An Art Deco masterpiece, the Carnegie Medical Building located at the northeast corner of E. 105th Street and Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland was occupied from 1976 until 2007 by the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine.

Built in 1930 and situated on 4.5 acres of land, the building has a handsome buff sandstone exterior and richly detailed Deco interior. It was purchased in 2006 by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation for just under $15 million.

While the building’s future use is uncertain, it has been reported that the Clinic intends to raze it.

Since it is older than 50 years, the Carnegie Medical Building would be eligible for a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

See a photo gallery of the Carnegie Medical Building.

Location(s)

Join David Beach, director of the GreenCityBlueLake Institute, on a tour of some of Cleveland's most interesting green buildings. We will visit the Cleveland Environmental Center, Cleveland EcoVillage and a super-efficient home in the Ohio City neighborhood. Learn how high-performance building techniques can save energy, save money and create healthier indoor environments.

Register here.

Location(s)

Based on the personal experience in test preparation and accreditation of LEED Accredited Professionals John Edwards (TES Engineering) and Marta Ralston (Spectrum Design Services). Four informal one-hour sessions will offer study tips and strategies to help prepare for the LEED NC Exam.

Fee. Log on to Cleveland Green Building Coalition for more information or to register.

Location(s)

A major state policy conference sponsored by Greater Ohio and the Brookings Institutution on the land use, transportation, and economic development policies needed to support the revitalization of Ohio's cities.

Agenda and registration information.

A pair of public meetings tonight begin to shape the future for two of Cleveland’s prime destinations: The Flats and University Circle.

First, Ohio Canal Corridor and the City of Cleveland will introduce the Canal Basin District Plan. The focus of the plan is on “connections”—trail, bikeway, public transit and pedestrian boardwalks—to and from a new 21-acre urban park at the last oxbow in the river with major redevelopment activity in the Flats. Canal Basin Park will serve as the destination or jump off point for the Towpath Trail, but beyond that goal, how it integrates with the boardwalk along the river to Flats East Bank and to public spaces in and around the Flats and Cuyahoga Riverfront are still up for discussion.

Going on at the same time, uptown, is the continuation of plans to find a higher purpose for the sea of surface parking lots along Mayfield Road—the main artery connecting Little Italy and University Circle. Last year, an arts and retail village idea was floated along with RTA’s plans to move a Rapid Transit station to Mayfield and E. 119th (from its current location at E. 120th). Tonight’s meeting will introduce the city’s streetscape planning project for this stretch, begin to analyze traffic circulation and set goals to improve pedestrian friendliness.

• Google Maps is launching a new feature to promote walking in urban areas:
  

  Starting today, you can tell Google Maps that you want walking directions, and we'll try to find you a route that's direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when we know about them. Just get directions as you normally would. If you're going 10 km or less (some call this 6.2 miles), we'll show you a link that you can click to get "Walking" directions.

• The Cleveland Clinic is launching a farmer’s market this week. They explain:
  

  The Fairfax/Hough neighborhoods surrounding the Clinic are "food deserts," meaning healthy, fresh food options are hard to find. This market will help alleviate the draught and bring us closer to our neighbors. We've also formed a relationship with Cleveland Foodbank to support their efforts to end hunger and bring healthy foods to families in need thanks to the market. And AVI Food Systems, a Cleveland Clinic food service provider, has committed to purchase any perishable items that remain unsold at the end of the market (to) use in the Clinic’s cafeteria.

• Green building reaches its full potential when we reuse an existing building. On August 7, the Cleveland Green Building Coalition hosts a LEED-EB technical workshop: The ‘EB’ stands for Existing Building. Learn how to evaluate already inhabited buildings for energy efficiency and to achieve LEED-certification.
• Food & Water Watch have sent an activist alert opposing a new rule in Ohio that restricts "rBGH-Free" (a type of bovine growth hormone) labels from appearing on milk containers.
  
  

Why is the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) considering service cuts and a fare hike as Northeast Ohio faces the perfect storm of high gas prices and a renewed interest in transit?

A new study that looks at each state’s vulnerability to oil prices and what they’re doing about it sheds light on Ohio, and with it, transit agencies like RTA’s plight.

While the National Resources Defense Council "Ranking States' Oil Vulnerability and Solutions for Change" study released today ranks Ohioans right in the middle on oil vulnerability (its 26th spot is based on percentage of income spent on gas), only ten states were slower to respond to that vulnerability with investments in transit.

Ohioans spend 5.4% of their income ($1,886 per driver annually) on gas, but the state ranked 40th in transit spending (.77% spent on transit compared to highway spending in 2006). The picture is bleaker when considering Ohio far exceeds the bottom twelve states in population.

Ohio has treated transit like an afterthought for more than a decade. The NRDC findings confirm a 2006 report from the Transportation Research Board, which tallied Ohio’s transit investment second to last among states—it ‘spent’ -8% on transit from 1995 to 2004 (based on compound annual growth rates). The national average was 3.9% during that time. While Ohio was reducing its funding for public transit, other states increased financial support for transit by approximately 130%.

This building in neighboring Summit County is setting the bar for green building in Northeast Ohio.  As the Sand Run Metropark's latest addition, the Park Ranger and Natural Resource Management building will potentially be the first "Platinum" LEED-certified building in Ohio.

 http://www.summitmetroparks.org/InsideMetroParks/GreenTeam.aspx

The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes is building a straw-bale and cob “stewardship center”, and is looking for volunteers who want some hands-on training in natural construction.

Susan Clellen, a builder and designer of environmentally sustainable buildings, is the project leader. She’ll demonstrate mixing cob, applying natural earth plaster and other green building techniques, then turn over the building to you. The raw ingredients—straw, sand and clay—are all available locally.

The Nature Center is blogging about the building process. They explain:

Cob and straw-bale dates back to the ancient communities of Mesopotamia and is found in contemporary buildings in Europe, Africa and the U.S.

Saturday and Sunday workshops are available from 8 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m. Dress to get dirty. To sign up for a shift go here or contact Jan Zorman, 216-321-5935, ext. 229.

Location(s)

Diane Heard, Senior Associate with IFC International, will provide information about FirstEnergy's Home Performance With Energy Star Program, part of a national effort from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).  IFC International administers the Home Performance with Energy Star Program for FirstEnergy.  The program includes home evaluations using state-of-the-art equipment that result in recommendations of comprehensive improvements to improve a home's energy efficiency.

A Q&A session will follow the presentation.  For more information, contact Dave Ambrose at 330-647-3666 or ambrose@infohio.org.