Welcome
Welcome to the third annual Cleveland Design Competition - Project 2009: Lakefront Station. The annual Cleveland Design Competition is an open, anonymous, single-stage, ideas competition founded as a tool for generating ideas around under-utilized sites and showcasing the talent of emerging designers on Cleveland's built and unbuilt environment.
Competition Mailing Address:
ATTN: Cleveland Design Competition
c/o Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative
820 Prospect Avenue, 2nd Floor
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Competition Email Address:
Introduction
“…Just as the decisions made about automobiles and highway systems in the 1950’s have determined the infrastructure of the United States ever since, the decisions made today about alternative transportation will affect the American way of life for years to come…” (Andréa White-Kjoss)
With the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie at Cleveland with the Ohio River at Portsmouth in the early 1800’s, the City of Cleveland became an important northern port city for the movement, manufacturing and distribution of goods throughout the Midwest. The primacy of the early transportation network of interstate canals and river/lake shipping would be short-lived, but its affect on the trajectory for growth of Great Lakes cities like Cleveland would be enduring. After the 1850’s, canal use declined and railroad mileage increased through Cleveland, making the City an important port and manufacturing center within an extensive national transportation network.
In 1834, Cleveland’s first urban railway provided rail service from the east side of Cleveland to Downtown’s Public Square. By the mid-1800's, interurban commuter rail service and intercity industrial and passenger rail increased in the City establishing rail shipping and travel as the primary mode of transportation within and throughout Northeast Ohio. Cleveland remained an important rail hub until after World War II when transportation for most industrial shipping and personal travel shifted from the nation's rail lines to the growing interstate highway system. Today, many of the same industrial rail lines still carry goods through the City, Amtrak operates two intercity passenger lines, and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority provides an extensive network of buses and limited commuter rail service throughout Cuyahoga County.
Recently, rising fuel costs and considerable interest in sustainable transportation has led to substantial federal commitment to upgrading America's rail system for the twenty-first century. This investment by the federal government has spurred a number of proposals for passenger rail service across the country. The details in these proposals vary in scope and timeline, but all must appropriately consider their role in contributing to a complete national network of sustainable communities. In the State of Ohio, the Ohio Hub plan re-establishes Cleveland as an important rail hub in Ohio, for travel throughout the Midwest and to cities on the East Coast. By utilizing rail to strengthen connectivity, these new multi-modal transportation networks - and the facilities that serve them - will help reinforce the social and economic sustainability of the American City.
The Challenge
Project 2009: Lakefront Station challenges entrants to propose designs for a Multi-Modal Transportation Center in Downtown Cleveland at the north end of the historic Mall. This new transportation center will provide the city with a state-of-the-art rail station ready to support high speed passenger rail service, a facility capable of integrating and balancing the needs of various transportation modes, and a pedestrian connector from the Mall to Cleveland's lakefront. The current site configuration creates a confusing juxtaposition of infrastructure, smaller transit facilities, rail lines, and largely un-useable residual land. Solutions for a new multi-modal transit facility must evaluate the relationships between infrastructure, facility, adjacent development opportunity, and pedestrian wayfinding to develop uniquely integrated design and planning strategies. The site provides a number of sectional issues and opportunities in exploring how this new Multi-Modal Transportation Center will redefine and enhance the connection from Downtown to North Coast Harbor and Lake Erie. Successful solutions must provide the city with a connection to Cleveland’s history as an important rail hub and prepare the city for the next evolution of transportation. Linked into a High Speed Passenger Rail network, Downtown Cleveland would be an important national rail center among a network of connected American cities, a fitting gateway to the City of Cleveland.
Designs for the new Multi-Modal Transportation Center must:
- Balance the requirements of each mode of transportation and resolve the complex infrastructure program with innovative facility planning strategies.
- Establish a significant pedestrian connection from The Mall to North Coast Harbor. This connection must provide 24-hour, public access from Downtown to the Lakefront.
- Illustrate an understanding of the existing facilities on the site and justify their use, removal, and/or adaptation.
- Illustrate an understanding of the existing road and highway alignments on the site and justify their use, removal and/or adaptation.
- Evaluate adjacent planning initiatives, and, where appropriate, incorporate influential planning concepts into the planning strategy for the multi-modal transportation center.
- Provide a cohesive plan that incorporates all existing rail programming with provisions for future High Speed Rail service.
Download the Competition Brief to read more (133KB PDF)