I lived in London in 1984.  Attended King's College.  Lived in Camberwell Green.  I know you will like Cleveland.  Same crazy warren of hidden great spots.  And strange humor.  When I got off the plane in London, I took the tube straight to the college.  I was addled and jetlagged.  My contact at King's, Dr. P.J. Whitcomb, told me to head for the refectory to relax a little before I met with him.  Trouble was finding the refectory meant traveling through a subterranean network of corridors and buildings.  I swear it was an intelligence test! Afterall, the man studied animal behavior.  Funny guy.  Well, this mouse got lost in the maze.  Please know we would NEVER do that to you!  And I can hook you up with a furniture designer.  Contact Alenka at Convivium33. She can hook you up with PJ Moran.  Hope this works for you!

Well--that pretty much sums the places I seem to end up.  Welcome to Cleveland!

Just looked at your photo.  You look like P.J. Harvey!  Any relation???  Cute little man!

 NOTE: I misspelled my advisor's name in a previous post--WHITFIELD...not Whitcomb,  Dr. Dr. Barry Cox was my tutor, if my memory serves me right, I also had Dr. Michael Stoddard.  It's a great place. 

(Also, you can contact Alenka with a private email through this forum http://www.realneo.org/user/josaphat)

I'm sure you know that the Cleveland Insititute of Art produces lots of great designers, so you should connect with their head of the Design Department Can Cuffaro - good guy working on a major "Deisgn District" concept with Ned Hill at Cleveland State University. There are lots of cool designers in town but I'm not sure where they "hang" - contact Joe Stanley for his thoughts - see http://neomainstreet.com - j [dot] e [dot] stanley2 [at] gmail [dot] com. While you still may, it could be interesting for you to connect with Victor Schreckengost, who is one of the fathers of modern product design, now 100... http://www.viktorschreckengost.org/... if you can't get through to him let me know. Most important, get involved in the community... art openings and galleries... Tremont Art Walks... movements...

Can you share more about what interests you, why Cleveland, where you are settling in, and what type of design work you'd like to do... we need all the help here we can get!

  Elena--did you get hooked up with some of the initiatives going on in the design district?  PJ Doran  (sorry--wrong letter in my first reply post) is one furniture designer and contractor looking into starting a company for the adaptive reuse of  building materials. 

Let us know your story :)

Just returned through the blizzard from Alenka's beautiful city oasis Convivium33.  I don't really want everyone to know about APOC, but the real coinnesseurs will know soon enough.  APOC stands for "A piece of Cleveland."

  Jenita discusses the deconstruction of the Stanard School in Superior-St Clair neighborhood.  PJ Moran and Chris Kious are no doubt involved.

Take the city apart and put it back together again :)

About the Cleveland School of the Arts, which is now getting the "opportunity corridor" wash--in preparation for its demise.  Ask again, about John Marshall, Lincoln West, and the countless other schools on demolition death row.

Cleveland Metropolitan School District needs to get its priorities in order.  Giving away huge construction contracts is not the answer.  We need a West Side Relief school--build it adjacent to the Zone Recreation Center on Lorain Ave.  Get it done.  And, then repair our existing schools!!!  Stop tearing them down.  Where's the money folks?  Even the kids can do simple math.  Can our "administrators?"

(Meanwhile--Former Cleveland Metropolitan School East Denison, now Horizon Denison Science Academy, is enrolling K-8.   Not bad for a school with recreation facilities and access and a building that is closer to one hundred years old).