Very good news. I'm a little worried about the form this will take urbanistically though. I hope it's not built as a low-rise, set-back, suburban style blob simply because they've ended up w/ a surplus of land.

 

That first building on the West Quad doesn't really inspire much confidence...

http://www.wcpn.org/index.php/WCPN/news/13032/

 

Case Western Reserve Scales Back West Quad Project

Posted Tuesday, August 5, 2008

 

A tough U.S. economy has tempered plans for a much heralded research park in Northeast Ohio. ideastream's David C. Barnett reports that the scaling back of Case's multi-million dollar "West Quad" project is part of a national trend.

Topics: Economy, Education, Health

 

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(DCB: Three years ago, the plans for the West Quad were impressive: Case would redevelop 14 acres of the old Mt. Sinai Medical Center property into a major research park --- just the first phase of which was reportedly budgeted at 125 million dollars.  Today, the plans have been scaled back to one building, costing 50 million.

 

Cleveland State Economic Development analyst Ned Hill says science funding is taking a hit across the country.

 

NED HILL:  This has been a difficult five-year period when it comes to medical research.  You know, medical research is largely driven by the budget of the National Institute of Health, a little bit from the National Science Foundation.  And the NIH budget has actually gone down during the time of the Iraq War and the NSF budget hasn’t increased.

 

DCB: The project name has been changed, as well.  Now known as the “West Campus” project, the new building is due to house medical and energy research facilities. 

Well, I hope if it's only going to be one building that they site it so that more can go in later in a logical order.

The first and only building on Case's forgotten "West Quad:"

 

 

 

The frozen tundra of the "West Quad."

 

 

I saw we scrap everything and make high-rise residential.  The completely empty land is wedged right in between UH/CWRU, Cleveland Clinic, and the VA Hospital!

It might have been a boondoggle if it went forward at that time, and the then-president ruffled too many alumni feathers. Long-term, though, it could still be viable. I don't think they want to part with the land given the favorable trend for that area.

Wow, this is kind of a big deal and was a bit of surprise to me: Case planning to move its med school to a new campus on the West Quad, and already getting some big checks towards that end.  Will be very interesting to see this project shape up. Could also be a shot in the arm for other West Quad development and the frozen Upper Chester project.

 

CWRU gets $20 million in grants to help build new medical school (video)

 

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/09/cwru_gets_20_million_in_grants.html#incart_river_default

Moved from completed/abandoned projects back to active.

Good that they're doing something with west quad. The real question is what will happen to the current buildings. More UH expansion or other CWRU work?

I too am curious about losing the population density and dynamic of the UH-Case Med complex.  This expansion gives me the feeling of sprawling out.

 

We can only hope it does spur future growth on the western edge of University Circle.

 

 

I can guarantee one thing - this board is going to have a collective meltdown when the renderings are released.

I can guarantee one thing - this board is going to have a collective meltdown when the renderings are released.

 

One could read this as a critique of us, or of the architecture we've been presented recently.  I'm going with the latter.

It's a critique of neither.  It is simply adding two and two together given what I know of the board collective and the considerations which I anticipate will attach to the development when the status quo of the site chosen for the new medical school is taken into account.

 

I am happy, but sad at the same time about this.  I am excited that CWRU is likely to end up with a state-of-the-art medical school which will likely rival most any in the nation.  But I hesitate to jump up and down because, as far as site placement is concerned, the old medical school can't be beat and the new medical school is going to dramatically alter how the medical school interacts with the campus and UH.   

I actually trust Case to design something like this more than I would most other institutions in town.  I think, Hts, that you're referring to the obvious security needs given the adjacency to a rough neighborhood, but you're being a bit unfair to the "board collective" with you're "guarantee," IMHO.

I actually hadn't thought about the security needs.  I was thinking more along the lines that there will be plenty of room for parking

^Ah, got it.  There's already a functioning parking garage on site, no?

Yep.... and surface parking..... and plenty of room for landscaping

And even more room...

 

^^I think "landscaping" is within people's expectations for an academic campus, especially in this type of setting, so I doubt that will raise a lot of eyebrows here (depending on the design, of course).  I'm still optimistic that this will be a good first (or I suppose second) phase of a long term, decently designed build-out of the whole site with some seriously beefed up pedestrian connections to the rest of University Circle.  I'd imagine this project will add some more fire to the Rosales pedestrian bridge proposal or something like it.  Fingers crossed Case hires some good design talent for the master plan and the individual buildings. 

 

Does anyone know who tends to use the garage and surface lot on the West Quad site now?  I think they are managed by UCI, so maybe they're open to employees at many of the area institutions, but have no idea really.