Cleveland Trust Tower Part 543 - Trainstation

I know I have made quite a bit of noise about how much I believe in public transportation, especially the pattern and predictability afforded to a public by rail transit.

Which this little gem floating in the back of my noggin, combined with my need to play with the Breuer Tower's panels, I decided to try to create a RTA station out of collection of Cleveland Tower Trust Panels.

I am a strong believer that for a city to make the proper impression, the way that the general population, and also the tourists and visitors percieve a city, is mostly through the way that one can experience the city on its "ground level" and by that I mean the main conduits that one would use to reach different portions of the city.

With that in mind I have a set of criteria that important public transit nodes should fit. These are not "rules" but flexible guidelines. Most astute readers will notice that very successful transit systems have stations that do not prescribe to these guidelines, but here they are anyway.

1. - Make a statement. If tax dollars are being pumped into a major renovation/rebuild, please utilize it to showcase the transit system. I don't want to point fingers but there are some very unsophisticated light rail stations that are going up in Cleveland. They don't react well with the surrounding area, they don't interact with the context, they do nothing to mark the location as a rail-centric area and they sure as heck don't act as an active gateway to the city. That leads into point #2.

2. - Promote the city- I want imagery, I want kiosks with information, I want clean and safe and I want well thought out, clever design and systems. I want to live in a city that pays attention to nuance and detail.

3. - Convey when things are going on- I have noticed an increase in text screens that mention when trains and buses may arrive, some, such as in Tower City and Triskett even have a news ticker. Great. How about some real time? Tell me where a train is, tell me city sponsored events are going on, give me news and weather and sports, let me enjoy the 7 to 15 minutes I spend waiting for a train. Inform me of what is going on and when things are getting to the station that I am freezing my but on. Every station. I would love to see a map of the transit system with little icons of what train and bus is where in "real time". Awesome, that would be awesome.

I could add more. About bikes and cleanliness and urine-resistant flooring, but I won't. This isn't meant to be a lecture about subtle ways to improve peoples perceptions of our wonderful city, this was just me making some "purty" things and putting them online.

December Tremont Art Walk

Friday, December 8th, 2006
Tremont Ohio

Once again there is another Tremont Art Walk.

True, it may be cold, but that will make the hearts and smiles you share even warmer. Was that too cheesy? Answer, yes.

West Shore Commuter Rail Stakeholder's Meeting

Wednesday, December 13th 2006
Wasmer Auditorium
Lakewood Hospital
14519 Detroit Ave.
9.30am

For quite some time there has been much dialogue regarding using existing freight lines for commuter rail passages along the "West Shore Corrider" a line that would service Lorain and Cleveland and tie them to Lake Erie's shore communities of Lakewood, Rocky River, Westlake, Avon Lake and Sheffield with possible connections all the way to service Sandusky.

Past studies have by NEORail (from 2000-2001) mostly stated that potential commuter rail growth in this service area is limited but current gas prices and the growth of the commuter classare creating circumstances that are starting to prove reliable rail service as economical.

In any regard I do love Cleveland's public transportation system and especially enjoy taking the train downtown to work. I would love an option to travel further along communites that border on the lake and explore without an auto and of course I am always very excited about any news of a high-speed commuter rail line that could tie Cleveland to some other major cities.

So, if you have the time and the inclination stop in the shareholder's meeting and see what is going on, perhaps make your own voice heard to help Cleveland create a true sense of "regionalism" by creating quick and cheap public transportation avenues.

Resources:
All Aboard Ohio
Lorain to Cleveland Commuter Rail - via GCBL

Off Grid...

Off Grid

Want to get a loan for a "green home"? Want to build an "eco-hidaway"? Want to "eco-pimp" your ride?

Now you can. Yet another amazing online source of of articles, stories, classifieds (free) and eco-shopping for your perusing and ever increasing interest in all things "green".

-another heads up by dear Marjie

Cleveland Trust Tower Part 542 - Facade Study

It isn't exactly as if the movement of utilizing modular elements, whether as repetitive pieces for the facade or as entire separate living units that when combined can form a multitude of forms is anything new.

When taking the time to examine the possibility that presents itself upon restricting a palette to set series of patterns, forms and colors it becomes apparent that by concentrating upon the dialogue created by the rhythm of the modules, along with orientation, materiality and form created by such one may introduce slight modifications to the palette to accent the similarity and by accenting the similarity create a slight amount of tension, perhaps enough to give movement to the form, to create a sense of excitement in an otherwise mundane design.

With this as an outline I wanted to play around with and capitalize on the tension created by suspending the modular concrete panels high above a public walkway, stacking them with edges exposed in a rather precarious appearing manner, and then altering the material, perhaps adding a shiny anodized aluminum panel or wood panel in place of the concrete. The newer, lighter looking materials would maintain the shape and form of the original therefore allowing the rhythm of the facade to exist unhindered but while attempting to interject another more subtle conversation about constructability, inferred weight and density and reaction to light. I had hoped to increase an interest in the use of different materials and the way they could be applied to a rather strict existing structure without disturbing the overall form too much.

In the end I suppose I began cheating, by removing and insetting corners of the building, wondering if exterior balconys and gardens could be created in places once before met with sheer and oppressive wall faces. The success of such a study could be construed as mostly arbitrary, meant only as a manner of play. The amount of drastic change to the appearance of only two facades achieved by simply disrupting the static color of the field and then allowing one small corner (in itself a larger repeating patter) to shift reinforces the argument that the existing building (albeit dirty) already possesses a rather taunt and interesting amount of tension that could be extrapolated upon, if the effort and intent was such.

It seems even more of a shame to give up on a building like this now.

Attempting to eat local

So I did attempt to find local food at some stores that I had discovered on Eat Well Guide and Local Harvest but neglected to really think through getting information on what would be available during what months.

Well, I am trying another approach but in the mean time I am finding more resources that will be useful such as Self Sustain'ish', "the urban guide to almost self sufficiency. Topics range from using rain water, to upward gardening to getting rid of slugs and building a solar oven and are organized with topics (acting as jump links) on the left and articles on the right. This text based system makes the entire thing easy to search (thanks to the 'ctrl "f"' function if you own a PC and whatever a mac does, I don't remember anymore).

Now you have something better to look at on weekday mornings instead of checking your office email for the deluge of deadlines that are looming. I am hoping that there will be some more tips on eating local or just growing my own my food to eat that I can use.

I will attempt to discover some more ways to find fresh local winter produce (it is pretty easy to find dried beans, dairy, meat, most anything but fruits and veggies) and share any useful information I can gather.

Cleveland Trust Tower Part 541 - Street Furniture

Alright, this is the last in my "Street Furniture of Fun" series. As you can see its just some simple stacking of panels in front of/behind a cut panel that is used as bench.

Alright, that is the last of this foolishness. I mean, this particular foolishness. I have more on the way.

Similar variety of foolishness.

Cleveland Trust Tower Part 540 - Street Furniture

So, here is yet another pass at some street furniture. Just a simple bench. Even more coming.

Oh yes, I have started realizing that things I post are not maintaining the look they are originally posted as (ie, they get screwed up somehow and not in a browser specific way). I don't know when I will have time to attempt to fix it but until then please bear with me.

For those of you curious, I am suggesting that one can use a water jet and concrete cutting blade to cut through the panels. I will try to get the last street bench up because I have some more things that cover a wider array of uses that I think I would like to share too.

Cleveland Trust Tower Part 539 - Street Furniture I

I suppose you could argue that I am attaining a super nerdy addiction to what isn't even considered a design problem to a lot of people.

Oh well, sometimes I find it better to create a solution for a problem that doesn't exist rather then wait until the problem becomes too large to solve.

Here are some quick renderings of taking the concrete facade panel from the Breuer Tower, cleaning them, removing the glass and window frame and them cutting them to create benches and other street furniture. While I am sure that many will argue that more street furniture is the last thing Cleveland needs (at least bring in some people to use it) I will argue that the County is building an administration building, therefore this street furniture can be used anywhere in the county (Cuyahoga) and could be a nice way to tell a little story about our history. I am not adding an animation, made another walkaround one (I do that typically just to see how things resolve themselves) but I can't imagine how anyone would be excited by it.

More coming. Oh, so much more coming.

At least reuse some of the dang thing! - Cleveland Trust Tower part 538

Well, blogger has be extremely difficult for posting images lately. I use them as a dashboard and they were working well. I am hoping that the problem resolves itself soon, mostly because this is becoming so tedious that I am losing my drive to keep images going up, which I think are very important to messages getting across.

Regardless.

I know lately I have been harping on Mercel Breuer's Cleveland Trust Tower. Enough that someone may infer that I think that the future actions regarding it are important. Well, you are correct. I think the upcoming actions are important. The way that this project is publicly handled can set the tone for future development and planning for the area. Therefore, let us brainstorm on some ways that we can use the demolition of the Cleveland Trust Tower in a manner that would be conducive to the direction that the area would like to move itself.

With this in mind I would like to take a tip from such projects as Single Speed Design's Big Dig House and just create some examples of what can be done with the concrete facade panels from the Tower Trust Building.

I admit that these suggestions base themselves in some rather broad guessing that I will be so kind as to admit to first...

1- Size, I was guessing at 12' by 6' based on photos and sort of staring at it aimlessly for copious amounts of time.

2- That the panels could be cleaned of any hazardous materials including and not limited to asbestos and that when washed they would attain their original-ish color.

So, may I present for my very first wild stab, a bus station made from the facade panels. I also made an animation because I could. I have more coming so pay attention! Enjoy!

Good ol' Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, 05-1120

Friday, November 29th, 2006 will offer up an interesting commentary on how the judicial branch of the United States views the affects of GHG (Green House Gases) and will state whether or not they can be classified as "air pollutants" and fall under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Arguments are already being prepared by the White House just in case the Supreme Court does decide that GHG's are air pollutants in order to cut any legal reprisals that may affect the administrations stance on Global Warming. Among them are the arguments that this is in fact not a decision to be left up to the Judicial Branch but should rather go through Congress. For an informative short on how this approach works click here. Others argue that even if GHG can be controlled by the EPA that the EPA doesn't in fact have to enforce GHG restrictions.

I for one, will be watching this particular case with some interest. It seems that most public polls are showing the importance of Global Warming in the mind of American citizens as an environmental issue even as the some in the current administration either won't admit that global warming exists, that humans are causing global warming or that the United States would destroy its own economy in order to curb global warming. I suppose I could take a second to point out a main flaw in each argument there, especially the one where it doesn't matter if the US economy collapses if the planet cannot support habitation but instead I will concentrate on the positive. That is that even though the United States is currently the largest producer of GHG the general populace is becoming more and more informed and beginning to raise their voices through their politics, their spending habits and the way we are building.

What will the upcoming weeks hold for our environment? Well, you can stay tuned and watch or you can try to get involved by raising your voice to your congressperson. While they cannot control what the Supreme Court will say, they can start arguing to restrict GHG legislatively.

Resources:
Detroit Free Press
GristMill

Get your (bike) gears on.

I read an article the other night in October's Cleveland Magazine that was basically an interview with a lawyer (Ian Hoffman, we won't hold it against you) who cycles to work (except in winter). He was mentioning that he felt more connected to the neighborhoods he rode through, didn't feel any real pressure during rush hour and enjoyed being able to notice little details that most people don't have the chance to enjoy while zipping along in their car to work each morning.

Now, in an exciting bit of related news Cleveland Bikes (whose board president, Kevin Cronin - another lawyer!) , recently received a $10,000 grant to start raising funds for a proposed downtown bike station across from the "Q" (formerly the Gund Arena).

Resources and examples from Cleveland Bikes:
Chicago's McDonald's Cycle Center
Bikestation
Chicago's Complete the Streets

View Cleveland Bikes NEO Bike Station Proposal

Cleveland already seems to have a strong biking population. RTA has already outfitted most if not all of its buses with front mounted bike racks and the Rapid (Rail Transit) does allow bikes during none rush hour times which creates more options if you bike downtown but can't bike back out.

If more Clevelanders got out of their cars and moved about the streets at a pace and with the ability to actually pay attention to their surroundings it seems highly likely that retail and businesses along these bike routes would indubitably increase their business due to an increase in exposure alone, and as more people move back downtown due to some really great development I can easily imagine giving up an automobile (for want of not paying parking and insurance costs) and moving to a more neighborhood and community friendly means of transportation such as the bicycle.

So, for all those out there that would love to get more people on the street, increasing pedestrian level traffic, making communities safer by creating a larger public presence and making the air cleaner make sure you do what you can to support Cleveland Bikes and the NEO Station.

Also check out Millennium Park Bike Station. Chicago has got something serious going on here.

Murray Hill Art Walk - 2006

Friday, December 1st, 2006 - noon to 9pm
Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 - noon to 9pm
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006 - noon to 6pm

Little Italy, Cleveland

It is time once again for the Murray Hill Art Walk. Over 16 galleries and shops and 19 restaurant/cafes will be open for your perusing and tasting pleasure.

So if you have the time this upcoming weekend, take some friends or loved ones out and enjoy urban feel of Little Italy, take in some art by our fine local artists and sample some delicious local culinary offerings.

Building Bridges Mural Project

For a while now I have noticed the mural pictured to the left painted on the side of the Main Avenue Bridge on W. 25th across from St. Malachi Parish and wondered what it was. Well, while waiting at the Algebra Teahouse in Little Italy I was handed a hot card announcing the W. 25th Street Mural Dedication of the Building Bridges Mural Program.

The dedication occurred Friday, October 13th 2006 so I suppose I am a little late with the news.

The artist was Katherine Chilcote
2006 Summer interns: Jerome Harris, Kareem Stittman, Adam Prince, Chris Drake, Denzel Hammett, Angelo Jessup, Antonio Harris

Special Thanks given to: Collectivo Giving Circle, Cuyahoga County Engineers, Neighborhood Connections, The Cleveland Foundation, West Side Ecumenical Ministries, The Raymond John Wan Foundation, Shared Ministries, St. Paul's Community Church, Inter-Act Cleveland and over 200 individual family donors.

So, now you know why that mural is there. Keep your eyes open for any more that are to pop up around the town.