jmecklenborg

2) Anyone know whatever happened to the weird art piece at the center of the Tower Place food court?