I'm sorry, I applaud Geis for getting this project going, but how does this city continue to glaze over spoon fed names.  Instead of "Gospel Press" we have Tremont Place Lofts.  Instead of "The Marcel" or "The Breuer" we get lame titles like "The 9" and "The Metropolitan."  Other than the positives of rehabbing this complex, and of course there are an endless amount, it's an utter disaster from a design standpoint.  Until we get the design work out of the hands of developer owned in-house architects we can expect more of the same.

^With the fonts they've selected, why even bother with that? I never work for free but this is one case where I'd happily donate my services so my eyes don't bleed every time I look at this. For god's sake, it's a Breuer-designed landmark, at the very least use a sans serif font like Helvetica Neue or Futura. It's the typographic equivalent of people who buy an ultra-modern condo and furnish it with faux-Tuscan overstuffed crap.

 

Rule of thumb is: no cornice on the building, no cornice on the text.

Barf. The signage near the top of the building should be a no no with the historic preservation credits, but I have no idea what the rules really are.

Wow that's gaudy as heck. Like for a strip club. Please, someone send Geiss a sample of Helvetica!!!!

 

The only development with that kind of font should be Battery Park.

 

 

Yeah, that's pretty awful.  Don't know what they were thinkin.

 

A couple other things from the design review. It included a rendering of the Rotunda with LED uplighting. Looked sharp. They are updating the clock tower at the corner with a digital face. Not sure how I feel about that. Probably more usable at night at least.

 

edit typo: meant uplighting not uplifting - damn autocorrect

I'm sorry, I applaud Geis for getting this project going, but how does this city continue to glaze over spoon fed names.  Instead of "Gospel Press" we have Tremont Place Lofts.  Instead of "The Marcel" or "The Breuer" we get lame titles like "The 9" and "The Metropolitan."  Other than the positives of rehabbing this complex, and of course there are an endless amount, it's an utter disaster from a design standpoint.  Until we get the design work out of the hands of developer owned in-house architects we can expect more of the same.

 

Totally agree!  Such a generic and lame name for this project.  Even the hotel name wasn't thought out very well.  It's like the City Hotel on 9th Street...really?

 

Picture from today of the County Admin building. Not looking bad .....

 

 

Except for that rusty, phallic skywalk penetrating it.

 

Taken today. This work started today (except for the 'test' portion that had been there for a while), well, because it wasnt there yesterday.

Funny...another situation where i took pics not thinking i'd post them, but the topic was raised...

 

 

Thanks for the photo, but ick.  I see both skywalks in one view

 

^yeah idk. Its being done because its a convenience for the hotel / apt dwellers

 

 

^Hopefully some cornice restoration on that guy too.

 

dont know if there are any renderings of the final product, but im getting the feeling that the cornice will be re-built. Possibly just wishful thinking

 

Hopefully, the white paint is just a primer.  I would hope that it would end up being painted gray.  The white paint makes it stand out too much and none of us wants that!

Aside from the skywalk that is a really cool picture, so many architectural eras and styles in one frame with beautiful trees and flowers on each end

I see both skywalks in one view

Well then I say double ick.

^yeah idk. Its being done because its a convenience for the hotel / apt dwellers

 

I think someone reported (credibly) upthread that there won't actually be an internal connect between the county office building and the Breuer Tower, so that skywalk may not really benefit the residents and guests at the end of the day. I have no direct info, though.

 

There's an opportunity to do something pretty cool with that thing, though.  Maybe some kind of trippy tromp l'oeil along these lines: http://www.creativebloq.com/art/trompe-loeil-12121498

 

Thanks for the photo with the cornice! It would certainly make sense for the state to require its reconstruction to get the credits--like at 668-- but who knows.

 

[Edited for typos]

I agree that the skywalk to the Breuer tower made sense. I don't understand why they nixed the walk thru to the entire site.

^Security through the County building is ridiculous. Every apartment/hotel dweller would basically have to have county security clearance. The rebuilt bridge to the Bruer Tower would have only been for County employees anyway.

 

Majority of bridge will be a matching silver to the building curtain wall with white accents. Primer is white.

I walked by the County Admin building today and took this picture - shows a nice street reflection in the glass front. Kind of cool ....

 

I also noticed they have added the metallic looking siding underneath the bridge too - starting to look much better now ....

 

Wow Paul those are great pics!!

From an Executive level conference room in the new County Admin building.

 

 

 

IMG_1183

 

IMG_1182

 

IMG_1180

The views FROM the building are certainly better than views OF the building! ;)

Some may not be happy with the two bridges but that's a really nice photo of the vibrant (and soon to be much more so) district with all its architectural styles.

 

The new County building isn't bad looking but I still think its in a dumb location (I blame the former County Commissioners - particularly one) and I wish it were taller - doesn't look substantial enough.  Good for that district, of course.

^Why taller...just for taller sake....I imagine the county and developer did an analysis of its current and future space needs and decided the size of the building fit their needs.  Why should the taxpayers incur needless costs to build a bigger building if it is not needed.  If I were to incur additional costs I would have put it into a more interesting design and higher end finishes...but really even that is hard to justify given the needs of the county and the fact that the county took a hit buying this building in the first place.

Some may not be happy with the two bridges but that's a really nice photo of the vibrant (and soon to be much more so) district with all its architectural styles.

 

The new County building isn't bad looking but I still think its in a dumb location (I blame the former County Commissioners - particularly one) and I wish it were taller - doesn't look substantial enough.  Good for that district, of course.

Honestly looking at the height of the buildings that are around the corner from it I feel as if the height is fine, of course when looked at next to the Breur Tower it looks small but when looked at with the buildings next to it he height allows it to fit in.

Some may not be happy with the two bridges but that's a really nice photo of the vibrant (and soon to be much more so) district with all its architectural styles.

 

The new County building isn't bad looking but I still think its in a dumb location (I blame the former County Commissioners - particularly one) and I wish it were taller - doesn't look substantial enough.  Good for that district, of course.

 

The new building is taller than its predecessor.

Photo of the video board panels being installed.  That thing is going to be massive!  Anyone know what it will be used for?

WOW that is big... plus theres another one on the south end of the garage.  I believe there is supposed to be some kind of cafe/deli put in this corner too, right under the video board?  I wonder if theyll do anything else to make that garage look better

Photo of the video board panels being installed.  That thing is going to be massive!  Anyone know what it will be used for?

 

I mentioned it upthread

Photo of the video board panels being installed.  That thing is going to be massive!  Anyone know what it will be used for?

 

Advertising for the Hotel.

Moving along nicely

 

 

The guy on the corner thinks so too  :-o

There was equipment partially blocking a sidewalk on Euclid the other day - for a split second I was about to go into "for f#cks sake, move the d@mn..." and then remembered how long I've waited to see these buildings getting rehabbed :-)

Temper, MayDay. Temper.

 

Comparing the height or overall size of the new County building with that of the demolished County Administration building is irrelevant.  The County has been selling off many of its properties around town, and it looks like many of these offices won't fit into the new building, either.  Where is the County Archives going to go, for example?

^There's a thread for that: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1621.0

^There's a thread for that: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1621.0

 

That statement has become synonymous with "There's an app for that"

It's a forum, not an app. The answer may be buried in that forum but I wonder if anyone here knows.  The point is the articles were saying the County wanted to consolidate many of the offices they had scattered all around the city and this building doesn't like like it will alleviate that situation too much.

 

they sold a bunch of other properties when they sold breuer tower.  I think they did consolidate as much as they reasonably could.

The new building has 80k square feet more than the old admin building.The county's move was about consolidation and in the process began unloading 1.4 million SF of unused or underused spaces.

^The video board is kinda sexy.  However, let's hope it's a bit more toned down than Horseshoe's at Ontario/Broadway/Huron, who's nighttime displays are downright blinding.

I feel like downtown Cleveland is falling in love with video boards. Video boards just installed by the horseshoe casino, throughout playhouse square, and now by the Breuer Tower I mean "The Metropolitan." I don't mind them though I feel they have their own way of adding vibrancy to an area and we all know that's what downtown needed. I'm not saying they draw people to the sidewalks but they help make an area seem "alive." Just my thoughts.

 

I feel like downtown Cleveland is falling in love with video boards. Video boards just installed by the horseshoe casino, throughout playhouse square, and now by the Breuer Tower I mean "The Metropolitan." I don't mind them though I feel they have their own way of adding vibrancy to an area and we all know that's what downtown needed. I'm not saying they draw people to tge sidewalks but they help make an area seem "alive." Just my thoughts.

 

Agree. Surprised the Rock Hall doesn't follow suit and cover the city with Beatles, Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones etc. etc. Would bee nice to see more familiar faces downtown.

 

Agree. Surprised the Rock Hall doesn't follow suit and cover the city with Beatles, Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones etc. etc. Would bee nice to see more familiar faces downtown.

 

They do have the video board at Tri-C overlooking I-77.

 

I feel like downtown Cleveland is falling in love with video boards. Video boards just installed by the horseshoe casino, throughout playhouse square, and now by the Breuer Tower I mean "The Metropolitan." I don't mind them though I feel they have their own way of adding vibrancy to an area and we all know that's what downtown needed. I'm not saying they draw people to the sidewalks but they help make an area seem "alive." Just my thoughts.

 

Also new video boar on the Stark HQ in WHD

 

Hehee

Not to get too off topic but... I thought I remembered reading that video boards couldn't be used for advertising in downtown, such as, the proposal for the the Prospect lot.  Can these video boards only advertise for the business that it is installed on?

 

Not to get too off topic but... I thought I remembered reading that video boards couldn't be used for advertising in downtown, such as, the proposal for the the Prospect lot.  Can these video boards only advertise for the business that it is installed on?

 

The video boards in PHS advertise for other businesses all the time.

Not to get too off topic but... I thought I remembered reading that video boards couldn't be used for advertising in downtown, such as, the proposal for the the Prospect lot.  Can these video boards only advertise for the business that it is installed on?

Idk about that but if true that sucks. I always wished that Cleveland  invested in digital advertising boards instead of those ugly Omni boards. Back to Breuer though.

The video boards in PHS advertise for other businesses all the time.

 

As does the clearchannel video billboard on e14th.

Not to get too off topic but... I thought I remembered reading that video boards couldn't be used for advertising in downtown, such as, the proposal for the the Prospect lot.  Can these video boards only advertise for the business that it is installed on?

Idk about that but if true that sucks. I always wished that Cleveland  invested in digital advertising boards instead of those ugly Omni boards. Back to Breuer though.

 

This is what I was thinking of...

 

"The city is not permitting any new billboards downtown, so the L&R project would require a zoning change. Property owners can erect signs advertising on-site businesses, but any advertising for off-site products -- like, in the L&R renderings, Nike, Pepsi and local sports teams -- falls under the billboard restrictions."

 

from Michelle's article about L&R on Prospect: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/02/lr_seeks_demolition_of_herold.html#incart_river_default

 

How or will this effect the 9's billboards?