Is there any organization in Cleveland that would be the equivalent of the Cultural Trust in Pittsburgh? I note that one project of Pittsburgh’s Cultural Trust is to “create a residential riverfront neighborhood that is integrated with the Allegheny riverbank. The main goal is to create a place so animated by restaurants, a park, public art and shopping areas that locals and out-of-town visitors will consider it a must-see destination.” To this end the Trust has selected four architectural planning/development teams from around the US and beyond to submit plans. I happened to recognize the name of the Dutch architectural firm, MVRDV, that is the proposal designer for Team B.
In ’04 MVRDV published a book, titled Regionmaker, that describes the possibilities offered by virtual planning techniques to the realization of regional concepts. By initiating this design contest for an area in downtown Pittsburgh, the Cultural Trust has upped the intellectual/aesthetic ante for development in their city. Peter B. Lewis had this idea when he engaged Gehry to design the Weatherhead building. Whether or not one likes the PBL building at Case, it can’t be denied that it contributes to Cleveland’s overall architectural interest. There are people who will travel here just to see that building. When local developers give us another shopping destination or condo development or industrial park, we would all benefit if the chief design criteria didn’t seem to be “the bottom line”. In fact developers might be filling more buildings if Cleveland were recognized as a place that not only had a stock of grand old buildings but also was home to new cutting edge developments.
Read more about the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust: http://www.pgharts.org/about/ [1]
Links:
[1] http://www.pgharts.org/about/