November 29, 200519 yr Author Can they at least put up modern street lights? For crying outloud, are those wired lights hanging in a downtown? Come on Cincy...
November 29, 200519 yr If you are referring to the aluminum lights on the wood poles, I hope and assume those are for construction purposes only.
November 29, 200519 yr ^I think he might also be referring to the copraheads that light the street. These were there before construction and desperately need to be replaced also.
November 29, 200519 yr Oh the traffic signals. Yes mast poles in the cincy style would look nice, but Cincinnati does not use those except in the true core and even fountian square has the wire support signals controling 5th. All the new area where the banks will go and to the east of GAP use wire supported and they are new. Cincinnati just doesn't care too much for streetscapes it seems while Columbus can't get enough. (Neither can I)
November 30, 200519 yr I drove by last night both ways on I-75, and although you don't get the best views and angles from I-75, I definitely like the sign at night. It adds a lot of punch to an otherwise dark corner of downtown.
December 2, 200519 yr Queen City adds glitter to crown By Tony Cook Post staff reporter Call it Cincinnati's version of Los Angeles' famed H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D sign. The series of glistening metal panels set at angles along the western facade of the renovated convention center downtown now gleam alongside Interstate 75, proclaiming C-I-N-C-I-N-N-A-T-I in 50-foot-tall letters. The series of glistening metal panels set at angles along the western facade of the renovated convention center downtown now gleam alongside Interstate 75, proclaiming C-I-N-C-I-N-N-A-T-I in 50-foot-tall letters. Read full article here: http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051202/NEWS01/512020346
December 3, 200519 yr "The new addition to Cincinnati's skyline - designed to be seen from a distance as one approaches the city from the west - is actually five feet taller than the Hollywood sign." Who "approaches from the west" that sees that sign? What westsiders are venturing into downtown at night? It's like the city sat down and wondered from which direction will the least people see this sign. Why did they not place it so that you can see it coming down the cut-in-the-hill or coming from the north? Unless you're directly next to it, you really don't get an unobstructed view unless you're living in Price Hill. I love the sign and love the idea but I think the placement was ill contrived.
December 6, 200519 yr Industry Insights Convention center project meeting goals Mark McKillip The current expansion and renovation of the Cincinnati Convention Center, now known as the Cinergy Center, will essentially create an entirely new state-of-the-art, 750,000-square-foot facility in downtown Cincinnati. This project has offered opportunities for an innovative management team structure to ensure that the project meets its goals of responsible budgeting and construction schedule management, continuous facility operation, and Small Business Enterprise participation as well. Under agreements with Hamilton County, the Hamilton County Convention Facilities Authority and corporate contributors to the funding of the project, the city of Cincinnati is responsible for the execution and management of the project. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2005/12/05/focus2.html
December 6, 200519 yr with all the negativity surrounding the banks and downtown in general we can all look to this, the montgomery inn project, and, or course, the BENGALS!!! for a much needed dose of positivity.
December 6, 200519 yr "The new addition to Cincinnati's skyline - designed to be seen from a distance as one approaches the city from the west - is actually five feet taller than the Hollywood sign." Who "approaches from the west" that sees that sign? What westsiders are venturing into downtown at night? It's like the city sat down and wondered from which direction will the least people see this sign. Why did they not place it so that you can see it coming down the cut-in-the-hill or coming from the north? Unless you're directly next to it, you really don't get an unobstructed view unless you're living in Price Hill. I love the sign and love the idea but I think the placement was ill contrived. Well, anyone on 75 will see it. Folks coming from Michigan and the south will get an eyefull. Living on the Westside, I enjoy seeing it lit. I'm not a big fan of the green neon running board. They could turn that off on occasion.
December 7, 200519 yr ^Yeah, everyone on 75 sees it but not until you're immediately upon it. You can't get a proper, unobstructed view at a distance from any point on 75.
December 7, 200519 yr Author Well I will vouch that you can see it 10,000 feel up in the air as you decend upon CVG. Looks pretty cool and I can make up the letters from the plane window. Seems like most of my flights home, always pass the airport and turn around in Hamilton County. Seems like some shady way to keep the noise on the Ohio side.
December 21, 200519 yr Bigger and better Convention center plans January debut By Greg Paeth | Post staff reporter The first section of the new Cinergy Center annex will open late this year. The $160 million, three-story expansion and renovation to the existing convention center will create a technically up-to-date facility. For Mark McKillip and the architects, engineers and construction crews that have spent the last 18 months working on Cinergy Center, exam time is less than a month away. On Jan. 13, when the annual Travel, Sports & Boat Show opens at the convention center, taxpayers will have their first opportunity to see how more than $100 million of their money was spent to expand and renovate the facility. The show, expected to draw 70,000 people over its nine-day run, will be the first major event open to the general public in the revamped convention center, which will be about 80 percent complete by the time the show opens. Read full article here: http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051221/NEWS01/512210347
December 21, 200519 yr Author I hope the entire interior of the building has been totally redone. The drag gray was depressing.
December 22, 200519 yr Well I will vouch that you can see it 10,000 feel up in the air as you decend upon CVG. Looks pretty cool and I can make up the letters from the plane window. Seems like most of my flights home, always pass the airport and turn around in Hamilton County. Seems like some shady way to keep the noise on the Ohio side. They land to the south about 90% of the time because the prevailing wind is usually coming from the south/southwest. You want to land and takeoff into the wind.
December 23, 200519 yr Not that we haven't talked about this before, but I found it interesting. I drove my brother home for Christmas from Chicago. As we're coming down 75 past downtown, he stops mid-word, looks at the convention center sign, and says, "What the hell is that!?!" Just one more vote against the cups in fence.
December 31, 200519 yr This story completely got by all of us, but it tells about some of the new features which may be pretty cool: Cinergy's signs of the future The expanded convention center will use plasma screens to direct visitors Lucy May Senior Staff Reporter Even before downtown Cincinnati's convention center consumed two entire city blocks, it could be tricky for visitors to find their way around the place. Escalators led to other escalators that led to hallways that led to other hallways. Sometimes, a piece of paper taped to the wall was your best bet to find a meeting before it began. The expanded Cinergy Center will be bigger than ever. But city planners say it will be easier to navigate, too, thanks to high-tech digital signage being installed throughout the massive building. When the center opens in April, 15 61-inch plasma screen digital signs will be spread throughout the public areas of the facility, said Mark McKillip, the city of Cincinnati's project manager for the $160 million expansion and renovation. Read full article here: http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2005/12/26/focus1.html
December 31, 200519 yr BIG MISTAKE! I can't believe the city dropped the ball on this one (or can I?). Plasma screens are notorious for burning images into their screens because they get so hot. Think the 1980's Pac-Man screens that forever had the high score screen etched into their pictures. Sony doesn't even make plasma screens anymore because of the problems and I don't think Best Buy will warrant them. So, when you're choosing a tv screen to run a repetitive message all day, what screen out of the many available is the last you should choose? That's right, plasma. The city probably got some huge discount on the tvs and failed to do their homework. I'm going to write McKillip. I like the idea of the programming.
December 31, 200519 yr "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
January 11, 200619 yr The Enquirer has an interactive floor plan, where you can click on certain spots of all 3 levels and see renderings and photos of what it will look like. It's definitely worth a look if you're interested in seeing how the new center works: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060111/BIZ01/301110001/1076/rss01 Ready to shine $160 million makeover of convention center almost complete By Marla Matzer Rose Enquirer staff writer The $160 million renovation and expansion of the Cinergy Center is 80 percent finished; the public will get a preview when the Travel, Sports & Boat Show opens Friday. Among the new elements on display will be a revamped design scheme including new carpet, paint and wall murals, along with an exhibit space of about 200,000 square feet, compared with 160,000 square feet before the expansion. The full reopening is still six months away. The finished product will include a spectacular, high-ceiling ballroom billed as the biggest in the region, along with a myriad of cosmetic and behind-the-scenes enhancements. Businesses that rely on conventions already are looking forward to the center's increased drawing power. The Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau says its bookings in 2005 for future business were encouraging, even if they're not where they ultimately hope they will be. Read full article here: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060111/NEWS01/601110363/1056/rss02
January 12, 200619 yr BIG MISTAKE! I can't believe the city dropped the ball on this one (or can I?). Plasma screens are notorious for burning images into their screens because they get so hot. Think the 1980's Pac-Man screens that forever had the high score screen etched into their pictures. Sony doesn't even make plasma screens anymore because of the problems and I don't think Best Buy will warrant them. So, when you're choosing a tv screen to run a repetitive message all day, what screen out of the many available is the last you should choose? That's right, plasma. The city probably got some huge discount on the tvs and failed to do their homework. I'm going to write McKillip. I like the idea of the programming. Sorry to bust your bubble, but your statement is entirely false. Plasma screens do not burn-in because they get too hot! I am not even sure where you could get that idea. The reason why CRT displays and older plasmas is because they use phosphor. When an image is shown too long, at very high contrast, the phosphor has a memory of that image. Sony isn't making plasma anymore because LCD flat panels are getting larger, and Sony is now pushing LCoS in their SXRD projection sets. Just because Sony isn't making them, doesn't mean plasmas are out. Also, Sony isn't the best electronics brand, however they are the most expensive and not worth it most of the time. As long as the plasmas are adjusted correctly and change the image every couple of minutes, the screens will be fine.
January 12, 200619 yr The expanded Cinergy Center will be bigger than ever. Glad they cleared that one up. I don't care too much about TV so I don't know about plasma's durability, but that sounds like a great idea. The convention center in Atlanta had something similar and I was quite impressed. They are welcoming, informative, and pretty sleak.
January 13, 200619 yr BIG MISTAKE! I can't believe the city dropped the ball on this one (or can I?). Plasma screens are notorious for burning images into their screens because they get so hot. Think the 1980's Pac-Man screens that forever had the high score screen etched into their pictures. Sony doesn't even make plasma screens anymore because of the problems and I don't think Best Buy will warrant them. So, when you're choosing a tv screen to run a repetitive message all day, what screen out of the many available is the last you should choose? That's right, plasma. The city probably got some huge discount on the tvs and failed to do their homework. I'm going to write McKillip. I like the idea of the programming. Sorry to bust your bubble, but your statement is entirely false. Plasma screens do not burn-in because they get too hot! I am not even sure where you could get that idea. The reason why CRT displays and older plasmas is because they use phosphor. When an image is shown too long, at very high contrast, the phosphor has a memory of that image. Sony isn't making plasma anymore because LCD flat panels are getting larger, and Sony is now pushing LCoS in their SXRD projection sets. Just because Sony isn't making them, doesn't mean plasmas are out. Also, Sony isn't the best electronics brand, however they are the most expensive and not worth it most of the time. As long as the plasmas are adjusted correctly and change the image every couple of minutes, the screens will be fine. I apologize for the incorrect statement but I stand by my suggestion that this constitutes a mistake. Any screen that has the potential to have "burn-in" images should not be used to display repetitive programming.
January 13, 200619 yr This expansion is certainly a good thing, but was this expansion short-sighted?....with the Columbus Convention Center at 425,000 square feet and the Indianapolis Convention Center planning to expand to 750,000 square feet, how long before 200,000 square feet is too small? I realize it was a hard enough time just getting the current expansion approved and anything larger will create logistical issues. Or if convention business continues to slow, will Indy and Columbus find that their facilities are too large?
January 13, 200619 yr I think they originally envisioned a much larger facility--one that would be so large that it would reach out over I-75 and create a tunnel. They justified the smaller size somehow. I can't think of the exact reasons right off hand but I'm sure a Google search would probably bring them up. One was probably money. Another probably was the fact that they couldn't build over the highway, and the demolition of adjacent structures for expansion was ruled out. I'm sure they did market studies, blah blah blah....
January 13, 200619 yr I think they originally envisioned a much larger facility--one that would be so large that it would reach out over I-75 and create a tunnel. They justified the smaller size somehow. I can't think of the exact reasons right off hand but I'm sure a Google search would probably bring them up. One was probably money. Another probably was the fact that they couldn't build over the highway, and the demolition of adjacent structures for expansion was ruled out. I'm sure they did market studies, blah blah blah.... lol.... when I first read dfly's comment, I didn't think about I75. I'm sure the future Brent Spence bridge plan had something to do with that as well.
January 13, 200619 yr Cincy-Rise is correct. I believe ODOT owns most of the land between Central Ave. and I-75. Since everything was(and is still) up in the air on the Brent Spence replacement, ODOT did not want to give up that land. They could have expanded to the east but, they would have had to raze the Mellinium Hotel, which is the largest in the city. I think they are now pretty much land locked, unless they decided to expand north or south, but that poses all whole new set of issues.
January 13, 200619 yr I just love the CINCINNATI sign on the side of the bldg. Adds another unique element to the already stellar Cincinnati skyline.
January 30, 200619 yr <i>This should help clean up the area near the convention center.</i> <b>Central Avenue improvements set</b> The city of Cincinnati's Central Avenue Improvement Project was to begin today and continue through October. Prus Construction Co. is to reconstruct curb and sidewalks on both sides of Central Avenue from Third Street to Seventh Street in downtown. The company also will install new light poles, fixtures, traffic signals and parking meters, plant trees and resurface the pavement. From 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays, two hours before and after all major downtown events, and during non-working hours, the contractor is to keep two northbound lanes and two southbound lanes open to traffic. During working hours, the contractor is to keep one northbound lane and one southbound lane open to traffic. Street parking on Central Avenue will be limited for the duration of the project. Read full article here: http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060130/NEWS01/601300347
January 30, 200619 yr Author What it used to look like: http://www.cincinnativiews.net/buildings_2.htm Summary taken from http://www.cincinnativiews.net Cincinnati Convention Center as it looked when dedicated on August 4, 1967. Consisting of 95,000' sq. feet on the block bounded by 5th, 6th, Elm, and Plum Streets it soon came to be regarded as outdated and too small, it was also considered to be an ugly looking box-like structure with 'no spirit'. An expansion and remodeling program began in 1984 which resulted in an elegant facility with 162,000-square feet of exhibition space, a 30,000-square foot ballroom, plus 43 meeting rooms. The arch from the old Albee Theater was installed over the 5th St. entrance. This new structure was rededicated June 9, 1986 as the Sabin Convention Center in honor of Dr. Albert Sabin who had developed the oral polio vaccine in the 1950s at Cincinnati's Children's Hospital.
January 30, 200619 yr They should have made it bigger to about a million sf. They could have expanded it above the streets on all 4 sides.
February 26, 200619 yr It's not all the way open yet. The third floor and some of the western most portions will not open until June.
February 26, 200619 yr Author I understand that the third floor wasn't open yet but I was referring to the core exhibit space located on the first floor. Most of the larger conventions don't use the space on the second & third floor.
March 9, 200619 yr This is no surprise.... Cinergy Center yields to Duke BY MARLA MATZER ROSE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER After a $160 million expansion and renovation, the final thing to be tweaked at Cincinnati's downtown convention center will be the name. Cinergy Corp. paid $9 million for a multi-year naming rights deal for the convention center in 2003. Now, with its merger with Duke Energy expected to close in early April and the convention center preparing for its late June grand reopening, the merged utility will be paying tens of thousands more to redo the signs. Duke Energy Center is the new name being discussed for the convention center post-merger. A Cinergy spokeswoman on Tuesday was tight-lipped about whether that reflects the name of the combined company, citing final approval hurdles including a shareholder vote Friday. Read full article here: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060308/BIZ01/603080307/1076/rss01
March 9, 200619 yr oh yea, has anyone gone/plan to go to the home and garden show? any insight on the feel of the place???
March 9, 200619 yr oh yea, has anyone gone/plan to go to the home and garden show? any insight on the feel of the place??? You need to read a few more posts, Montecarloss went to the car show that shows the finishing touches(cute little kid not included). The first show since the construction.
March 9, 200619 yr ^ i know, i read that post. But i remember him saying the place didnt feel too much bigger. My dad owns a business and has a booth, or whatever you call it, at the home and garden show and said he noticed a considerable difference. I just wanted to know if anyone had gone to the home and garden show and noticed the same thing my dad did and if the difference in his perception to the car show was the different showcases or not.
March 9, 200619 yr ^that last sentence was worded really bad. what i wanted to say was, was the difference in perception due to the type of showcase. Or, maybe, did one show use more space? Im really not sure how the conventions work in utilizing space, etc.
March 9, 200619 yr Author I also went to the Home & Garden show. J Miles Wolf is there selling his Cincinnati photos. If you want a vague idea of the expansion of the main convention space, if you look at my first photo, everything behind the beam with "exit" on it is new space. They added space to the second & third floor but the large conventions generally only use the first floor. It was my first time going to the Home & Garden show. I went looking for vendors to replace my basement windows and someone to fix my deck. I got a few estimates and they were some nice home theatre setups and good deals on Jacuzzi's.
March 10, 200619 yr Also, I believe back-end functions were expanded - loading docks, etc. Another area that was re-done was the ballroom. I don't know what floor that's on, but I think that's gotten good reviews.
March 10, 200619 yr Great photos of the original building Monte. I am with Monte on this one and I too was at the car show and the space added to the main exhibition space was really not that much. Truck docks were greatly increased as well as addition of smaller meeting rooms, renovated kitchens, & office space on 2nd floor and then the greatly increased ballroom on the third floor.
March 11, 200619 yr They should have just moved the Convention center to Broadway Commons. We are far behind other Convention centers. Check this one out from New Orleans. It's expansion will add more space than our total space, even after our expansion..lol Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Expansion Current Square Feet of Exhibit Space: 1.1 Million Square Feet of Exhibit Space after Expansion: 1.6 Million
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