Skywalks. "Modern" ideas of the late 60's/early 70's born out of a major city's desire to keep shoppers downtown and out of the suburban, indoor shopping mall.

 

 

Many major cities began building networks of skywalks in the early 70's. In cities that featured much harsher winter climates like Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Paul; Skywalks became relatively successful. In Cincinnati, however, the skywalks deteriorated over time and became an eyesore for many. Originally designed to link Cincinnati's hotel, commercial and retail business to a brand new convention center; the skywalks have become somewhat of their own "downtown ghost town."

 

 

The Skywalk today is a shell of it's former self. Some sections are maintained and well kept while others are deteriorating with old signage and panhandlers. Many section lead to dead ends or force you back to ground level and in general the layout is just confusing.

 

- A Skywalk Dead End.

 

Many sections of the Skywalk are open-air, kind of defeating the purpose:

 

Check out the Skywalk for yourself by taking a virtual, interactive tour at www.queencitydisco.com. The link to the virtual tour can be found at the bottom of the full skywalk article.

 

Thanks for reading, and if you're interested and like the site...become a fan on facebook.

 

Thanks for viewing everyone!

I only use the part going from Macy's to Tower Place to Saks/Tower Place parking.  The 2nd floor men's department at Macy's makes it very convenient.  I haven't step foot in the rest of it. 

Great tour.  Very interesting and informative.  I love the interactive tour on your site.  It's amazing how even something like a skywalk could fall into disrepair.

great idea for a thread. thanks.

 

it is very curious how these came to be popular and then fell out of favor within a decade.

lets tear them down.  all of them.  I never use any and would love to see them go.  I really hope queen city square doesn't have a skywalk. 

Expansive, interconnected skywalk systems ruin street vibrancy, but sporadic use here and there probably isn't too damaging and adds to the diversity of the cityscape.

^That's a good point, but I think Cincinnati should take a hard look at it's skywalks and decide which need to go.  One or two where they make sense and are getting use might be okay, but having so many that lead to nowhere makes the whole concept seem ridiculous.

^Completely agreed.

I only use the part going from Macy's to Tower Place to Saks/Tower Place parking.  The 2nd floor men's department at Macy's makes it very convenient.  I haven't step foot in the rest of it.

 

Same here.  The way Tower Place is oriented it is more convenient to use the skywalks leading to Macy's and Saks rather than navigating your way back down to street level and going that way.  If the retail were street-oriented then I wouldn't miss those skywalks one bit.  You could probably keep those two though and a couple office tower ones and ditch the rest.

 

Great post though.  If the rest of you haven't checked out the full post on Queen City Discovery you need to as there is a great interactive feature that Ronny included on the site.  Nice work.

Thanks for the kind words Randy and thanks to everyone else for checking this out!

They're nice in the winter to cut through from place to place but I agree that I wouldn't miss them. Is the interior space leased from the buildings? In some instances it probably takes up what would be leasable space, but then it also is a traffic generator. And who is responsible for maintaining them, building owners, the city? I need answers!

Well done!

I can't see the pictures here or on your site! Maybe it's just my computer though, I'll try again tomorrow.

 

EDIT: Now I can see them, nice pics! Thanks for posting

I used the skywalk when I went to tiffanys downtown on tuesday

I use the segments that lead in and out of Carew Tower.

 

When it's really cold, I use the route between the 580 and Chemed buildings on my way home from the backstage drinking entertainment district.