Another Look at the Lakefront Challenge
CUDC Quarterly 3:3/4 - Winter 2004
MORE LINKS BELOW

On November 17, a near capacity crowd filled the Civic Forum of CSU’s Levin College of Urban Affairs to see the results of the "Lakefront Challenge," a design competition sponsored jointly by the Plain Dealer, the CUDC and the Cleveland Chapter of AIA. Thirty-eight teams – mostly from local firms – spent a little over a week developing design concepts for Cleveland’s downtown lakefront. They were delivered to the CUDC on the morning of the 17th and viewed by a response panel consisting of David Bergholz (former Director of the George Gund Foundation), Terri Hamilton Brown (Director of University Circle, Inc.), Ned Foss (developer from Albany, NY), Lillian Kuri (Director of Cleveland Public Art) and Robert P. Madison, FAIA (Principal of Robert P. Madison International).

The response panel selected five of the entries, based on their quality and the significant issues identified in them. At the Civic Forum, the crowd was welcomed by presidents Carol A Cartwright of Kent State and Michael Schwartz of Cleveland State. The response panel then discussed their five choices and several other entries. The public also had a chance to vote for their favorites, choosing the model submitted by Robert Corna and Associates. (The projects from GSI Architects and the staff of the Urban Design Center were runners up in the popular vote.) The results were published in the Plain Dealer, both in print and on the web. As we go to press, funding is being sought to publish a booklet of all 38 entries. In the meantime, the next few pages offer images from the five "winning" entries and several others (links to complete submissions below), along with some thoughts on how the "Lakefront Challenge" has helped advance the conversation about the future of Cleveland’s waterfront.

What we do near the water – The city’s ongoing lakefront planning process has been based on two axioms: maximum public access and the "universal" desire to "touch the water," but giving substance to these abstractions in Cleveland is no simple matter. Sometimes Lake Erie is best admired from a distance. It’s violent in winter, and it can be unpleasant at other times, like the annual smelt die-off. The "Lakefront Challenge" particpants offer lots of specific ideas for maximizing activity during the best times and giving people reasons to come back. These include recreation venues, ranging from sand volleyball courts on constructed beaches to "sail-in" theaters on the water. A few of the projects envision vast expanses of greenspace, but most try to create a range of smaller programmed environments that would help keep the lakefront fresh and active throughout the summer (and even into the winter in a few cases). This approach contrasts with – but also could complement – the strategy of building waterfront attractions surrounded by relatively passive space (as at the existing North Coast Harbor). Given the issue’s prominent place on the civic agenda in recent months, quite a few of the entries try to find a site for a convention center, either on the water or as a structural means of connecting the waterfront to the city. The response panel expressed reservations about both ideas, but the range of proposals serves to give people a very good idea of the potentials and constraints that have to be considered in siting these behemoth facilities.

Living on the Docks – Most of the Lakefront Challenge participants recognized the need to balance public with private investment, and the 38 submissions include a range of designs for housing that would be viable in spite of the poor siting of Cleveland Browns Stadium. One approach, based on examples in Europe and elsewhere, was to cut fingers of water into the existing docks, creating mixed use blocks and row-housing near the water, while offering a degree of shelter in winter. By giving graphic substance to this type of housing and the kind of public environment it could create, the Lakefront Challenge will do a lot to help people envision a healthy balance of public and private uses on the water.

To theme or not to theme? – The existing lakefront is dominated by shiny object buildings that – to the degree that they speak as one – don’t say much that’s particular to Cleveland. Several of the projects preferred by the response panel offer a degree of remediation for this by giving the downtown lakefront a theme, developed through a combination of program, public art and graphic identity. These include the City Architecture team’s "Active Living Center," with its lighthouse follies, as well as a number of proposals with environmental themes. Other projects concentrate more on space-shaping devices and infrastructure to give the lakefront unity.

All of these proposals give greater specificity to the ongoing effort to make Cleveland’s lakefront something other than what it is, and they will aid in the city’s planning process as it moves from general concepts to specific actions.

Very different ideas about program: Christopher Diehl and Richard Danicic of URS Corp proposed a series of large-scale facilities, including a ferris wheel that dips below the surface of the lake. Christopher Wynn of Osborne Engineering proposed a maximum of greenspace, with crescent shaped promenades along the water.

The response panel singled out this project from one of the City Architecture teams for an "active lifestyle center" that integrates housing with a variety of recreational facitilities. (Team members: Michelle Bandy-Zalatoris, Scott Bofinger, Michael Caito, Nikki Karlin, Misty Laderer and CUDC alumnus Matt Schmidt.)

Water, the best kept secret? — A number of projects took water and its value to the region’s future as a thematic basis, and two of them were cited by the response panel. In" Water Rising," by artist Don Harvey in collaboration with Bryan J Evans, Mandy Metcalf, Gauri Torgalkar and Paul Vernon of the UDC, new inlets and bodies of water are excavated throughout the site, bringing the lake closer to the city and allowing visitors to enjoy it in a variety of conditions. At the western end of the site, inlets create desirable sites for a range of housing types and private docks. The plan also includes numerous public art works that give tangibility to the motion and poetry of water.

Kerr + Boron Associates proposed developing the lakefront in conjunction with an "International Festival of Water," modeled on the Great Lakes Exposition of the 1930s but dealing with ecological themes and the importance of water as a resource for future economic development. The intricate plan composes a multitude of interventions around a grand pedestrian promenade. Public art highlights the region’s history and future potential, while infrastructure problems are neatly solved with such devices as parking garages inside old ore boats. (Design Team: Bill Boron, Kent State faculty member Charles Frederick, Bethany Hart, Brian Pickering and Jeffrey Kerr.)

Extending the Mall: Many of the projects investigated using sculptural bridges to get from Mall C to the waterfront. Others, like the team from Spice Constantino, proposed green promenades to cover the Shoreway and the railroad tracks. (Team members: Tim Hunsicker, AIA, Marc Bittinger, AIA, Chris Block and CUDC alumnus Kevin Kantz.)

Two projects took the alternative approach of bridging the infrastructure with a large-scale building. The proposal by Y Architects (left) won praise from the response panel for the dramatic form of a convention center that inflects toward stadium. (Team Members: Mark Yager, Paulo Waisberg and CUDC alumnus Christopher Faulhammer.)

The team from Bialosky + Partners took a slightly different approach to both program and form (below). (Team Members: Todd Griffith, Kevin Robinette, Jeff Smith, Paul Taylor and CUDC alum David Craun.)

The response panel was particularly impressed by the proposals for waterfront housing by Scott Richardson and Dan Cuffaro, both for their feasiblity and as compelling investigations of the character of waterfront housing types. This drawing shows a community of houseboats east of North Coast Harbor.

Thematic, sculptural and historical artifacts: The "Water Rising" entry from the UDC and Don Harvey includes a number of public art works, here sculptural grasses that move with the waves. The City Architecture "Active Lifestyle Center" is unified by a grid of lighthouse "follies" that house kiosks for food, sports equipment, media and other goodies.

Stephen P. Manka proposed moving the steamship Mather to the western edge of the
site, near the working port, and installing it with the Hulett ore unloaders. Both pieces of this port "exhibit" do double duty, the ship as a youth hostel and the Huletts as a stop on a trolley line that circles between the lakefront and Public Square.

Links
A Minority Report on the Mall by Steve Rugare
Students Take the Lakefront Challenge by Maurizio Sabini (PDF file)
Symposium Puts Cleveland's Waterfront in Global Perspective (Quarterly 1:4)

Ecocity Cleveland - the BLUE Project
Plain Dealer coverage of the Lakefront Planning Process
City Planning Commission Lakefront Plan Site

The Five Winning Entries from the Lakefront Challenge
click on images to enlarge

"Active Lifestyle Center" - City Architecture Team 4
explanatory text

"International Festival of Water" - Kerr + Boron Associates

Scott Richardson and Dan Cuffaro

Y Architects

"Water Rising" - UDC staff members and Don Harvey