Last night, Martha Eakin and I went down to join with others to protest the razing of the Breuer. It was good to be involved with a group of like minded citizens. Marc Lefkowitz was there and will surely report on Green City Blue Lake. There will be more protests; I'll try to help keep us updated here.

Oengus, Norm is right, we do have a physical presence in community planning; those of us who post here and elsewhere in blogs in NEO don't just write about it online, we go to meetings, share our thoughts, and serve on committees and as consulting parties to local, state and federal decision-making processes. Just ask Ed Hauser. He attends almost as many meetings as our elected officials – maybe more since there are so many silos of government in NEO.

There is a contingent of architects (the AIA and Cleveland Restoration have quietly protested as well) and citizens concerned about wasting taxpayer dollars and those interested in preservation and the arts. We joined together last night on the sidewalk with signs buoyed by the wind along the corridor. There was a game in progress and many motorists and pedestrians asked questions and learned about the embodied energy, fiscal issues and the history of the building. It was a small protest and no news media arrived with their cameras, but as Margaret Meade said, "Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

We are not just writing here, we are showing up and speaking up. If you would like to show up, here's your chance: Come to this forum on the subject hosted by Meet the Bloggers. Gloria and Tim Ferris, George Nemeth and others have dutifully offered these forums for public dialogue to provide a window to our region and its issues. Thanks! Last night after protesting taxpayer waste, Martha and I visited a Meet the Bloggers interview with Holly Harlan of E4S, the room was crowded; there were plenty of questions and answers and more questions. We began to uncover some of the barriers facing sustainability in our region and learned about successes. By the way, Meet the Bloggers is so successful and respected that Peter Lawson Jones contacted Gloria to ask to be part of the program to air his concerns about the Cleveland Trust Tower. That's when you know people are listening, when the county commissioner calls to ask if he can get on your podcasted show. Our faces are not unknown to these leaders. They know we vote for them or don't, support their plans or don't. You would be surprised, too, to learn who is registered here and perhaps reading your posts. In fact recently Norm was on WVIZ's Applause because a news researcher found realneo to be a veritable compendium of arts coverage. Needless to say, there are others here in Northeast Ohio and well beyond who have bookmarked realneo as a source to check for what is happening in our region and the world.

I think the County should take over Erie View Plaza and the Galleria - it is already designed to service large numbers of customers - it has great parking and street and public transportation access - nice views - is modern and relatively efficient, and the owner bought it cheap and needs a boost - very low occupancy. This would anchor that end of town, and be a big boost for the Avenue District. Make this the social service core - one stop mall of contralized resources, with related offices in surrounding office buildings. Have a program for county workers to get some interest break for living in that neighborhood.

The big issue I see with this is that vacates many important but very out of date buildings on the west end of the Group Plan - the current County buildings and offices. Those will not be easy to rent or sell and need a fortune in updates. Perhaps they could be converted to lofts, but we may as well be talkiing about the whole ecosystem of this.

In the Breuer - which I think is a great looking and significant building - I would put the Kent State University School of Architecture on the top floors, their CUDC on the first few floors - a bunch of galleries on other floors - other arts and culture things all through the building - a media arts high school. If my arguement is this is a work of art - an inspiring architectural masterpiece - then I expand upon that saying we leverage that as an attraction of arts related activity - that pays rent and so supports the building - and wants a landmark building more than some MacBuilding.

Make the Rotunda some sort of museum or performance space - something sustainable - Perhaos part of CSU's new arts facilities, or CIA.

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You need to factor in the recovery cost of the material produced, steel and aggregate.  The value added from the resulting product, the concrete will get pulverized and then sold as aggregate.  The steal girders as well, melted down and reused, its good argument it is ridiculous to tear down a 29-story building that is only 36 years old.  Structures should last longer than that, but I agree with the county plan it is not or will never be viable, that is a matter of ten years vacancy and the surrounding vacancy rate of the city.

I believe that there are other abandoned buildings across the world.   We are not good at reclaiming high rises?  I believe Johannesburg has a many vacated towers. 

Look at pricing for office space, if you apply supply and demand then you would get a price to fill all the space, but they actually keep the price high and write off the loses for the vacant space.  I would like to see how much a ten-year of empty space cost the taxpayers?  You would also need to factor that in how much was written off? 

Next thing you know they will be righting off the loss of embodied energy?  Who incurs this loss?  Nature?  Matter can never be destroyed it just get manipulated, that is the big thing too much of that going on.   How much of the tower is recyclable?  

You know that much of this dilemma can be linked to banks and the mergers all of these losses linked to the mergers.  These national banks with little to do with banking and what it is for investing in communities they exist in.  

 
I think you bring up very valid points and they need to be brought up, but you are swimming against the current.  Make sure you call out accountability to the spaces the county leaves behind.  Abandonment is what all this is about, it like giant shell game. They need to have an action plans for all the spaces, what they acquire and what they leave behind.   Simply consolidating the county offices does little for economic growth, they need some linkage that leverages capital and either breaks even or makes marginal profit. All the building they leave need to be considered.     

In today's NYTimes Magazine I read this quote, "a building’s efficiency should be measured not just by its mechanical systems but also by how much energy it uses over its lifetime. More energy is expended in a building’s construction than at any other stage, so a structure that lasts 100 years will use far less energy than one that lasts 5, no matter how efficient." The full article is here: Why Are They Greener Than We Are?

So while the mayor struggles to get city council to pass appropriate measures to insure affordable residential development be energy efficient, the county commissioners have overlooked a basic tenant of green building, the long term economics of development and construction and the prudent use of the funds with which they are entrusted.

Yesterday at Whiskey Island, we heard Paul Alsenas say that the handful of developers (whose names are all familiar -- Wolstein, Stark, Jacobs) who will travel to the big Las Vegas retail development networking event this week, now say that Whiskey Island as public green space is integral to their plans for our riverfront downtown planning. I am pleased that they finally get it, and as I gazed across the river to the current port dock with it's gravel piles and imagined it moving east to occupy the east end of Burke Lakefront instead of the hot spot it currently underutilizes, I imagined a new development there. Set back from the river's and the harbor's edge with a wide berth of public green space there might be a memoir to the former port site that makes a statement about past and future.

Our new port Chair, Adam Wasserman has been noted in the press addressing the possibility of container shipping via the port of Cleveland. If we were to begin to ship and receive containers this project (or one similar) might be an appropriate link from past to future of the maritime activities of Cleveland a port city on a great lake.

Container City designed by MVRDV - the same architectural firm chosen by CIA for their eastward expansion. (everything you wanted to know about container building) Nearby the remaining two Huletts should be reassembled to reflect the city's heritage as an important iron ore and steel manufacturer.

Check out this award winning plan for Rotterdam Harbor. Now imagine something similar at the east end of Burke Lakefront.

Now imagine a connector of the past and a view of the future -- and historical society spur at the mouth of the river; a small exhibit that would provide an overview of Cleveland and it's history, a gateway to the region's past, its environment and the milestones that have shaped its current identity (linked to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Canalway and the Western Reserve Historical Society). There is plenty of money in the region to accomplish these dreams and others. These are just my musings. The question remains unanswered though… is there the vision?

OK a big university, but let's not forget what happened in that rural setting of the KSU campus on May 4, 1970. That day, the movement for change in the US went underground. We had been vocal, we had held nonviolent protests, sit-ins, rallies. That day, when we realized that the government would come onto our campuses and shoot us, the whole business of representation and taxation changed. It was a pivotal moment in our history. We will never forget.

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/fot/ohio.htm

CSU's charter has been relegated to attempting to serve the locals and it does effectively in many ways, but it should not be misinterpreted as being able to save the region by educating only local residents.
 
OSU is I believe the largest university in the nation, it is not wrong for the state to emulate that model on CSU, in fact it should attempt to grow CSU to the same size and use the name of it’s largest university not to detract from it but to emulate it.
 
KSU is a well-respected institution…but the city of Kent is only 30,000 people, serving local residents for education does not require a state university.  Its programs should be migrated into CSU and Akron University.  It would be very budget conscious as well.
 
Look at what OSU does for Columbus’s economy. 
 
Did you know that the success of the CCF is in part on them emulating the Mayo clinic?     
 

Why not just consolidate funding and program and grow fewer and bigger Universities.     

Why is Neoucom in the middle of no place?  Rootstown?  Move that to midtown and then keep the name for all of CSU "Northeastern Ohio University"?          

The Gospel Press building is awesome and should become a core asset of Tremont and NEO, but I thought is was bought recently for redevelopment - for housing. I could be wrong or plans may have changed. In either case, it is a very important property.

I don't have a problem being at odds with the county on their plans... I know Hagan says he has made up his mind and will demolish the Breuer but I don't consider his the final word, but his are fighting words... that he doesn't care what voters think doesn't mean he is right or will win a battle against the ret of the community.

His easy way out of this mess is for the community to help him find a better use for the Breuer than would be accomplished by putting the county at that site, and finding a better site for the county. I really like the idea of a regional super-museum in the Breuer and Post - right down the Silver Line from our other arts HQ, University Circle - right down E9th from our lakefront cultural assets - all reasons for tourists and locals to spend more time in more areas of the community, yet while all connected with Public Transit and walkable cultural zones.

As for where to put the county building, Mason claims he did a site analysis and determined the Breuer site is best for the county, but I have never seen real evidence of that. If such analysis exists, it should be made public so the taxpayers can see what is planned and why, and the large community of planners in the region can help the commissioners make sound planning decisions in step with all else being planned around here.

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This is the text of an email I just sent to Marc, Peter Lawson Jones, Lillian Kuri, Norm Krumholz and tim Ferris in response to Tim's notes on the PD editorial where he laid out his reasons to refute the article.

Right on Tim! I have so many thoughts on this.

Commissioners Hagan and Dimora and their teams were in a big hurry to act in an obfuscating way with little to no concern for involving the taxpaying public of the County in any of the early on process. Like the med mart and convention center, someone is getting a powerful kick back, and it is too bad that the people of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland are too busy working such long hours just to stay solvent that they don’t have time to be more informed and more involved. In this scenario, the fat cats will continue to drive disinvestment in our region and make Cleveland sprawl central.

The kind of arrogant, bread-and-circuses, shell game that Hagan and Dimora play drives people, who would see the County and the City do well, to despair and apathy. Expect to see this sort of action drive down voter turnout rather than drive it up. What’s worse (and was pointed out this morning) is that if the tax increase does come to a vote and is voted down, the county may indeed have paid a potential crook to tear down a work of art (whose restoration, preservation and adaptive reuse should be in line with the recent sin tax objectives – arts and culture support), only to find that it has inadequate funds to complete the plan to consolidate the County offices.

And since we lag behind other cities in terms of the regionalism discussion, (we don’t seem to even be talking about annexing the inner ring), it occurs to me that all this talk about adding space in the tower to make floorplates useable and ADA compliant and blah, blah (no real facts uncovered and compared here) is short sighted. Imagine a City of Cleveland that is all of Cuyahoga County, a regional government that needs more space for its services and offices. Wouldn’t these commissioners have been forward thinking to have adapted this space for just such a consideration? Apparently Hagan and Dimora have no plans for a regional government because, judging by the way they have acted, they stand little chance of being elected to help run such a recovery based initiative. Small minds making small plans that cost huge dollars in the long run, that’s what we have. Where are the visionaries? I want to move to where they are. I am tired of paying for shortsightedness and waste.

Norman Krumholz must have a strong stomach to be able to go to work everyday knowing that his groundbreaking Cleveland Policy Plan, declared a "Planning Landmark", has been and continues to be ignored too often by our local governments – both of them -- county and city. This morning I noticed that he carried with him the program from last night’s Cleveland Arts Prize Awards Event at which he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Prize in Design for his work in the region and beyond – a policy document that has guided leaders in many other regions and cities, just not here. His legacy on the ground in our region may indeed be not about what he built, but what he insured was not built, like the Lee and Clark Freeway and the Parma Freeway. I am still new to this and still learning, but I think we can all be appreciative that he was there to help stop those disasters. It is unfortunate that he and his visionary colleague Lillian Kuri could not stop this one. Norm must have a seriously strong constitution to be able to go to school everyday to guide young hopeful planners in the vast and complex considerations involved in Urban Planning while this sort of scenario plays out in City Hall. I would not be surprised if he puts the proclamation given him by the BOCC last night directly in the recycling today. What a sham!

We, the residents, artists, educators and innovators, slave away to find appropriate solutions while Jacobs has the city (with ODOT urging them on) doing precisely not what they wanted to do in some deer’s backyard at 271 and Harvard. Forest City plans to make more money from our central city with the “let’s fund it before it’s a sure thing” Convention Center/Medical Mart non-plan, while when our many already lead-poisoned children in the city go to school and want to make a garden, soil tests come back too high for agricultural and therefore educational uses. Now there’s some really great due diligence on all those fronts!

Frank Jackson and Martin Sweeney should remain focused on the neighborhoods and stop looking for silver bullets like this imagined one. This project may well be about as silver a bullet as the Stadium, Gateway and the Rock Hall. Promises, promises…The BOCC have left out as usual the “and here’s why”. One thing is for sure with regard to our elected officials, “The higher climbs the ape, the more he shows his bum.” That said, one might hope they would be sure to put on pants, but as Norm Roulet so deftly pointed out, it might just be that the emperor has no clothes.

Ultimately, pleas for further study and a side by side comparison of raze or renovate by Norm as well as suggestions of mixed-use development with more than 9-5 weekday liveliness on the street made by Lillian Kuri were ignored in this morning’s proceedings. The referendum to allow for the demolition, drawn up by City’s planning staff, (obviously in expectation of just this result) passed despite statements made by the final speaker, an architect whose own personal proceedings before the City Planning Commission dragged on for a year while this went through like a federal agent with high level security clearance. He said, “When you do this sort of thing – tear down a significant building by a significant historical figure in the world of art, you tear at our hearts”.

Wide-eyed indeed and sad at heart for the lack of understanding and communication, for the short shrift given the collective intelligence of our architectural community, our history and our taxpaying public,

Susan

PS. I haven’t even read the PD editorial this morning yet, (not sure I want to) but thanks to those journalists who have kept us abreast, asking questions and digging the dirt here, advising and protecting us and educating us as best they could about the issues. May they flourish as writers even as our assets are squandered, for without the alternative press (even those housed within the media conglomerates of the likes of New House publications), we would have lost the building without ever knowing that the wrecking ball was poised.

Classic line... "“I’m open to it. We’ve got to always consider every option,” Mr. Dimora said. “We could always go other places.”

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  Tim Ferris has linked to Donovan Rypkema's speech to the Cleveland Restoration Society on Save our Land.