2009 TOIstudio Year in Review

So this is the third year I have tried to complete some sort of milestone to track the potential progress the city has to offer. In doing so I checked back with my 2008 Year in Review looking for some sort of benchmark to hit. My, the bar was set so low.

The economy may have stifled the Flats East Banks project but the city has stepped in offering money for a truncated phased development in hopes of revitalizing some drastically underused portions of the city. No news? Some news.

The Euclid Corridor is starting to spark interest and has definitely improved conditions along Euclid albeit not noticeably as for commuting by public transit. Perhaps a transit corridor should time the traffic signals for the public transit...no? At some point telling auto commuters to "deal with it" may be required but I think that will take the importing of manufacturing materials, mostly giant steel balls.

CIA still hasn't seemed to move much on the exterior changes for the maligned MVRDV now Burt Hill expansion project which I don't mind not seeing going up. It's similar to waiting to hear the bad news you know is coming, you can put it off hoping that everyone will forget about it and the problem will go away on its own. Hey, its the Cleveland Way.

CMA phase one expansion is completed to fanfare. I haven't figured out why yet. I don't have a problem with meandering art museums, I think you are supposed to get lost in the art. As for white rooms, congratulations, you built some white rooms to show art. I suppose they don't have to be inspiring or interesting but it probably wouldn't have hurt. The half hearted attempt to communicate with Breuer's addition seemed to be done without either understanding Breuer's commentary on materiality or just not caring, which, if that was the case, then the addition should have been a complete departure not a bastardized caricature. Regardless the detailing is pretty miserable which is sad to see for the home of a cultural institution you hope to last longer than 15 years.

Uptowne what?

Ameritrust Tower is still vacant after the economy forces K&D development to abandon plans for it. 668 is going strong though. Yay.

The HoJo got all torn down! It took forever but it was finally accomplished. Now people with have to find another vacant building to watch the airshow from the roof of. Good luck with that!

Detroit Shoreway got all prettified with a rehabbed Capital Theater as an anchor. The neighborhood seems to be doing well which is pretty nice to see. It is also a nice place to visit. The street was improved for vehicular traffic and parking, the sidewalks got cleaned up, park benches, better lighting, trees, buried power/comm lines, it's all pretty dang snazzy. Feels completely different, in a good way.

Waterloo Entertainment District also got some minor street scape improvements, mostly noticeably a green space where the strangest parking/street occurrence was placed. It cleaned up the street and started to create a identifiable gateway for the area which is running on the sweat and dreams of some of the hardest working people I know. When asked what I love most about Cleveland I have to admit those folks are some of the first that come to mind.

ODOT refuses to admit that people can move by any mode other than vehicular and seem to want to slug it out over the long debacle Innerbelt Bridge project. At some point one has to honestly wonder if Cleveland would be better off if we just let it fall into the river.

That would probably reinforce the need of the 490 Innovation Corridor which is under re-advisement. I'm not sure what that means anymore to be honest. I think it means that I will be writing about how nothing has changed with it by next year too.

Speaking of reoccurring themes the Medical Mart project is still being discussed. Any day now some news will break. Any day. See you in 2011!

Remember the aquarium we have been hearing about for the past 30 years? Guess what, we may get two! Maybe. Two different groups are trying to be the first to put a Cleveland Aquarium back on the map. The Jacobs group is looking towards the Powerhouse Building and the non-profit Cleveland Aquarium Inc. who is raising funds and looking for a site.

And if that isn't enough water related news for you, the Port Authority was moving to East 55th, but after Adam Wasserman left that plan is also undergoing scrutiny. What does that mean for the new Lakefront Plan that just received approval from the Planning Commission? Not much it seems, that is still a go. So where will the Port move to?

Not to Whiskey Island, at least if they do then the newly released land acquired by Parkworks for the bike-n-hike (part of the Cleveland Towpath Trail) trail will lead to a very unappealing terminus. Unless you are a huge fan of container shipping, then the bike ride would be amazing for you! And although the Old Coast Guard station is sitting vacant and exposed it still stands stalwart to the elements, a beacon of hope looking for someone to love it.

Perhaps in response to the Cleveland Planning's new paradigm shift of planning for people (seriously that statement was made at the landbank lecture at CSU's Maxine Goodman, check the video when it becomes available, I have been waiting for over a month!) Public Square is getting a second look. PPS already calls it one of the 10 worst public spaces in the world, apparently we are looking to shed the infamy and called in Field Operations (NYC High Line Project) to work with the CUDC in rethinking what would make Public Square better/nicer for, well, people. This should be really interesting to see develop, for those interested in design and the jerks who just like to make snide comments. Everyone can be a winner with this one.

Also, Ohio legalizes casino gambling with Cleveland slated as one of the four "lucky" city's to receive it's own casino, supposedly slated to go behind Tower City (they can probably reuse the Med Mart Plans). Will this improve things for Cleveland (or Cleveland architecture)? I'm not going to bet on it.

Speaking of snide comments, Sustainable Cleveland 2019 had their first meeting. A whole lot of people got together, ate bagels, drank coffee, made puppets and posters and decided to work towards making Cleveland more Sustainable. I don't know if the definition of sustainable was ever proffered but I think enough people know what they think it means to move forward with it. I didn't make the snide comment I was going to. It wasn't about the summit though. I'm going to be nicer in the new year.

Scout's honor.

Here's to 2010. Let's hope it is a ton better than 2009 was. That year sucked.

(ps. yay Browns for ending better then expected)