Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Modernism Saved, yet Developer Post-Modernism must be Stopped

So the Cleveland Trust Tower has been saved, due to many factors. The K+D Group of Willoughby bid just enough for the property and has proposed saving George Post's Cleveland Trust Rotunda and the Tower. And that's great.

Now that one battle has been one, another needs to fought to keep crappy, developer-cheezey barnacles from populating the site. Robert Corna, mastermind of such mis-shapen piles such as Stonebridge, needs to be halted from pursuing the design published on the cover of the Plain Dealer this morning. It is no longer the early 1980's. Again, as BOTC has pleaded in the past, public officials and the public should not forgive bad design just because the developer promises to create a LEED certified building.

The once proud Cleveland Planning Commission needs to regain its footing after allowing the Tri-C Rock Hall Archive to commence construction and put a halt on bad developer buildngs that may encroach on two buildings by two fine architects.

See K+D's plans here. Ugh.

1 comment:

ExPatClevOguy said...

Thanks for blogging what I have been thinking for a couple of days. The first words that came to mind when I saw the illustration were "Oh no"!

I can see the total throwback to designs that are already being rejected elsewhere. Do I see the Las Vegas Courthouse designed in 1999 by Tate, Snyder, Kimsey in this design?

I supose a more thoughtful or inspired architect might come up with something more sculptural and complimentary to the tower, as well as being more sensitive to the street.

Perhaps the developer could save some money by not having to engineer those graceless, cantilevered overhangs of gold glass. Those dollars could be spared and used to present a more elegant & fluid design.

Ugh, I sincerely hope that the drawing we saw in the news was thrown together at the last minute for a concept, and in no way reflects the calibre building to actually be built.

Yeah, I haven't seen any of those cr@ppy Stonebridge buildings on the covers of international design magazines.