Ned Hill, a professor at Levin College of Urban Affairs, and Dan Cuffaro, professor of Industrial Design at Cleveland Institute of Art are championing a new district of design in downtown Cleveland as a magnet for the area's art and industrial design firms and  as an employment center for graduates. 

From Playhouse Square east into Midtown, Euclid and Superior could feature national showrooms for the region's consumer-product companies, such as Rubbermaid Home Products and Moen Inc. And offer space to entrepreneurial grads to ply their trade.

The area already has more than 100 design-related companies, employing some 1,400 people, Hill said. With the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project underway, the design district would be linked to CSU and Case/University Circle. 

Updates

• Updates at CSU forum include pledge for retail space inventory (1-27-07)
• Hill and Cufaro explain concept on Cool Cleveland video (1-24-07)
• Hill explains on WCPN that the design district will improve sales for local consumer products manufacturers by improving the efficiency of the buying trips for wholesalers (11-28).
• Cleveland's industrial design giant Victor Schreckengost signs on (11-14-06)
• Hill and Cufaro present their proposal (10-26-06)