I've been following this project for awhile, I've always had quite an interest in the Glencoe complex.

 

If anyone's interested, I composed a history of the place for a class at UC earlier this year, it's available here:

 

http://daapspace4.daap.uc.edu/~feinze/galleries/miscprojects2/miscprojects2.html

 

Great to see this (!) and welcome to UrbanOhio Zach!

Anti-tax group: Say no to $300K to developer

By Jane Prendergast • [email protected] • February 16, 2009

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090216/NEWS01/302160092/1056/COL02

 

MOUNT AUBURN – It’s illegal for Cincinnati to give $300,000 to a private developer, an anti-tax group says, and especially irresponsible when the properties have back taxes due and at least one building faces foreclosure.

 

Click on link for article.

Van der Haar has botched this from the beginning.  I think the city should have had more of an agreement on paper before doing this.  It's one thing to allot money towards infrastructure (which is where this $300k was intended to go) because the streets, sidewalks, and lighting here are in shambles, but it's another ballpark to actually fix the buildings with it. 

 

Not to mention it's like putting a band-aid on a broken leg.  This is one of my favorite places in Cincinnati, and while I hate to see it fall apart, I hate to see the city waste money like this.  The developer has been playing them for years and it doesn't look like they're going to change any time soon (can't even pay their taxes?).

Van der Haar has botched this from the beginning. I think the city should have had more of an agreement on paper before doing this. It's one thing to allot money towards infrastructure (which is where this $300k was intended to go) because the streets, sidewalks, and lighting here are in shambles, but it's another ballpark to actually fix the buildings with it.

 

Not to mention it's like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. This is one of my favorite places in Cincinnati, and while I hate to see it fall apart, I hate to see the city waste money like this. The developer has been playing them for years and it doesn't look like they're going to change any time soon (can't even pay their taxes?).

 

ditto

bah.  Well this kind of shit sucks.  This is such a great area.  We must preserve these places. 

^ Yup!  At ALL costs!

I think this would be better off in another developers hands....this is sad.

I'm having someone from COAST on my show this week to discuss their opposition to the city using the money in this way.  If you have any questions you'd like me to ask them, reply here to email me at [email protected]

I lived in the Apartment building at 2301 Auburn Ave - which is right on the corner of Auburn and Glencoe -  from 1975-77.  As fascinating as that steep street and its stepped houses are, there seem to be insoluble problems as far as building an aesthetic streetscape while accommodating parking requirements. There's no great view to be had,it's dark and cavernous, and 300K, I want at least a porch to sit on and something besides asphalt to look at.  I just don't see it as viable. 

I still think this could make the world's coolest haunted house.  With the way it's set in that hole, it's really difficult to picture that enclave looking anything but creepy.  Even if it had all new windows, fresh paint and people playing kickball in the center I still think I'd feel creeped out there.

 

Whoever owns the property could use admission prices to keep the buildings in a state of "suspended decay" like Bodie, CA.

 

Summer and fall 2009 updates to the abandoned Mount Auburn rowhouses in Cincinnati, Ohio. A fire damaged several buildings, and windstorms have caused structural damage to the roof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

so much potential

 

cool place to skateboard.

In all honesty, this plan seems to be dead.  Yeah, great potential but nothing's happened yet to justify further committed interest in this.  I think it would be great to have a great mid density, tree lined rowhouse neighborhood in that area with a couple of boutiques and a neighborhood cofee shop and bar but reality is reality and this ain't movin.

Yeah.  I went through there yesterday, and every time I see the place it is exponentially closer to being unsalvageable.  It's literally about to fall over into the street.

Some form of affordable off campus student housing?  Housing for medical residents at Christ?  Something non-residential?  Anyone have any ideas?  Top secret government project even...lol.  These are just too unique to give up on.  I know many feel the interior of these places makes them unadaptable for other uses, but I think the possibilities are often times quite flexible.  If gutted, it's just a series of stepped brick boxes you could do anything with!!!

I don't see why they can't be student housing units.

ROI is too low for that. The structures, in the condition they are now, will require substantial structural stabilization and complete gut-rehab.

 

  Even if they were brand new they are still a long walk from U.C.

ROI is too low for that. The structures, in the condition they are now, will require substantial structural stabilization and complete gut-rehab.

 

Subsidy.

 

  Even if they were brand new they are still a long walk from U.C.

 

The shuttle comes right down McMillan past Auburn.  Those living in McMillan Manor benefit from that, and they're even farther away.  The difference is that they have a massive parking garage, so the incentive to ride is lower.

Well, you are looking at no easy way to get to McMillian for these people. College students don't really want to walk an extremely long distance to catch a bus to some far away school. Location wise, it's not far; psychologically, it is. There is only two ways in and out; one goes to OTR, the other is Auburn, and that requires a steep climb. It is then a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, which goes east; another 3 minutes to the westbound ride.

Well, you are looking at no easy way to get to McMillian for these people. College students don't really want to walk an extremely long distance to catch a bus to some far away school. Location wise, it's not far; psychologically, it is. There is only two ways in and out; one goes to OTR, the other is Auburn, and that requires a steep climb. It is then a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, which goes east; another 3 minutes to the westbound ride.

 

My main defense to that statement is that people who live in Clifton often walk up the hill just to get to campus.  I myself live in the Ludlow Business District, and walk the 15 minutes to the northwest corner of West Campus.  Granted, it does depend on *where* your classes are primarily.  Natch, DAAP students tend to live near Ludlow more than CCM students...although I know several of the later along upper Jefferson.  I will also acknowledge that those of us who live near Ludlow *do* have more amenities available to us, so it makes living farther from campus easier to pull off. 

 

But the walk to Kroger from Inwood Village is only 10 minutes.  Better lighting along Auburn would help ensure a higher level for safety for residents and passersby.

 

As far as the bus stops, the 24 has a stop right on Auburn, up the hill from those units.  That takes you along the eastern edge of West Campus, as well as the entire south side of East Campus.  On the other end of Inwood Village, you have access to the 46 and the 78.  No, the 17, 18, and 19 aren't within easy walking distance, but that's not really the point. 

I agree, it seems like a huge distance from campus psychologically just because it's in a valley.  Didn't Jake make some sort of illustration where a subway line would have a stop in the Inwood Village complex?  That would obviously be a huge incentive for people to live there.

 

 

Alright, let the subsidy begin in the classrooms!!  Anyone have connections at UC?  Let's get this rollling.  Get DAAP and the Engineering Dept involved.  This is gonna need all the "free" work you can get!

 

This could provide plenty of "project" material for students in architecture, planning, and interior design.  Engineering students can make sure whatever far-out designs the DAAP kids come up with are structurally feasible. 

 

Of course, make it as "green" as possible. 

 

 

I know there are a couple grad students around the country working on plans for the project, but the presentations all seem to end up with this just being a doomed spot - cursed even.

Alright, let the subsidy begin in the classrooms!! Anyone have connections at UC? Let's get this rollling. Get DAAP and the Engineering Dept involved. This is gonna need all the "free" work you can get!

 

The owner isn't interested in doing much of anything without huge amounts of $$$ from the city. :(

And the owner has pissed off half of council.  Not good if you're looking for money.

I live a few blocks away, and from visiting the Hole, it seems that any rescue would require some major change in the site topology. Just because something is old does not mean it is good.

 

It is just a bad feeling place - bad feng shui if you like. Interesting and fascinating for sure, but the canyon effect is oppressive. If one of the rows were to be knocked down, it might open it up better. There needs to be some sort of connection between this area and the Inwood park and Auburn Avenue spaces. Part of the problem is the looming effect from Christ Hospital, and some crappy tenements have been built in the last 50 years in that area as well.

Now that would be an interesting idea.  As much as I hate to see old fabric disappear, thinning the place out in some way might be what's needed to bring it back to life.  Imagine clearing out the whole interior block and making it a sort of park/square/front yard for the whole development.  New buildings could be constructed along the north and west edge where they're missing, and also at the southeast side as well, so you have a continuous building envelope.  Those new buildings could accommodate some parking for the whole place too. 

I think we need a corridor to Inwood park - something to open up the canyon so it's no longer "The Hole". We need open connections between the hoods so the thugs can't scurry around in their maze. 

Developer launches blog to rail against city

By Dan Monk, Cincinnati Business Courier | June 23, 2010

 

It's a lawsuit and a media campaign, the multipronged assault that developer Pauline Van der Haer has launched against the city of Cincinnati.

 

The principal owner of Inwood Village and Dorian Development sued the city for $15.5 million in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court June 21. Van der Haer claims city officials failed to honor a series of contracts to subsidize her housing development at the former Glencoe Apartments near Christ Hospital.

 

To bolster her case, she developed a blog entitled, "Was Mark Twain Right?"  Among its features is a trio of renderings showing what Van der Haer was hoping to build at the intersection of Auburn Ave. and Glencoe Place.

 

Read full article here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2010/06/developer_launches_blog_to_rail_against_city.html

From the developer's blog:

 

 

 

Exciting but not all that practical. Skylights for a roof? It would be like what I suffered through my first year at the Emery, where I had a full glass ceiling and a 23-foot ceiling. It was like a greenhouse in the summer, and absolutely frigid in the winter. I couldn't get it below 90F during much of the summer, and above 65F during the winter. And that was with $200-300 gas/electric bills.

 

At least it is something, though. Inwood has never succeeded. It was built "down the hill" from the richer tops, so it was never successful in its original goal of attracting wealthier residents as the first suburb of Cincinnati. It was home to the city's first rent strike. It's "award winning" redevelopment in the 1970s, complete with paperboard walls and cheap plastic tiles, became a slum by the 1990s.

 

I'm not sure what can realistically be done. It's in a poor location, relatively isolated, and on a steep grade. It has so much potential, being next to Christ...

That second rendering is just so over the top sappy and ridiculous it's difficult to take any of it seriously. 

That second rendering is just so over the top sappy and ridiculous it's difficult to take any of it seriously. 

 

Agreed.

That is the most happening community I have ever seen.  They have an ultimate frisbee game, impromptu urban poetry slams, an old hippy on guitar, hot chicks around a campfire at noon in the middle of August and rednecks tailgating for some mysterious football game that must be going on nearby.  And it is all happening simultaneously!!!

 

And at night, every single unit has a party.  How could the city not give this project its full support? 

 

Don't forget the lady doing yoga (and apparently convulsing at the same time), the cyclists who, for some reason, decided to wander down the steep grade, the colored grasses, and the Windex-cleaned windows, because they all shine and give off bursts.

^ she's not convulsing she's levitating.

I like fans with football jerseys supporting player number S1.  Someone needs to remind the artist that it's okay to flip an image, provided that it contains no text.

I think the guy in pink is smoking pot.

I think the guy who did the rendering was tripping on LSD.

Lol personally, aside from doing way too much with all the people, I think it's a pretty cool design

I have to say..the third rendering looks pretty awesome

 

 

  In the thrid rendering: Watch that last step, it's a doozy.

She's trying to make it look like the city is keeping this wonderland from happening when it's the banks, who won't touch this thing with a ten foot pole.  It's not a real proposal, people.  Duh.   

 

Her sleazy tactics give credence to the rumor that she thought the Blue Ash money was coming to her. 

The first rendering seems doeable!! I give em that!

Dorian Development got tons of City money in the 1990s.  Pauline Vanderhaar was a friend of a certain city employee back then and she got high $/ per unit developed.  That city employee has now retired and is a consultant on this proposal.  But the politics have changed and Dorian is not a favored developer anymore. The City does not owe her anything other than the same consideration any other developer would get.

Holy crap! That's a party! The unfortunate thing about the renderings is I actually like the concept