Two-thirds of Cuyahoga County’s commissioners want to demolish it.
Cleveland Plain Dealer architecture critic Steven Litt (and a group of preservationists, environmentalists, architects, and good government advocates) wants to save it.
What would you do with it?
Sponsored by Ingenuity, the Cleveland Festival of Art and Technology, this juried architectural exhibition invites architects, architectural interns, students, engineers, artists and designers living or working in Northeast Ohio (and now beyond) to answer the question.
The intent of the exhibit is to keep the debate alive—through both imaginary and real alternatives to the Breuer Tower’s future. Additionally, this exhibit offers area design professionals and others with an opportunity to participate in the Ingenuity festival and to demonstrate how architecture can be the embodiment of "creativity, innovation, culture and technology."
To participate, please email architecture@Ingenuitycleveland.org subject line: Breuer Tower.
We will forward the hi-resolution jpeg image to use in the creation of your submittal. Renderings must be submitted no later than 5:00pm, Friday July 6, 2007.
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 19, 2007, 5-7 pm.
Location: 1305 Gallery, 1305 Euclid Avenue at E. 13th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Breuer discussion goes international
Susan Miller Says:In a posting at archinect, I learned that this group of international architects and designers became involved in virtual activism and were the ones who helped get the Breuer Grosse Point Library onto the list of 100 Most Endangered Site for 2008 in the World Monument Watch. They are concerned about our Breuer, too, so David Ellison and Sally Levine decided to extend the deadline to allow them the enter the Ingenuity Competition as well. Check it out here.
What they did for Grosse Point. There are many many interesting threads here in this innovative design blog. Enjoy!
Planning Commissions offer hope for adaptive reuse
Marc Lefkowitz Says:So, they saved and adaptively reused the Grosse Point library?
Helps when you have cooperation from the building's owner, I suppose. Thanks for spreading the word to the international community about the efforts to save our Breuer, Susan.
The Archinect site puts it very nicely here:
Was the site responsible for the design competition?
Anyway, three cheers for the Cleveland organizers of a design competition for our Breuer.
Oh, btw, I came across this publication called, The Planning Commissioner’s Journal. It has posts all over it about preservation efforts. Their editor’s currently doing an across the country tour and stopped inChillicothe , OH (posted about preserving a building there; wrote about how it could revitalize its downtown) – maybe we should email him about the debate among Cleveland
photos of the Breuer Tower inside
Susan Miller Says:Marc, I found the photos finally in the PD.
Here's a question though. Is this accurate? "Joyce Burke -Jones, principal planner for the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, and Dennis Madden, Cuyahoga County Administrator, inspect the condition of windows on an upper floor of the Ameritrust Tower, which was designed by the renown architect Marcel Breuer and built in 1971." Is Joyce Burke Jones now the principal planner for the County Planning Commission? I thought she was the county sustainability czaress. Please explain. Is she back to her old job with regard to this building?
Starship Breuer
Marc Lefkowitz Says:The lobby of the Breuer Tower is very much reminiscent of the lobby of the Cleveland Museum of Art, wouldn't you say? The style has a gravity worthy of the business of a branch of government.
How cool are those windows from the upper floors inside the tower?! Excuse my geek-out moment, but it's like being on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. And those views of the Bell building, wow. What a gem.
I think you're right about Burke-Jones' position. Isn't Barb Shergalis (sp?) the project manager for the county for their consolidation?