The last two realneo headers are pans of a site I pass often, on my way between the East and West sides, which is bounded by East 105, Wade Park and East Boulevard, in one of the most important historic and cultural neighborhoods in America, where I was shocked to find a group of significant apartment buildings being demolished.

As I've continued to plug away and progress with East Cleveland technology plans with fellow RealNEO partner Norm Roulet we thought it would be fitting to share some exciting  developments. This terrific Tudor transformation at 1894 Roxbury has been a joy to behold and though the historic preservation piece makes for a great story in its own right, I've been more invigorated by the potential to incorporate a series of sustainable strategies to ensure that this becomes a model green and smart home for East Cleveland homeowners to aspire to. This has offered a wonderful practical, experiential consulting opportunity. The technology coming into play to make this all happen has been another great learning point.  I now sit typing from the Roxbury estate with the luxury of a Skype smart phone, top of the line iMAC 24 inch widescreen desktop and the makings of our very own test server at my fingertips. I also had the good fortune to (just yesterday) secure thousands of dollars of computer equipment to enable the creation of an actual computing lab, hacking site and cluster at the Hough /Star Complex in East Cleveland. Now I am in the process of securing the latest Ubuntu downloads for both server and desktop whilst writing this very blog post. Our WiFi is up and running here , humming along at a robust and hardy 11 MBps.

Brutalism against Breuer in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Whoever is culling through the news and posting at the

Cool Cleveland this week ran a piece by Chris Whipple  about re-naming Cleveland’s Terminal Tower.  Mr. Whipple suggests that “terminal” (as in "terminally ill", dead, or dead end) is too much a downer name and that instead the building should be called  VanView  after the Van Sweringen brothers who built the tower and Shaker Heights, etc. 

On Friday August 31, 2007, while Air Show jets stalled out conversations and blasted ear drums,  Susan Miller and I visited the “open house” at the Post designed Cleveland Trust Rotunda building which sits on the corner of Euclid and 9th next to the Marcel Breuer designed Cleveland Trust Tower in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.   Lee Trotter had announced this open house at the County Commissioners meeting the day before and the Dirty Dealer had carried the news a few days prior.   I wondered, why is the County doing this? 

Following are images of the concepts which were received by Sally Levine and David Ellison for the reuse of the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland Ohio.  I extend my appreciation to the designers for their generous dedication and creativity.  I will endeavor to number each of the entries  so that comments can be directed to  specific designs.  I will also  try to make legible the text which is important on many.  A submission from Italy was especially poignant in its text.   Designers, please feel free to log in and amplify your presentations.   This is very cool that so much volunteer creativity went into this event.   Here's my hoping that all the designers who contributed will reap a referred commission or two from their contributions....

Norm and Evelyn are forging ahead in East Cleveland.  Little House on the Prairie has nothing on these guys. 

You can find a good letter from Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins regarding the quartercent tax hike proposed by Cuyahoga County Commissioners Hagan and Dimora on Brewed Fresh Daily here.  (Dead Link) >On 2/17/09 I noticed the link to BFD was dead. Here is the letter in PDF in its entirety graciously supplied by the author and posted to Realneo on 2/18/09 by JB

There are many points regarding the proposed medical mart that still don't make sense for me, so I want to post this quick note...

1) At some level, the proposal is an effort to shift some marketing infrastructure, and perhaps some inventory control, expenses of some private companies to the public sector. So what are the current costs for those activities by the affected private sector and why don't we start with that as an amount that the private sector should be required to start with in estimating ways of allocating burdens? Otherwise, this isn't a partnership, it's a bail-out.

The IngenuityFest public outreach efforts of Sally Levine  and David Ellison are intended to prevent Cuyahoga County from demolishing Cleveland’s Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower.    Ms. Levine and Mr. Ellison present a “Right vs Might” poster boy case of passionate public citizens who are “right” going up against “City Hall” “might”.   Except in this case it isn’t “City Hall”,   but “County Hall”.  

We're about to start prepping and painting lots of plaster walls and protecting lots of wood trim, windows, doors and floors, inside and out. As we are bringing the property to its most natural state possible, removing most paint, varnish, and wallpaper, we are working from very raw materials, and feel that is good. How do we now keep our house as natural as possible, as we finish it up?

   Riverview Baptist Church from Franklin, Ohio (south of Dayton, Oh.)  in cooperation with Fresh Coat Cleveland spent a week providing their earnest and good spirited (the job site near E55th and Superior was a upbeat place to be) volunteer labor in Cleveland painting houses. 

Now this down to earth engineering plan to rectify the natural state of the Cuyahoga River is an operation I could get behind long before I could support Bill Mason's wind turbines "about 3 miles out on Lake Erie".

Friday, June 22, 2007, "Storage Spaces" opened at Spaces Gallery - continuing their orientation on "Shrinking Cities". It is a very cool show, with many great works in a variety of mediums. And Spaces is a cool arts anti-establishment. As I was up there on the Viaduct, shown in the header attached below, I reflected it has changed character so much, with the growth of condos contrasting with the shrinking cities theme of the moment, since I lived in one of the loft buildings a bit further down... before the viaduct went glass and chrome. I already miss the old days of industrial decay.

Vis a vis the proposed new (let’s rebuild the existing) inner belt interstate 90 ODOT bridge in Cleveland:

I was pleased to read in the Plain Dealer that Cottage Living has declared my neighborhood, Ohio City, one of their 10 best communities in America, for "charming cottages, a sense of community, and an eye on the future." No doubt they made a great choice with Ohio City, as my family well knows and celebrates each day we live here. Tonight we dined a few blocks from our house, among historic victorians and mature trees and gardens on the patio at Momocho (still as great as when I reviewed it last year)... the best NEOMEX restaurant in the world. Within a few other blocks of there are over a dozen more of the region's best restaurants and hot spots - core, local establishments - not to mention the "best in the world" West Side Market... With the W. 25th RTA and many bus lines criss crossing this area, it is a public transit dream, and is probably the most bike and walk friendly place in Ohio.

Why are we so behind in Northeast Ohio when it comes to preservation?

Two articles converged onto my conciousness this week in the midst of an attempt to save the Breuer from destruction.

Brooklyn Waterfront Called Endangered Site

here's a quote: “The buildings really represent an important part of Brooklyn’s heritage, and it would be a tragedy to lose it,” Richard Moe, president of the trust, said in an interview. “We’re very concerned that there’s such a rush on to demolish everything.”

and

Great Architecture Finds a Home in Indiana

here's a quote: "Columbus (Indiana) is a small town (population 39,000) that just happens to have the most incredible collection of modern architecture in the Midwest (outside Chicago, of course). Everyone from Eliel Saarinen and his son, Eero, to Deborah Berke and Richard Meier has worked there, designing so many schools, churches and libraries that, at least in theory, you can’t walk a single block without stumbling on an elegant glass-and-concrete building or a house of worship soaring like a Euclidean fantasy.

“You actually have to see it to believe it,” wrote Christopher Porter, a reader."

Located in the heart of the historic Hough Bakeries Complex is the Inner Circle, a weekend club and reception facility operated for the past 7 years by the Hot Sauce Williams family. Starting shortly, operation of the Inner Circle will expand to extended hours every day, featuring a cybercafe, meeting space, computer terminals, free wifi, independent film, the Linux Cafe, art, culture, and great food, coffee, and even wine tastings, via a broader partnership of friends. This pan is from the deck and patio area, and features Guyanese chef and reggae performer and DJ Edwin, who will help operate the Inner Circle, shown with Hot Sauce Williams founder LeMaud Williams, as well.