More on Euclid Avenue

I owe you an apology. I left out a whole slew of photos from yesterday's article.

This is looking east down Euclid Avenue:



This is looking west:



These are some of the decorations along the corridor:



And, I left out another project:

668 Euclid Avenue



This building has been in this state for quite some time. Developer Doug Price is going to re-habilitate it. It will become -- you guessed it -- retail and apartments.

Okay, now your stroll down Euclid is complete.

A Stroll Down Euclid Avenue

Remember when I wrote about the Flats? Check out this little comparison:

Before (taken Sunday):

After (conceptual sketch):


That's going to be pretty sweet.

Progress is being made down in the Flats. Or, rather, demolition. I'll save that for a seperate article, though. Today, you get something new.

The Euclid Corridor!

The Euclid Corridor referrs to Euclid Avenue, stretching from Public Square in Downtown Cleveland to the East Cleveland border at a Regional Transit Authority (RTA) train station (Windermere). Construction has been underway for a couple years, now, to turn that long stretch of Euclid Avenue into a transit path with dedicated bus lanes. The idea is to link Downtown with University Circle, where the Cleveland Clinic, University Hopsital, Case Western Reserve University and a boat-load of museums reside. It's intent is to also rejuvenate retail and residential development along it's path; which it's starting to do.

The construction is almost done. The ribbon-cutting is set for late October. The new buses have been shown around town and everybody's excited about that (they're hybrid buses, with two sections; I believe I heard the term "articulated rapid transit vehicle" at one point). The bus-lanes have state-of-the-art platforms and shelters that look like this (click for a bigger version):


I wanted to show you some of the development that's sprouting up, already, because of the corridor.

Josh Hartness Brown Building

This site is just west of E. 9th Street. I don't know a lot about it, yet, but it was covered up in the sixties with brown aluminum paneling, which has now been removed. Underneath was a beautiful building.


If you click and look at the larger image, you can see what I'm talking about (sort of -- I should've taken a close-up). They bolted this aluminum crap right into the original face of the building, and it's been severely damaged in some places (other spots fared pretty well).

Anyway, it will see new life as apartments or condos and ground-level retail. Like I said, I need to learn more about it (this is realtively new -- at least to me).

Cleveland Trust

This building has really started to grow on me. Designed by Marcel Breuer, it was completed in 1971. Breuer's style of architecture became known as brutalism (not because of what you might think). Once Cleveland Trust was swallowed up in bank mergers, the building sat vacant for years.

It was supposed to be deomolished to make way for a new County office building, but it's been saved and is now going to become a hotel (the first twelve floors) and apartments (the top). The rotunda in front (which is beautiful) will also be renovated. This article was just posted recently, that can tell you more.

At first, I thought it was an eyesore. It's dirty as hell, but of course it would be cleaned. I think it doesn't really fit with the rest of the skyline, but we'll see once it's been renovated. Regardless of how it looks on the outside, the upper-floor apartments are going to have a hell of a view.

Random Retail on Ground floor of Garage



These suites have been vacant for at least two years, which is right about when the Corridor construction started. They're roughly across the street from House of Blues (you can see the E. 6th street sign in the picture). I'm hoping they fill up pretty quickly, once Euclid is done. If you're a shop owner, look into it.

The May Company Building

This was the headquarters of May Company, which became Kaufmanns, which was bought by Macy's a couple years ago. This building was pretty awesome even when I was a kid in the eighties. It, and the Higbee building (built into the Terminal Tower complex) had pretty good Christmas displays, and there was always a guy playing his saxaphone under the awning (his descendant now plays the Kit-Kat theme around Jacob's Field-- I'm sorry Progressive Field). I think there's some activity in there now, but news on the street is that it's slated for mixed use development.

Plans aren't too coherent, yet, but a resturant called Cadillac Ranch is going in on the ground floor.

That's all I've got, for today. I'll leave you with this photo, just because:

Let's Get Dangerous

I was all set to go on another rant about politics (this time, about war powers), but a quick few minutes to brush up on the constitution took most of the wind out of my sails. Still, though, this seemed weird to me.

Former secretaries of state James Baker III and Warren Christopher say the next time the president goes to war, Congress should be required to say whether it agrees.

Isn't that already the case? Isn't Congress supposed to vote on whether our country goes to war, or not?

The co-chairmen of a bipartisan study group have proposed legislation that would require the president to consult lawmakers before initiating combat lasting longer than a week, exceptin cases of emergencies.

In turn, Congress would have to act within 30 days, either approving or disapproving of the action.

Am I crazy? I was sure this was already well established. You know, like, 221 years ago.

***

In lighter news (well, not news), I know all of you have been losing sleep over where I could've possilby derived "Let's. Get. Political." Those of you who were considered kids in the early to mid-nineties should be ashamed of yourselves for not knowing (or at least not saying).

It's Darkwing Duck.

I loved Darkwing Duck when I was a kid. I used to watch it every day after school. His catch phrase was "Let's get dangerous."

So, none of you win.

(There wasn't a prize, anyway. ;) )

Awesome.

Click to appreciate it's full glory.