2007 Urban Harvest Community Garden Tour

Garden Tour .pdf

2007 Urban Harvest Community Garden Tour
Saturday, September 8th, 2007

-Presented by Ohio State University Extension, Cuyahoga County

Check out Cleveland's growing (literally) urban gardening scene!
Check out the tour of community gardens, market gardens, and find out
how neighborhoods across the city are coming together to beautify
their places and grow food for local consumption.

There are 18 gardens listed on the tour (check out the above .pdf with map) and will be open from 9.00am to 4.00pm.

For more information contact the Ohio State University Extension - 216.429.8224.

Homogenous history

Saturday I took the necessary time to take a stroll through the rotunda. I had just come from the Veteran's Memorial Bridge street car tour, which was as typically amazing as it usually is.

So I was in a fairly positive mood. I drove downtown to East 9th with the girlfriend, bent on comparing the grandness of the Rotunda with the accessible area of the Breuer Tower. With this in mind we used the Breuer tower as our entry into the Rotunda.

Let me just mention that I was amazed at the detailing, the clean lines and the feeling of the AmeriTrust lobby. I had always imagined it to be dark and foreboding but it was actually quite nice, if not a little sterile. It had probably the only 'popcorn' ceiling that I had ever seen that I didn't find repulsive. The black granite was amazing and so glossy that even though it was black it bounced light deep into the recess of the space and the extremely tall windows made the lobby feel much larger then it was. I was so overjoyed to see such an amazing example of moddernism and good materiality that I was a little saddened knowing that it was to be torn down.

The Rotunda was also an amazing space, albeit from a distinctly opposing standpoint. The white granite almost glowed under the 60 foot Tiffany dome skylight which is surrounded with small murals by F.D. Millet based on the theme of the 'rise of civilization in America'. The Rotunda building has all the typical railings, arches, columns and other assorted details that give the illusion of being in a truly historic building and I assume that it was in noticing this abundance of detailing that I grew almost weary of it.

I wonder, during what course of our history, does a collection, a conglomeration of standardized historic detailing, become more important or more interesting then something new and groundbreaking. I am not suggesting that the Rotunda be the building with which the brunt of the County should have been felt, it is that I honestly don't think I would have minded so much if it had been the one threatened with demolition.

The Rotunda is amazing. It has it's wonderful moments, but most of those are reflections of ideas that had already been implemented and explored in other buildings around the country. In essence, the Rotunda is nothing more then a gallery for what the ideals of a historic building should be, disseminated from successful structures and tossed together in an attempt at a cohesive assemblage of ideas. I suppose that one could argue that it is rather successful in those regards. That throughout one could find prominent examples of different styles and techniques and that makes the Rotunda a repository for historical notions. I would like to argue that it is this false historic ism that degrades the structure. At no time was it ever meant to be an honest example of ideas or thought, that instead it was a grasp for false stature that is even now being used in the extremely similar and degrading manner to attempt to lift the spirits of the city.

Don't exhume this diatribe as meaning that I dislike the Rotunda building, I don't. I honestly rather enjoy passing it almost every day. The detailing is exquisite and the manner and methodology of it's construction is what elevates it among it's neighbors. I am only simply stating that I find it horrible that so many base our heritage, our history, on nothing more then symbols, constructed to falsify our past when really, we should be celebrating the chances we took, the choices we made and the mistakes that occurred along the way. That is what really defines a city, not a monument to a glory that we falsely possessed.