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.