German Students Join Forces with Kent State
to Restore the "Forgotten Valley"
CUDC Quarterly, 3:2 - Summer, 2003

The lower stretch of the Cuyahoga is so unlike a naturally occuring stream that environmental regulators aren’t even sure how to define it. Maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers as a shipping channel, the river is dredged to a uniform depth of 30 feet and bounded by sheer, steel pilings. Given these constraints, it might not seem like a good place for students to learn about "Urban River Restoration and Enhancement." After all, "restoration" of the Cuyahoga is basically inconceivable. "Enhancement" seems like a tall order, too, but it is conceivable with careful interpretation and some technical subtlety.

This was one lesson of the two-week course held at the CUDC in May, in which eleven landscape architecture students from Dresden University of Technology and six architecture students from Kent State worked intensively on the valley under Professor Joachim Tourbier. The Cuyahoga Valley proved to have great potential, and not just as a learning experience. In applying some of the latest thinking from both sides of the Atlantic on green technologies for waterway and stormwater management, the students were also required to think about economic development and about the cultural value of sites central to Cleveland’s history. This resulted in some strikingly thoughtful work that shows how green design can both respect the past and unlock the Valley’s rich potential for the future. --ed.

The CUDC would like to thank Jerry Schmelzer of The Pointe at Gateway and Jim McKnight and family for help with housing, and the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and the Ohio EPA for valuable technical resources.

Overview of the Course

Design Work (HTML version) (PDF version)

The Bulk Storage Problem in the Valley

poster

Click here for the TU Dresden architecture site (n.b. in German)