A recent trip to Cleveland enabled me to see Public Square on its opening day. This $50 million project includes some tropes that have become standard in new public space designs (a food kiosk, a water feature), but at the end of the day the space as it was presented on opening day appeared under-programmed. Most importantly, it lacks both shade and moveable chairs. The single coffee kiosk won’t create enough activity to animate the space — particularly during the “shoulder” periods of nights and weekends. The design, by James Corner/Field Operations, very much reminded me of the failed Pershing Square in Los Angeles, one of the country’s most glaringly unsuccessful public spaces of the last fifty years — now in the process of being entirely rethought. Both have extensive water features and food kiosks — but are mostly hardscape with fixed seating and no shade.
That being said almost any public space can be made successful through good programming and operations and the good folks in Cleveland need to make sure that they protect their capital investment by providing sufficient resources to program and maintain the space. It has a large lawn area, which is great — but someone has to be there every day to make sure that it is adequately watered and mowed — and to close it when it is too wet or stressed from use from events. The space needs more commercial activities — a green market, food trucks, crafts booths and more food service. All of these activities must occur on nights and weekends.
Cleveland has come a long way in the 40 years since I went to college in Northern Ohio. Terminal Tower which was near empty in the 70’s and its interior public spaces are now lively. The gigantic former Stouffer’s Hotel (most recently The Renaissance) appears empty and is waiting for redevelopment. The Downtown has lots of bar and restaurant activity at night. Public Square was a forlorn, desolate space for decades, and while the renovated facility is shiny and new, because the design ignores much of what we have learned about what makes public spaces successful, it is going to need an intensive and sustained intervention to make it thrive and become an asset to Cleveland’s revitalization.
Photos to come. As this is my first post, I welcome suggestions as to format and functionality.
The contrast with Detroit’s Campus Martius is stunning. Dan Gilbert owns some of the buildings around Public Square. He had asked me to comment on the design. As I learn more out about how it is working, I’ll go back to him and his people and tell them how they missed the mark. Programming might be able to save it, but some of the features follow the usual Landscape designers predilection to create objects to look at and not to use. Unfortunate.
Thank you Andy! Some thoughtful writing and thinking on public spaces is always needed. Too often we get it wrong, and it seems there is still a paucity of good examples. Bryant Park in Manhattan, thanks to your help, is still an example of a great success. And the High Line, a marvel of urban landscape design, also comes to mind. The 911 Memorial is a big disappointment in that regard. Your point about shade is a good one, and makes me think that the “natural” part of urban design — the trees, shrubs, flowers, grass — and how they interact with the man-made parts are a vital piece to making outdoor spaces livable.
I’m looking forward to reading more.
Thanks Claire! Pictures soon. Later in the week Cincinnati!
So Andy, I wonder if some of the shortcomings of the design came about due to a fear that maintenance funding would be inadequate thus too much hardscape and low maintenance landscaping. There is no excuse for the lack of shade and more trees.