MOCA Cleveland

It's been a long hiatus from posting, but not so long from taking some photos. The advantage of this is that the world gets to see a lot of spring and summer pictures as the snow begins to fall outside in Cleveland.

For an exciting, but not too ambitious return to blogging, I wanted to take a look at the progress of the new home for the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Cleveland. Ground was broken for the building in December 2010, and visible parts of the construction have proceeded rapidly at times during the past year.

The following three photos show the building from Mayfield Road south of the site. They were taken in July, October, and December respectively.


The design, by Foreign Office Architects of London and Farshid Moussavi Architecture, is their first in the United States. As you can see from the photographs, the design is a crystalline inspired shape with six sides at the bottom becoming four sides at the top. The building will be four stories tall, containing galleries, administrative offices and meeting space. The next few photos are taken from the east at the Corner of Mayfield Rd. and Euclid Avenue over the same time period.


It seems I do not have any pictures from the Euclid Avenue side to the north, showing what will eventually be the main entrance in an all glass triangular wall. I will try to include one of those with a future entry. The MOCA building is a part of the broader Uptown mixed use project along Euclid Avenue in University Circle. I plan to share some pictures of the rest of the project in the coming weeks.

Sweet Moses!

Hi all! So long since the last blog post, but finally I am back, this time at a new commercial venture in the Gordon Square Arts District, Sweet Moses Soda Fountain!

Today is the grand opening of the shop, and I definitely had to be there! Named affectionately after Moses Cleaveland, the namesake of our fair city, Sweet Moses has an authentic old fashioned soda fountain, homemade everything, and is just too kewl to be real!

Here is my friend Sean at the register ordering. In case anyone is wondering, he got a root beer float, and I got a chocolate malt, my favorite. It was *so* good.

And here is the display case of all their homemade chocolate barks. They also do homemade candies, brownies, and ice cream!

If I had been born a few decades earlier, soda fountains would likely have been my favorite hangouts. As it is, I think this is such a great addition to the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood and the Gordon Square district. It has been amazing to watch that area develop into an urban center for Cleveland. The commercial district has developed a critical mass of shops, restaurants and arts as well as surrounding residential areas that really keep it vibrant. The neighborhood is really one of the bright spots of our changing Cleveland landscape, and Sweet Moses Soda Shop fits right into that mix.

Cultural Gardens: Part IV

Well, it's about time to finish off my series on the Cleveland Cultural Gardens for the moment. To wrap things up, I wanted to share some pictures of the newest Garden, the still under construction Syrian Garden.


Construction began in early August. These photos are from October, which makes sense considering the lack of snow in all of them. :) Below you can see the beginnings of a center focal point surrounded by a stone amphitheater.


The next view was taken from the upper landing of the garden just off East Boulevard. Partway down the stairway, you can see a decorative second landing in the form of an eight-pointed star. I'm looking forward to seeing how the entire space continues to take form once we emerge from the Cleveland winter.


And that completes my tour of some of the newer sights in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. We'll definitely have to revisit the gardens once the weather gets nice again. In the meantime, there are some big changes happening on a daily basis in downtown Cleveland that you'll all want to see, especially if you do not get down there on a daily basis. Hope to have those put together for you all very soon!

Cultural Gardens: Part III

Happy 2011 to everyone! It's been a long several months for me, but I'm back in the new year and ready to post both some old and some new photos.

During the month of November, I thought that I might be leaving Cleveland for other pastures. Of course, that would have spelled a quick end to this blog. Thankfully for the blog, it was not meant to be, and instead some opportunity came about locally. That has kept me a little too busy to post, but I'm finally getting settled enough to devote some time online again.

Picking up where we left off in October, here is the third installment of new and exciting changes in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. This time around I wanted to show some new renovations to existing gardens. Along with all the new additions in the past decade, so many of the cultural gardens have seen a lot of love and care that they might not have gotten at some points in previous years.

First off, over the summer, the Estonian Garden got a little face lift in the form of a new stone path from the road and a new raised planter in the middle of the path.


Here you can see the text of a poem inscribed at the base of the planter.



The Irish Cultural Garden also got a big change, courtesy of a huge new fountain.


Along with the fountain, there are a number of black stone memorials to famous people of Irish ethnicity. And of course the beautiful garden and paths surrounding it all!


In the next couple days I'll have one more installment on the Cleveland Cultural Gardens before we move on to other parts of Cleveland and the surrounding region.

Cultural Gardens: Part II

Nearby the Armenian Cultural Garden are two other recent additions to the Cleveland Cultural Gardens.


Just to the south is the Azerbaijan Cultural Garden, dedicated in 2008. It features a sculpture entitled Hearth.


Then on the far side of MLK Drive is the Serbian Garden, also dedicated in 2008.


The garden has a lengthy meandering pathway accented by busts of several historical Serbians of note.


At the southernmost end is a bust of Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla, whose work made possible the modern AC electrical power system.

Cultural Gardens: Part I

Pardon the settling dust around here...it's been a busy couple weeks. I intended to post daily or at least several times a week, but things got away from me for a little bit.

Anyhow, I have a few themed weeks that I wanted to touch on, and since it's Monday, there's no better time to start! The past few years there has been a lot of activity going on in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens along MLK Drive and East Boulevard in Rockefeller Park.

For those who are unfamiliar, the 276 acres of land in Rockefeller Park were donated to the City of Cleveland by John D. Rockefeller in 1897. The park runs along the valley where Doan Brook travels to Lake Erie. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is a winding parkway that runs the length of the park, connecting University Circle to Interstate 90. The Cultural Gardens, begun in the 1920s, run along the length of the park and represent the various cultures that make up the rich tapestry of Cleveland. A ton of information on most of what I'm posting this week is available at the Cleveland Cultural Gardens website.

History aside, I wanted to capture some of the building and renovations happening in the Cultural Gardens in the past weeks and months. To start off the week, I wanted to share a few pictures of the the brand new Armenian Cultural Garden, which was dedicated almost exactly a month ago on September 19.

Above, you can see the garden viewed from the north, all freshly mulched and beautiful!

The central part of the garden contains a sculpture of granite blocks with the Armenian alphabet carved into it.

The rear of the sculpture lists a number of Armenians who, directly or indirectly, have had an impact on America. Overall the Armenian Garden is quite a simple and beautiful addition to the park.

A new public space in University Circle

Time for Sunday's real post! The past several months, every time I traveled along East Boulevard through University Circle, I passed a small construction site at the corner of Wade Oval Drive, right next to the Botanical Gardens. For the longest time it looked like it was going to be a curvaceous entrance sign, as there were wooden forms for concrete to be poured. Finally a few weeks ago it was revealed as a long curving bench inlaid with mosaic tile.


While I was at Case alumni events on Saturday, I found out that it is a memorial plaza dedicated to the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. In my photos you can see the bronze statue of her that is seated on one part of the bench.


It's a great space that combines functional seating, attractive art, and the memory of a leader who was so beloved by many people.

Returning to Case

Happy Alumni Weekend to all the alumni of Case Western Reserve University and its predecessor schools! Due to my busy schedule, we're bringing you yesterday's picture today. This is the (relatively) new Alumni House on Juniper Road, remodeled for its current purpose in 2007. You can read a bit more about the history of the building on the Case website.

I took advantage of my time on the Case campus this weekend to shoot a bunch of pictures of new and ongoing projects in the University Circle area. It's been rainy throughout this project, but it looks like I have several weeks worth of pictures to share here on the Changing Face of Cleveland Blog! That should give me time to catch some views of other areas of the city to balance the coverage here.

Tower of Light

So, I need to develop some focus if I'm going to make this photo blog work...an inspired photo snuck up on me this evening....something a bit offbeat, but still new. And...I forgot to take a picture when I had an opportunity.

Thankfully, Cleveland has no shortage of interesting new sights! As I was driving home, there before me was our classic edifice, the Terminal Tower, all lit up in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month!
The upper portions of the Terminal Tower had been surrounded by layers of scaffolding for about 5 years as part of a massive restoration and renovation. The scaffolding finally came down less than a year ago, and along with the renovations there are new LED lights that can illuminate the tower in myriad colors and change quickly. I'll leave you all with several pictures of the tower during the 4th of July concert on Public Square, where it alternated layers of red white and blue along with the music of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Blog Beginnings

Welcome to the Changing Face of Cleveland blog! The concept for this has been rattling around in my head for several years as I've traveled around Northeast Ohio for my work and in my time off. I'm constantly noticing the new buildings, renovated parks, rebuilt streetscapes, new businesses, and myriad other evidence that Cleveland and surrounding areas are dynamic, exciting places to be. The built environment in Northeast Ohio, and particularly in Cleveland, has so much of interest, both old and new.

So, I decided that I wanted a way to share the exciting changes that I come across around the region with anyone who may be interested and fascinated as I am. A photo blog struck me as the next best thing to kidnapping people and driving them around with me all day. So that's what you'll get if you continue to check out my postings: photos of the interesting ways in which Cleveland is changing and developing, as it happens.

This blog will hopefully be a service to so many people who have lived in and loved the Cleveland area, but moved on to other places. I want you to be able to see how old familiar haunts are being transformed all the time. Hopefully it will get you excited for the next return visit!

I expect it will also be fun for the many local folks. Cleveland and its surroundings are far too huge for any of us to keep up with all of the changes to our built environment. I am forever asking, "When did that change?", only to find out it was months ago.

Just recently I drove through parts of the Broadway and Slavic Village neighborhoods that I've never been to before. While they don't seem to be filled with swaths of positive change at the moment, it did remind me that despite my broad familiarity with Northeast Ohio, there are vast areas that I see rarely, and further areas that I've never laid eyes on before. For what I do see, I hope I can serve as eyes for the rest of you, letting you know about a few more places to explore anew.

So, with my purpose laid out, I'll wrap up this opening post. I anticipate letting my meager photography do most of the talking going forward. I don't necessarily expect to provide you with any high art, but hope I can provide servicable views that inspire you to get out and about in Greater Cleveland.

I'll leave you all with a photo of Wade Lagoon and the Cleveland Museum of Art from May 2009. No recent change visible here, but a nice representation of why I love University Circle in late spring, where everything old is new again.