FROM THE STUDIO - CUDC Quarterly 4:2 - Summer 2005

Visions of Cleveland's Northern Quadrangle
by Terry Schwarz

In Fall 2004, the graduate urban design studio focused on the northern part of Cleveland’s Quadrangle neighborhood. The Quadrangle is a unique district on the eastern edge of downtown that contains the region’s largest concentrations of educational institutions, medical facilities, government offices and social service agencies, as well as several hundred small businesses. These activities account for over 19,000 jobs and generate over 14,000 visitors a day. In addition to its institutional and commercial components, the Quadrangle district has a residential population. Many residents live in Chinatown and the Cedar Estates public housing project. There are also several hundred CSU and Tri-C students in the neighborhood, as well as small colonies of artists in the industrial buildings along Superior and Payne avenues.

Although collectively described as the Quadrangle, this large area actually has several distinct neighborhoods. South of the Innerbelt, there is a concentration of institutions, including the U.S. Postal Service, the Juvenile Court complex, Tri-C’s downtown campus, the Visiting Nurses Association, the Ohio Teachers Credit Union, and the headquarters of the Boy Scouts, to name a few. The central area of the Quadrangle contains CSU, Trinity Cathedral, and a key segment of the Euclid Corridor transit project.

Industrial no-man's land on the bluff (with downtown in the background)

The northern Quadrangle, where the students focused their efforts, is home to a more eclectic assortment of uses including industry, service retail, the headquarters of the Plain Dealer, artists’ live/work lofts, homeless shelters and support organizations, union halls, churches and Cleveland’s Chinatown. These uses co-exist in sometimes harmonious and sometimes conflicting relationships. The area represents an untapped opportunity in its close proximity to downtown and the Lakefront. To capitalize on the potential of the northern Quadrangle, there needs to be a clear vision for the future which optimizes the advantage of its unique location for current and future stakeholders.

Although the northern Quadrangle will be directly affected by several major initiatives, including the Lakefront Plan, the reconfiguration of the Innerbelt, and the Euclid Corridor project, the area itself has been largely overlooked in terms of local planning initiatives. The studio exercise presented an opportunity to fill that gap, or at least to introduce some new ideas for a largely overlooked part of the city. Eight students worked in two teams to develop design strategies for the northern Quadrangle in an effort to capitalize on new opportunities and emerging needs in the area. Each team produced a master plan that identifies development alternatives and outlines immediate and long-term action steps.

Team One included Courtney Lepene, Richard Haskell, Trisha Brown, and Karthik Karkal. Their plan looked for ways to establish a sense of identity for the northern Quadrangle, through new green spaces, innovative housing and a series of distinct and clearly defined districts within the neighborhood. The plan centers around a large public park, running north from the Plain Dealer building to the lake, between East 18th and East 20th streets. This green space is designed as a bioretention park that will filter stormwater runoff from the entire district through a series of natural and mechanical interventions, returning the water in a purified state from the neighborhood to the lake.

Connecting the lake to the Quadrangle was a recurring design theme. The students reviewed various plans for the lakefront, including one that proposed shifting Hopkins Airport slightly to the east, freeing up waterfront land for new development. Picking up on this idea, Team One’s plan shows a new residential community at the western end of the airport, where the lake is drawn through the district in the form of canals. Park spaces at the water’s edge ensure that lakefront access is available to all, not just those fortunate enough to live in this new canal district.

Additional housing was planned for Rockwell Avenue, designated as Cleveland’s “alternative lifestyle district.” This area is designed to be lively and a little chaotic, accommodating a range of housing types for people of all incomes, including supportive housing for the homeless. The entire plan comes together around East 17th Street, where Cleveland State and Playhouse Square connect to the proposed bioretention park and the Rockwell District via a series of lighting installations, parks, and small-scale housing developments.

Team Two consisted of Dong Jia, Lisa Webb, Greg Kufner and Chen Yu. Like the first team, these students recognized that the lack of green space in the northern Quadrangle is a serious issue, one that limits the potential for new development in the neighborhood. So Team Two’s plan includes a large, multi-level park from Rockwell to the Shoreway, between East 19th and East 20th Street. The proposed park takes advantage of the changing topography to create a series of spaces that can be designed and programmed for active recreation. The park sets up new opportunities for residential development in the northern Quadrangle. The plan includes more than 3,000 new housing units, including apartments, condominiums, and townhouses. In addition to housing around the proposed park, the plan establishes distinct residential neighborhoods along the Shoreway (newly configured as a lakefront boulevard), and at a smaller scale between Lakeside and St. Clair Avenues. These new housing districts, though separated by a grade change, are connected by an elevated boardwalk that will function as a recreational amenity and link residents to the new park.

The plan takes a close look at the Chinatown area, and identifies ways that this growing ethnic enclave can become a vibrant focal point for the northern Quadrangle through lighting, streetscape improvements, new housing and retail uses, and a series of small public parks and plazas along East 24th Street.

The students had the opportunity to tour the neighborhood with Bill Beckenbach, executive director of the Quadrangle, Inc. Bill also participated in studio reviews, tempering the students’ bold ideas with a real-world perspective and an understanding of the needs of neighborhood stakeholders. Steven Litt of the Plain Dealer, and Linda Henricksen and Debbie Berry from Cleveland City Planning also met with the students to provide background information and project guidance.

In January, the students presented their plans to the Quadrangle Board of Trustees. Board members responded enthusiastically and encouraged the students to meet with neighborhood stakeholders in an effort to move some of the concepts forward. In April, students met with 30 neighborhood business and property owners to present their plans. At the request of Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, the students’ work will also be presented to the Cleveland City Planning Commission with the hope that these ideas may begin to form the basis for a northern Quadrangle master plan.

The Quadrangle studio gave students invaluable experience in urban design practice as they learned to adapt abstract design concepts to the practicalities of a real-world situation. The city benefited, too, since the studio work generated fresh ideas for a significant, but largely overlooked, part of downtown Cleveland.

Click the image for a PDF layout of the projects.