FOR CONSIDERATION - CUDC Quarterly 1:3 - Spring 2001

Reclaiming the Forgotten Valley

This past November, the Plain Dealer published architecture critic Steve Litt’s five-part article "The Forgotten Valley," highlighting the potential of the Cuyahoga River Valley as both a natural and historical treasure and a catalyst for future development in Northeast Ohio. The interest generated by the article has given renewed impetus to the initiatives around the Ohio and Erie Canal Corridor and other ongoing efforts to realize the Valley’s potential. At the same time, Litt’s article points to the complex design challenges posed by most sites in the valley. Making optimal use of this resource will require innovative design thinking of a sort that the region has often avoided in the past. To get the ball rolling in the direction of excellent  design in the valley, the Urban Design Center will be hosting a charrette over the last weekend in March to develop concepts for a potential Canal Basin park near downtown Cleveland. A preview of the charrette starts on Page 9 of this issue. In the meantime, here are some general questions for all of us who are considering how to realize the potential of "The Forgotten Valley":

There are still substantial industrial uses in the valley, and we’d rather not see these employers disappear anytime soon. Do we have planning and design strategies that would help residential and recreational uses coexist with industries that generate lots of traffic and noise, and are sometimes pretty unsightly?

The valley was the epicenter of Cleveland’s industrial boom in the period before World War I, and contemporary reports tell us that much of it was hellishly sooty, stench-ridden and toxic throughout that period. While the river itself is much cleaner than it used to be, it should be assumed that many of the brownfield sites along the river are not safe for some uses. Are we looking for designers who are familiar with all the latest techniques (particularly natural methods using plants) for cleaning soils and storm water runoff?

For much of Northeast Ohio’s population, the valley is something that we drive over on high level bridges. These structures present fascinating opportunities to anyone designing a place underneath them, but also significant challenges. How does one deal with the scale of these structures, not to mention the noise and other problems they create ? And how can safe wiewing places and bikeways be integrated with the fast moving, high volume traffic that these structures carry?

One of the reasons so little has been done with the Cuyahoga Valley is its relative inaccessibility. There aren’t many major routes into the valley, and only a small number of those are particularly safe for cyclists and pedestrians. To make the valley a real benefit to the neighborhoods uphill from it, the means will have to be found to make safe and inviting connections into the valley. Could this be easier said than done? Have all the best routes into the valley been identified? And how should they be integrated with adjacent private development ?

Finally, there is the difficult issue of preserving the Cuyahoga Valley’s unusual character. The valley exhibits a complicated mix of natural, historic and industrial features, and designers working in the valley will have the delicate task of preserving this mix while introducing new recreational, interpretive and residential elements. For example, how does one create an exciting, vibrant park that both brings out the valley’s natural beauty and preserves the grittiness that is essential to its industrial heritage and character? It’s this last challenge that we’re posing to the four landscape architects who will be coming to the Canal Basin Charrette.