PRINCIPLES
- FRUGALITY
This site has absorbed something like half a billion dollars in investment over the last 20 years, in spite of which it really…well, it’s not all that. Since the rest of the lakefront from Gordon Park to Edgewater needs attention desperately, we can’t justify major new infusions of public funds in the near- or mid-term. We therefore seek to be relatively frugal, avoiding massive new building or infrastructure projects. Instead, we emphasize cost-effective interventions that define spaces without filling them, seeking to create formal continuity and intensify social energy. These interventions will improve the site even if the Shoreway is not down-graded any time soon, and even if funding doesn’t materialize to expand the existing museums or build a new one.
- HISTORICAL TEXTURE
Architecturally, the Stadium, Rock Hall and Science Center suggest boosterish aspirations to a shiny, generic modernity that neither speaks to Cleveland’s past nor says much of interest about its future. Artifacts of Cleveland’s history as a center of engineering, transportation and industry should be incorporated into the site. These should be installed in creative combination with plants and green technologies that suggest future transformations.
- FLEXIBILITY
North Coast Harbor hosts an increasing number of big events (e.g. Gravity Games, Air Show, Pride, Independence Day, Race for the Cure), during which it succeeds as a zone of urban intensity. Parts of the newly available port (and possibly federal) land should be left unencumbered to enhance these temporary uses, while reducing their negative impacts on access to the museums and other year-round facilities. Overly precise programming will kill a site that needs flexibility at its most exciting moments. This requires a pragmatic approach to trade-offs between greenscape, hardscape and, yes, even parking.
- MORE COLORED LIGHT
There is a hint of festivity at night, when lit buildings, the downtown skyline and numerous colored signs conspire to suggest the visual intensity appropriate the core of a great city. More lit elements should be added, and they should be planned to enhance an altogether weaker daytime experience by providing points of shelter and intimacy in bad weather and when the site is relatively vacant.
ACTIONS
ACCESS LOOP STREETCAR
East 9th Street and West 3rd Street are the two major links between the site and downtown. Each is merely adequate at present, but these are the right axes to reinforce and improve. East 9th connects to a major center of daytime employment, while West 3rd connects to an emerging center of nightlife and downtown residential development. As the Shoreway is converted to a boulevard, these links need major and highly distinctive improvements, emphasizing the Waterfront Line transit stops and the remarkable fact that these are the only axes that can provide both visual and physical connection all the way down the bluff to the water. To animate these links and tie the lakefront to downtown, a light streetcar line should loop along these two streets, running as close to the water as possible. This would also improve access for major events.
FOUR LINEAR GARDENS
Linear arrays of artifacts – vehicles and industrial components – would give historical texture, while containing – not occupying – the wide open spaces. These installations would also add interest to the walk between distant parking lots and the stadium. We propose four linear gardens: a railroad garden along a redundant freight track, an auto garden running south of the stadium and North Coast Harbor, a port garden running from the southern end of the port facilities and jumping the harbors, an airplane garden running near the water’s edge and “banking” into the lake.
EUTHANIZE THE GROUP PLAN
Given that West 3rd and East 9th are already in place with newly built transit stops, we DO NOT recommend any attempt to bridge the rail lines at the end of the Mall. The city has pursued this grand axis for a century with diminishing logic. We would preserve Malls A and C, but Mall B would be reduced to a pedestrian street – called Burnham Place – running through a future convention center complex that integrates existing hotels and cannibalizes the obsolete carcass of Public Auditorium. The aspirations of the Group Plan would be given a dignified rest by creating a new water feature on the Mall axis east of the Stadium. This would bring the lake as near as possible to the Mall C precipice and give visual structure to an underwhelming view. (A grander version of this might start at Mall A, running through the convention center, cascading over Mall C and passing under the transportation infrastructure.)
CELEBRATE THE AIRPORT
In spite of the glib remarks of some civic leaders, we strongly suspect that Burke Lakefront Airport is an economic benefit to the city. It also provides ample room for major events (including the Air Show) that should be encouraged. In any event, Cleveland is rich enough in interesting development sites that we need not rush to shut down Burke in order to create a sterile, luxury enclave. Instead, we propose to celebrate the airport’s presence through the airplane garden and a further linear array of floating lights in the lake.
KEEP THE PORT WORKING
The de-accessioning of port land creates opportunities to the north of the stadium, but it should not be the first step in disappearing the working port and its atmosphere to somewhere west of the river. As much as security concerns allow, the working port should remain a visible part of the downtown waterfront. The boundary between leisure zone and working port can be celebrated and buffered by moving the Mather to the slip northwest of the stadium. There it could be installed with the preserved Hulett ore unloaders, a historic port exhibit in direct contrast with the modern port. This installation would terminate the maritime garden and the West 3rd Street axis. The Mather itself could be more intensively programmed, adding a youth hostel to its current museum functions. The pattern of the port would be remembered north of the stadium in a series of small scale fingers of water flanked by flexible loft structures. These could house seasonal entertainment functions, as well as inexpensive live-work space for those intrepid enough to brave the winter weather. We think this sort of development is more practical and more appropriate than the standard “new urbanist” row housing that current fashion might dictate for this site. (An even more radical alternative would be to populate the area with habitable shipping containers.).
ACTIVATE THE EAST HARBOR
If money can be found to move the federal facilities, the land freed should be integrated into the site with extensions of the linear arrays. The pattern of North Coast Harbor should be repeated by building a public attraction at the southern end, in this case the proposed transportation museum, providing more a more faithfully curated complement to the “exhibits” in the linear arrays. A proper port for the Goodtime III and future water taxis would be developed where the Mather is currently docked. The East Harbor might also accommodate public slips and/or docking for research vessels affiliated with the Great Lakes Science Center. A pedestrian draw bridge will activate Voinovich Park by hoisting a screen for a “sail-in” theater. |
