April 13, 201510 yr ^Sounds good. I've never been to the Brooklyn carousel, so I'm glad to hear it works well with the walls closed.
April 13, 201510 yr I mean, it's definitely louder than when the walls are open (obviously) but the handful of times I've been there it has never been so loud as to make me really notice the volume. The building is also quite sizable which is. The walls might not open like we'd all prefer, but being the size it is and almost entirely glass will definitely help keep it open feeling.
April 13, 201510 yr Huh? What happened? I thought he said in one of the update videos when they first started working on it that the glass walls would swing open.
April 14, 201510 yr From the smale park website: "Glass doors will allow for easy access into the carousel building and will bring the outside, in, on good weather days." Its pretty clear its just the doors. So either they changed it or we misunderstood him in whatever video that was.
April 29, 201510 yr Carol Ann’s Carousel a showcase on Cincinnati’s front porch: SLIDESHOW Chris Wetterich - Staff reporter and columnist - Cincinnati Business Courier Carol Ann’s Carousel, funded largely by the Ralph V. and Carol Ann Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation, is set to open at Smale Riverfront Park on Carol Ann’s birthday – May 16. The 42 hand-carved animals on the carousel and artwork depicting local iconic places that adorns the building’s facade are finished and in place. Jonathan Queen, a Cincinnati artist, created the 16 scenes that are displayed. Click on the image to the right to see the animals and artwork close up. The Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation funded the carousel as a part of its signature gift honoring Carol Ann Haile, the foundation’s CEO, Tim Maloney, told me late last year. Cont "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
April 29, 201510 yr Upcoming Cincinnati Parks events from Facebook: Saturday, May 9th @ 11:00 AM Grand Opening of Heekin Family/PNC Grow Up Great Adventure Playground in Smale Riverfront Park! Tuesday, May 12th @ 5:30 PM Grand Opening of Pichler Fountains & Plaza in Smale Riverfront Park Thursday, May 14th @ 5:00 PM Grand Opening of Anderson Pavilion in Smale Riverfront Park Saturday, May 16th @ 11:00 AM Grand Opening of Carol Ann's Carousel in Smale Riverfront Park "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
May 7, 201510 yr May 2015 update! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_HuTlaBnqE&feature=player_embedded
May 11, 201510 yr See Cincinnati's newest place to play: Smale Park’s playground (PHOTOS) May 11, 2015, 11:40am EDT Updated: May 11, 2015, 11:50am EDT Erin Caproni Digital Producer- Cincinnati Business Courier Cincinnati children have one more place to play and learn at Smale Riverfront Park. The Heekin Family/PNC Grow Up Great Adventure Playground opened Saturday morning at 11 a.m. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2015/05/see-cincinnatis-newest-place-to-play-smale-park-s.html
May 19, 201510 yr I also dont see any provisions for street trees.... maybe thats an idication that none of the paving south of mehring is permanent. You won't be able to see from video/pictures, but if you walk either side of Mehring Way you'll see (what I believe is called) hardboard creating squares in the concrete. These can be jackhammered out and replaced with tress, all the while not damaging the rest of the sidewalk. This is finally occurring to the sidewalk east of Main Street. "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
May 19, 201510 yr Peek inside Smale Riverfront Park’s swanky new event space: PHOTOS May 19, 2015, 10:52am EDT The event space beneath Carol Ann’s Carousel at Smale Riverfront Park is now open. The Annie W. and Elizabeth M. Anderson Pavilion made its debut to the public last week. The street-level space on the north side of Mehring Way features a conference facility that can seat more than 350 in the Longworth and Mendenhall rooms named for Cincinnati philanthropists Elizabeth Mendenhall Anderson and Annie Wallingford Anderson. The Anderson Foundation was established in the late 1990s to support the causes the sisters championed during their lives and funded the new facility. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2015/05/peek-inside-smale-riverfront-park-s-swanky-new.html
May 20, 201510 yr are there any plans to landscape the medians on mhering way? They look very dingey and have been unlandscaped for 5 years now.
May 21, 201510 yr are there any plans to landscape the medians on mhering way? They look very dingey and have been unlandscaped for 5 years now. More important question: any plans on calming the traffic that roars through there? or adding in bike lanes going in either direction? it sucks to have amazing places on both sides...only to be divided by cars going 40.
May 22, 201510 yr I think street trees on both sides of the street would help a little. The southern sidewalk feels particularly exposed to the sun and the business of the street.
May 29, 201510 yr looking west from the suspension bridge, you can see that the turn-only lane that's at the bottom of the vine st steps is now completely superfluous. can't go north into a parking lot, nor south towards the river into another parking lot. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.095729,-84.511554,3a,75y,248.91h,66.36t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s2PlSL2iXrcJ3Cce6dTHfGw!2e0 I wonder if there are plans to narrow the street here, or at least continue the median and plant more trees?
June 3, 201510 yr looking west from the suspension bridge, you can see that the turn-only lane that's at the bottom of the vine st steps is now completely superfluous. can't go north into a parking lot, nor south towards the river into another parking lot. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.095729,-84.511554,3a,75y,248.91h,66.36t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s2PlSL2iXrcJ3Cce6dTHfGw!2e0 I wonder if there are plans to narrow the street here, or at least continue the median and plant more trees? Since the street was rebuilt relatively recently, I doubt they will rip out that concrete to put in a center island. I'm actually surprised they didn't plan ahead and make the center lane a separate slab that could easily be ripped out when the turn lane became unnecessary.
June 3, 201510 yr Interesting that after 7 years of construction, the park is now built out as far as it can go until the rest of The Banks proceeds. The parking deck for The Banks Phase 3 must be built before Lot D is handed over to Cincinnati Parks for development. So, no more video updates for the rest of 2015 at least.
June 5, 201510 yr looking west from the suspension bridge, you can see that the turn-only lane that's at the bottom of the vine st steps is now completely superfluous. can't go north into a parking lot, nor south towards the river into another parking lot. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.095729,-84.511554,3a,75y,248.91h,66.36t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s2PlSL2iXrcJ3Cce6dTHfGw!2e0 I wonder if there are plans to narrow the street here, or at least continue the median and plant more trees? Since the street was rebuilt relatively recently, I doubt they will rip out that concrete to put in a center island. I'm actually surprised they didn't plan ahead and make the center lane a separate slab that could easily be ripped out when the turn lane became unnecessary. My bet is that they just restripe it to continue the left turn lane heading east as there may be an entrance to the future garage there. I doubt any mistake was made. We'll see soon.
June 5, 201510 yr Is there enough we can say about the new, interesting vistas that the Banks and Smale are giving us. Wow! Thanks, Travis!
June 5, 201510 yr Travis, those pics are so good they almost look fake! Is that a special filter or something (I know nothing about photography)?
June 6, 201510 yr Thanks! I did some basic editing like increasing the color saturation, but mostly it was just a nice day with perfect lighting for those photos.
June 7, 201510 yr The park was swarmed today after the Reds game. They didn't really need to advertise that the park is open, no doubt every kid coming out of that game flipped out until their parents took them over.
June 9, 201510 yr I checked out the new section of the park today during a walk along the riverfront, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. The outdoor piano thing was covered with mud and wasn't working at all, and the landscaping looks...cheap or rushed or something. Idk, compared to the rest of the park, I think this Go Vibrant area is pretty weak. Also, the parking lot across the street from the western parts of the park makes that whole area feel sort of weird. Once that section houses the next phase of the Banks, I think that whole area will seem much better.
June 9, 201510 yr Remember, the landscaping is brand new. Newly planted stuff always looks bad. Look back to photos of the first phases's plantings and they look equally "cheap." They haven't had time to take root and fill in. That will come with time.
June 9, 201510 yr If landscaping looks lush and full as soon as you put it in, you're doing it wrong.
June 9, 201510 yr If landscaping looks lush and full as soon as you put it in, you're doing it wrong. That's what she...actually I'm not quite sure she said that.
June 9, 201510 yr In my opinion there are three ways to go about landscaping. The first is to do it on the cheap – get the smallest size plants available (1 gallon or 3 gallon shrubs, 6’-0” trees etc.) and wait 3-5 years for something decent looking to grow. The second is to spend a bit more and get some larger plants (5 or 7 gallon shrubs, 10’-0” trees etc.) and have something good looking the next year (or two, depending upon winters). The last is to go all out and have something lush on the day you plant it. This option is the most expensive, and also the most likely to fail as full, established plants aren’t able to be transplanted as successfully, and many die within the first few years. The middle option is preferable, but with a public project (especially a park) I have no problem with the cheapest option being pursued.
June 9, 201510 yr But the cheapest option isn't even what was chosen. The trees are way more mature that they've planted than most projects because they planted them outside Cleveland at a tree farm years before the project started. It's not perfect, but we could have easily had to wait several more years for phase 1 of the park to look as good as it does currently.
June 21, 20159 yr ^ even funnier if you come down race and look at the backside of it. in a separate note, i'm kinda surprised that the next phase of the banks to go up will be between vine and race. Why not west of race along 2nd? what are the plans for that pad?
June 21, 20159 yr I think it's smart which block they're doing next. If they continued west in the next phase that development would be fairly isolated from the rest of The Banks. By doing the block they're doing they're filling in the fourth quadrant in a rectangular area and then will likely move to the pad you're describing followed by the block along the wavy portion of Race next to Paul Brown. This allows development to be more successful at creating an urban district.
June 22, 20159 yr I've heard the next garage will only be the block south of Freedom Way to where Vine Street curves to meet the roundabout before the suspension bridge. The Park Dept is working on building the extension that would expand the garage to Mehring Way and construct the park on top of that section. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
June 22, 20159 yr And it seems to me too that doing that block does exactly that...which is to allow the park to move forward south of it.
June 22, 20159 yr I've heard the next garage will only be the block south of Freedom Way to where Vine Street curves to meet the roundabout before the suspension bridge. Don't you mean where Rosa Park Street curves... :evil: I'm glad the Park Department still refers to this area as the Vine Street steps. "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
June 22, 20159 yr This has probably been talked about before, but I wish Rosa Parks Street and Joe Nuxhall Way were honorary names and not the actual street names. It just adds confusion when giving directions
June 22, 20159 yr This has probably been talked about before, but I wish Rosa Parks Street and Joe Nuxhall Way were honorary names and not the actual street names. It just adds confusion when giving directions Here, here. Drives me nuts.
June 22, 20159 yr Also, who was Mehring? A pretty important street is named after him/her. http://www.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=AB&Date=20101105&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=11050802&Ref=PH
June 22, 20159 yr I've heard the next garage will only be the block south of Freedom Way to where Vine Street curves to meet the roundabout before the suspension bridge. Don't you mean where Rosa Park Street curves... :evil: I'm glad the Park Department still refers to this area as the Vine Street steps. Notice how I also referred to the Roelbing as just "the suspension bridge" as well? I'm half tempted to just refer to Mehring as Water Street and Freedom Way as Front street! I swear I'm not an old timer, I just play one on TV! “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
June 22, 20159 yr I went down there to check it out on the first day of summer. I was stricken by HOW LUSH everything is, thanks rain! It was also much more beautiful than I could have imagined, especially east of the suspension bridge. The tunnel under the bridge got a nice treatment as well. It's very clean and has bathrooms. As you can see, there were tons of people there. It has propelled downtown Cincinnati into a higher tier of downtowns; in my opinion, easily the best urban experience in Ohio.
June 22, 20159 yr This has probably been talked about before, but I wish Rosa Parks Street and Joe Nuxhall Way were honorary names and not the actual street names. It just adds confusion when giving directions Yup, maybe the topic needs its own thread? 8-) I wish they would bring back the original street names to the grid. Having to look up Rosa Parks Drive on a map - just use Vine Street and have the honorary designation "Rosa Parks" underneath as has been done in front of Music Hall. That said, this is a pretty solid block of a building. Looking forward to this! Renaming 3rd for Carl Linder is all fine and great... but i wish they would keep the actual street names down by the Banks as well.. with Rosa Parks and Freedom Way switching from the traditional grid street names it is confusing. It could be Third Street / Carl Linder "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
June 22, 20159 yr Me and the whole fam damily went yesterday. It was way more packed later in the day than when you were there (judging by the pics.) I'll post pics later. But, wow, it is world class. I was a little disappointed the Great Lawn is not opened yet.
June 22, 20159 yr Sunday was swarming with activity. It was cool to see the bike rental place that has been there for a few years now actually renting out a bunch of bikes, in addition to the red bikes.
June 22, 20159 yr And it seems to me too that doing that block does exactly that...which is to allow the park to move forward south of it. True of course, but I do worry a little about the park becoming "too big." Is the park actually going to bridge mehring way water street?
June 22, 20159 yr There are, off centered, crosswalks at the base of the Walnut St. and Vine St. steps. There are no plans for a bridge over Mehring Way. "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
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