So I had the privilege of catching some stunning shots from the top of the Key Tower.  The shots were from the 49th floor where Squire Sanders resides.  The only reason I got up here is because my aunt works here.

 

Here is the view to the East:

 

 

These were taken from the West... 

 

These shots were actually taken from Fredrick Nance's office.  Pretty nice view ;)

 

Photos from the BP Atrium:

 

 

Tree-mendous!! I love the views from up top of Ohio's Tallest.

 

The atrium of 200 Public Square is overlooked and often underrated as one of the great indoor spaces downtown, IMHO. I'll bet most people think of the Arcades, the Cleveland Trust Bank or Huntington Bank or old National City Bank lobbies, or the Avenue at Tower City as downtown's great indoor spaces. But the outdoors view (of Public Square) is what makes 200 PS a high-ranking candidate.

Very nice!

 

Downtown actually has some nice density to it. The WHD breaks my heart every time, though.

Ok lets all go to Home Depot, get some 2x4s, and start building on those parking lots! Otherwise awesome pics for sure.

Very nice...love those shots looking to the east.

Thanks!

We're not Detroit!

Not yet ;)

Very nice!

 

Downtown actually has some nice density to it. The WHD breaks my heart every time, though.

WHD?

Ok lets all go to Home Depot, get some 2x4s, and start building on those parking lots! Otherwise awesome pics for sure.

Yes I completely agree.  I have to look at those surface lots from the Rockefeller building everyday from work ;(

 

There is fortunately a proposal by Weston developers to redevelop land between Superior- St. Clair and W3rd-W6th

The WareHouse District... which now sadly is predominantly filled with surface parking lots.  The demolition of beautiful historic buildings that took place in this area during the late 60's, 70's, and early 80's is staggering.

 

Great shots btw.

The WareHouse District... which now sadly is predominantly filled with surface parking lots.  The demolition of beautiful historic buildings that took place in this area during the late 60's, 70's, and early 80's is staggering.

 

Great shots btw.

 

I did not realize the extent to what was torn down until I looked at some pictures of the Warehouse district.  The district basically was the entire area west of public square to the flats including the whole prison system too.

if you ever want to thoroughly depress yourself, just go to clevelandmemory.org and search some of the old historic photos.  type in search terms like west 6th st., west 9th street... or intersections like w.6th st. clair.

 

It's not just how much we lost, which is dumfounding enough on it's own... it's the building stock.  You can't build structures like that anymore.  Irreplaceable.

Yep. The craftsmanship is gone, although you might be able to import some renovation workers in the hopes their skills can be used to build, not just rebuild. But we Americans don't want to spend the money for that. We'd rather erect the steel and concrete block equivalents of vendor tents.

Part of it is that labor and material costs have risen so high that it is borderline impossible to build structures like that anymore... and an even bigger part is that the know how is absolutely gone.  Building something like the Rose building is no longer possible.  That's why it is so important to maintain and keep these structures.

if you ever want to thoroughly depress yourself,

 

All the time.

Building something like the Rose building is no longer possible.

 

If we can build a space station, we can build an attractive city block.  I too mourn the loss of skilled sculptors, but do we not have schools of art and architecture?  There are thousands of extant examples to study.  We even have better materials now, in some cases, that can replicate older looks for less cost.  Basically, we can build whatever we want to as soon as we choose to.  It's a matter of priorities.  Ugly modern designs are not required by Newton's fourth law.   

 

That said, I fully agree that demo of older buildings must stop.  But I refuse to believe that we as a people are incapable of replicating the work we did a century ago.  If that were the case, we'd be better off ceasing to exist.

 

I'm sorry... but we just can not afford to build those type of structures any more.  They would be expensive to the point of not possible.

 

If we want to discuss waste, let's start with the time and energy needed to bring threads back on topic. I know one way to settle that argument REAL quick.

 

Great photos urbanforever - one of my favorite places to shoot from ever.

 

 

 

 

(Sigh)

 

Those photos take me back. I had the honor of working on the 50th Floor of Key Tower for close to 3 years. (beginning of 2003 to the end of 2005)

 

I wish I had taken those pictures.

 

One of the most amazing thing to see is a giant thunderstorm rolling in from the west across the suburbs and the lake from 50 floors up.

Great photos!  Downtown still has a lot of density to be proud of.

Nice photos!  I also shot photos in the BP Atrium and they look just like yours....lol.  I got kicked out of there though by security!  Did you have any problems?

Nice photos!  I also shot photos in the BP Atrium and they look just like yours....lol.  I got kicked out of there though by security!  Did you have any problems?

Wow I'm sorry to hear that.  I had no problems at all.

 

Do you know if you can take photos from the top of Tower City?  I hear that it was closed for awhile because of Homeland Security but this may have lifted.

 

What kind of camera do you use by the way?  You have some great photos

"Do you know if you can take photos from the top of Tower City?  I hear that it was closed for awhile because of Homeland Security but this may have lifted."

 

No, you cannot - at least not now. It's still closed. I don't want to come across like a jerk, but as owner/webmaster of clevelandskyscrapers.com, every month I get a handful of emails from people asking if the observation deck is open. It's great to see people interested, but it's time consuming to dispel rumors, know what I mean? Believe me, if/when the observation deck reopens, this forum will know about it and yours truly will be among the first in line :-)

"Do you know if you can take photos from the top of Tower City?  I hear that it was closed for awhile because of Homeland Security but this may have lifted."

 

No, you cannot - at least not now. It's still closed. I don't want to come across like a jerk, but as owner/webmaster of clevelandskyscrapers.com, every month I get a handful of emails from people asking if the observation deck is open. It's great to see people interested, but it's time consuming to dispel rumors, know what I mean? Believe me, if/when the observation deck reopens, this forum will know about it and yours truly will be among the first in line :-)

 

Good to know ;)

Isn't the Terminal Tower Observation Deck opened up a few days (Saturdays I thought) per year?  I thought I remembered going up there a few years ago and taking some pictures.

They opened it on rare occasions for special events (one that comes to mind was the "Free Cleveland" weekend, another was during the holidays), but it's been quite some time.