VIEWPOINT - CUDC Quarterly 1:4 - Summer 2001
The Stake on the Lake
The Search for a Vision for Cleveland's Waterfront
Maurizio Sabini, PhD, AAIA
School of Architecture and Environmental Design, Kent State University
The waterfront has returned to the center of Cleveland’s civic debate. Recent proposals for a new convention center on land presently used by the Port Authority have sparked discussion, and the community has started to address the question: what vision does Cleveland need for its lakefront?
First of all, is a "vision" really needed? In few other instances of urban redevelopment, actually, is a vision needed more than in the case of the waterfront.
The notion of "vision" itself implies both a long-term perspective and a physical definition of the proposed interventions. Waterfront redevelopments, because of their functional complexity, require a long timespan for successful planning and implementation and, because of their privileged landscape condition, ask for careful studies of their visual and environmental impacts.
Secondly, is the development of the lakefront really important for Cleveland ? Faced with many urgent problems (schools, affordable housing, industrial crisis, neighborhood upgrading, downtown revitalization), legitimate doubts are raised about channeling public resources to the lakefront. Also, in terms of an environmental agenda, the reconversion to public use of the Cuyahoga Valley (e.g. CanalWay Ohio and related projects) seems to deserve much public attention and the best efforts of the political leadership. Nevertheless, the lakefront is a unique opportunity for Cleveland. It would be a catalyst development for an overall urban reconversion and revitalization, capable of attracting substantial investment and attention at a national level. All the other projects, very important on their own, have local or regional implications, but only the lakefront would give Cleveland a chance to reinvent itself as a major node of the service industry network, and as a place of great residential quality, able to compete in the national and global market of cities.
The interest that waterfront redevelopments have sparked around the world testifies to the importance of the issue. From the pioneering projects of Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco in the 60’s, to the subsequent experiences of New York City, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Capetown and Barcelona, to the most recent case of Shangai–the largest waterfront redevelopment project ever (some 6,500 acres: about 25 times Cleveland’s downtown lakefront!)– waterfronts continue to stimulate governments’ policies, developers’ strategies and peoples’ expectations. As geographer Brian Hoyle has pointed out: "The popular success of many new waterfronts reflects the inherent magic of water, drawing people together, bringing citizens and visitors back to the water’s edge, a tangible sign of the continuing vitality of cities."
Are there general principles that can be derived from this decades-long and world- wide experience? Architect Manuel de Solá Morales has summarized quite well some important recommendations: a strategic vision; a hybrid of port and urban activities; a coordination of city and port authority planning; the priority of the accessibility system, also in terms of its visual significance; the careful planning of public space; the presence of housing, as an essential component to ensure complementary services, safety and maintenance, and the presence of public institutions to enhance the civic symbolism of the waterfront’s urban space.
What actions would be recommended in Cleveland’s case?
1) Generation of a new planning framework (a "strategic plan"), capable of "planning itself," to accommodate the most appropriate and effective process of public participation, to incorporate implementation as a planning factor, to establish a correct system of priorities (i.e. What is the minimum intervention with the maximum increase of urban quality?);
2) Support for the proposal (recently drafted by GSI of Cleveland) for a new Convention Center on the site of Port Authority, and the concurrent concentration of port activities on Whiskey Island, as a unique catalyst to redevelop the lakefront;
3) Careful study of accessibility, maintaining the present highway system, the railroad and the lakefront airport (perhaps shifted more to the east), exploiting them as resources for regional accessibility, while creating various solutions to improve connections between downtown and the lakefront;
4) Introduction of housing (apartments, lofts, hotels) within various parts of the plan;
5) Introduction of maritime activities and green spaces (parks and promenades) for the enjoyment of citizens and visitors;
6) Reshaping of the Mall as the primary civic space for the relationship between the downtown and the lake, reviving the spirit (not literally the forms) of Daniel Burnham’s vision in the 1903 Group Plan;
7) Location of the two surviving Hulett ore unloaders (along with the cargo ship Mather), and of the proposed Crawford Museum of Transportation and Industry (redesigned) on a prime spot on the lakefront (on axis with the Mall ?), to create a node of civic symbolism and a place for celebrating the city’s collective memory;
8) … not to mention the dream of experiencing, in some way, the waterfront and downtown from the lake, facing south, from some sort of public space, in a lagoon-like environment …
(NOTE: Students in Professor Sabini's studio investigated the possibility of a man-made island off the downtown lakefront.)
For Cleveland the lake is no longer simply a shipping channel, as it historically was. Now it is a resource for the welfare and the well-being of people, and the lakefront should become rich in opportunities, interesting, attractive and beautiful. Whatever the vision the local community will be able to form, the planning breadth on the lakefront must be ample, as no substantial success can be expected from an incremental and short-term strategy. Issues are complex, public and private interests are many and intertwined, and solutions will not be easy to find, but Cleveland clearly has a great stake lying on the shore of Lake Erie.
click here for lakefront projects from the studio
