Joe Stanley a 5th year interior design major at the Cleveland Institute of Art gave a presentation on his senior project to an enthusiastic crowd at the Peter B. Lewis building at 2 p.m. today as part of REALNEO. Joe's senior project is an ambitious vision for CIA, University and the City of Cleveland. It was exhibited at 1300 Gallery this past fall along with the work of several of his classmates. Joe's project and those of his classmates were destined to be forgotten after the exhibition (which only lasted one night), but Joe's project has been given new life through REALNEO. Joe has his own COIL at REALNEO called neomainstreet. neomainstreet contains images of Joe's models and drawings, a discussion of his design philosophy and its context within contemporary and historical trends in architecture and civic planning. Its a fascinating site of local, national and international interest!

Hearing Joe speak about his work, it is obvious he is passionate about what he is doing. At least for now he will continue designing better architecture and uses for land in the University Circle area rather than move to Chicago - his original post graduation plan. Now that neomainstreet is gaining support Joe has reason to stay in Cleveland. He is currently working on a new design for The Triangle property and says optimistically that people will like his ideas for the area.

Today's presentation led to some particularly fertile discussion. Most members of the audience had strong opinions about the area and seemed to enjoy sharing their ideas. Many were CASE and CIA faculty and students; others were prominent members of the business community. Practical suggestions were made about how to create a more livable area in CIA's south campus, which included more retail space, changes to public transportation and an intergenerational school. Authors and books were added to those Joe has already included in his impressive neomainstreet bibliography. Some of the hopes audience members expressed for neomainstreet today were worthy of being recorded in the COIL. Some of these hopes were that neomainstreet will become a neighborhood with diversity, existing trees and landscape features would be respected, sustainable energy and building practices would be used, and that the new architecture would inspire increased interaction between CASE, CIM and CIA students.