Watermark: Restoring the Presence of Giddings Brook in Cleveland’s Hough Neighborhood

 The CUDC, with partners Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, artist Mimi Kato, and archaeologist Dr. Roy Larik, organized a series of community events as part of the Watermark project. The project evoked the memory of the Giddings Brook, a waterway buried and culverted in the early 20th century.

Marking the path of the Giddings Brook with landscape paint.

Discovering and learning about Giddings Brook.

Watermark extended across vacant lots along the path of Giddings Brook.

At one Watermark event, Dee Jay Doc and Fresh Camp provided hip-hop entertainment, improvising lyrics about the history of the Giddings Brook, problems concerning lead in their neighborhoods, and other stories. Food, a rain barrel give-away, and an installation of the Watermark beach and pool also brought people out to the site.  

Splash pool brings water back to the neighborhood on a hot summer day.

Giddings Brook is one of several waterways buried as the city developed in the early 20th century. The Brook holds history as a recreation, entertainment, and restorative place of gathering. Luna Park, a theme park, a Fresh Air Camp, and multiple healthcare facilities were located along the path of Giddings Brook before its ultimate burial. Watermark seeks to ask how else we might consider the use of existing waterways today, as well as those now buried in so many neighborhoods throughout the city.  Watermark was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Associate Director, David Jurca, Wins AIA Activism Award

The AIA Cleveland Activism Award recognizes local emerging leaders who are influencing a sustainable future of the profession by making architecture/interior design accessible and relevant to the public while both educating and learning from the broader community.David Jurca has dedicated his professional career to enhancing the built environment through meaningful engagement with the local community. As Associate Director of Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, David guides the office’s professional practice, research projects, and graduate teaching with a commitment to equity.David is a relentless advocate for his students. He aims beyond expectations to create recognition opportunities for aspiring leaders in Kent State’s Cleveland programs. Students led by David received Honorable Mentions in the International ULI Hines Competition, Second Place in Miami’s DawnTown Mobility Competition, the Excellence in Student Planning Award from the American Planning Association, as well as Merit and Honor Awards from AIA Cleveland.In 2013, David launched COLDSCAPES.org to spur creative design in winter cities. He also co-founded Design Diversity, an initiative to promote people of color in architecture and design professions in Northeast Ohio. Design Diversity has organized local networking events, national speaking engagements, and the soon-to-be released Design Diversity Index, an online tool to track diversity data for design schools and professional affiliations in Ohio. In support of Design Diversity’s mission, David leads Making Our Own Space (MOOS), a youth design program that trains students to envision and build their own public space improvements. MOOS was awarded the 2017 Place Planning Award from the Environmental Design Research Association.Beyond his professional commitments, David contributes to the Greater Cleveland community through dedicated volunteer service. He served on the Franklin-West Clinton Landmarks Advisory Committee, Friends of the Romanian Culture Garden Committee, Bike Cleveland advocacy campaigns, and the Gateway District Public Realm Advisory Committee. David has been a member of the City of Cleveland’s Near West Design Review Committee for over four years, currently serving as Committee Chair. This year, David was also appointed to the Board of Directors for Canalway Partners.Congratulations David!

2017 Midwest Urban Design Charrette: North End Narratives

Each year, Kent State University partners with graduate students at Lawrence Tech University and Ball State University for our Midwest Urban Design Charrette, a weekend-long design workshop where we collectively tackle an urban design project. Last year the CUDC hosted our visiting universities here in Northeast Ohio, working on the Akron Innerbelt redevelopment site. This year, we were all excited to caravan up to Lawrence Tech’s beautiful facility in Midtown Detroit.Over the weekend of October 20th through the 22nd, CUDC staff and students, plus a few Cleveland State University planning students, teamed up with our counterparts at Lawrence Tech and Ball State, working collaboratively between design disciplines. Three teams generated distinct ideas for the future of the Oakland Avenue Commercial Corridor in Detroit’s North End neighborhood.The North End is known for its Motown past, its rich and collaborative arts culture, and its recent forays into large-scale urban agriculture. As development pressure increases in the Midtown neighborhood to the south, the North End could face new market demand and resulting development opportunities; however, many community members have specific concerns and ideas about what shape those opportunities should take. The students’ task across the weekend was not merely to generate realistic design ideas, but to do so while navigating a complex social fabric already existing in the neighborhood.Group 1 design idea. Over an intense 48 hours, the students visited the site, including unique neighborhood assets like a schvitz (a historic public bathhouse) and an urban farm. After a team dinner, we all rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Saturday afternoon each team presented their initial ideas to the community, who had useful and specific feedback; the teams were able to take their input into their final design proposals. The final presentations, on Sunday afternoon, found a receptive community heartened by the incremental and pragmatic ideas for how to move their existing commercial corridor into a new and inclusive future.Group 2 design idea.The final design ideas will be shepherded by our Lawrence Tech University partners, and assembled into a report with ideas for implementation. We look forward to revisiting the North End again the next time we’re fortunate enough to visit our neighbors to the north (maybe to check out the Schvitz now that it’s open again!). Thanks to Lawrence Tech for hosting another successful Midwest Urban Design Charrette!Group 3 design idea. 

Emma López-Bahut Lecture | November 17

Lecture: “From landscape to project: Rethinking Gallicia's rías"Emma López-BahutFriday, November 17th12(noon) — 1pmCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the publicJoin us this Friday for our 2017 Fall Lecture Series, featuring Emma López-Bahut. She will discuss how one of the fundamental keys to rethink the "ría" it is to involving citizens: from an initial awareness of the problem through to a decision of a democratic and responsible manner. Her research approaches the problem from different scales: rethinking the "ría" from landscape, city, and housing.Emma López-Bahut is a Lecturer in the School of Architecture at the University of Coruña (Spain) and currently Visiting Faculty in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent State University. She publishes and lectures widely on her two research areas: "Space, Art and Architecture” and “bottom-up” processes in architectural design at different scales, from housing to landscape. Her new book on the hybrid work of sculptor Jorge Oteiza —Jorge Oteiza y lo arquitectónico: De la estatua-masa al espacio urbano (1948-1960)— was nominated for the 2017 Premis FAD Pensament i Crítica Award. Emma holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Coruña, an M.Arch from the University of Navarra, and a B.A. in Architecture and Urbanism from the Technical University of Madrid.Emma López-Bahut's lecture coincides with our Master of Landscape Architecture Program Open House. So if you are considering studying landscape architecture, please join us for the full day. You can find out more information and RSVP here.

Steve Rugare Speaks at Cleveland Public Library

Designing the Great Lakes Exposition of 1936-37

Join Kent State University Professor Steve Rugare as he shares details surrounding the design of the facility built for the 1936 and 1937 Great Lakes Exposition. This complex was constructed on the shores of Lake Erie to celebrate the centennial year of the incorporation of the city of Cleveland. The Exposition featured sideshows, gardens, rides, exhibits, and the debut of Billy Rose’s Aquacade, a music and swimming show that later went on to great success at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. This event is hosted by Cleveland Public Library and the Western Reserve Architectural Historians.Saturday, November 18, 2017 • 1:30 p.m. • Special CollectionsMain Library, 3rd Floor • 325 Superior AvenueSteve's talk is part of the library's four part series, From Bridges to Belief: Four Events to Focus on Cleveland History. All events are free and  open to the public.

Urban Land Institute's Gerald Hines Real Estate Competition | Info Session

2017 Competition Entry. Lecture: “Urban Land Institute's Gerald Hines Real Estate Competition"Jeff KruthFriday, November 3rd12:00 PM — 1:00 PM & 5:30 PMCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the publicThis Friday, November 3rd an introduction the Urban Land Institute’s annual Urban Design Competition will take place. The competition asks graduate students from design, planning, and business backgrounds to collaboratively work towards a vibrant and financially viable urban design scheme in cities across North America. In past years, KSU CUDC students have worked with CSU’s Levin students, and CWRU’s Weatherhead students to compete for a $50,000 prize.A lunch lecture at 12:00pm will give an overview of the competition with coordinator, Jeff Kruth and  former student competitors. At 5:30pm, an information session with free beer and pizza will ask interested students to think about forming teams. The competition takes place January 15-29.2015 Competition Entry (click to view larger). 

Deidre McPherson Lecture | October 27

Lecture: “Art, life + community engagement”Deidre McPhersonFriday, October 27th12(noon) — 1pmCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the publicJoin us this Friday for our 2017 Fall Lecture Series, featuring Deidre McPherson. Deidre McPherson is the Director of Public Programs at The Cleveland Museum of Art and the former Curator of Public Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Cleveland. In this role,  she creates and organizes a calendar of lectures, public discussions, film screenings, social events, and live arts performances to accompany the museum’s exhibitions. Embodying the Museum’s brand, these programs connect adult audiences to the museum encouraging repeat attendance and sustained engagement.Deidre holds an undergraduate degree in marketing and violin performance as well as an MBA in marketing. Prior to working in the arts she held marketing roles for the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), The Cleveland Orchestra, and Boston-based advertising agency Arnold Worldwide. In her spare time, Deidre organizes Sistah Sinema, an event that brings people together to view and discuss films about queer women of color.

Third Coast Atlas: Prelude to a Plan for the Great Lakes Region

The long-awaited Third Coast Atlas is now available. The hefty, large-format book was edited by Daniel Daniel Ibañez, Claire Lyster, Charles Waldheim, and Mason White. It’s essential reading for designers, planners, public officials, and residents of the Great Lakes Basin.The book is framed as a ‘prelude to a plan’ for the Great Lakes region. Chapters describe specific issues and urban geographies within this large and complex area, laying the groundwork for future planning at the regional scale.In 2016, the CUDC hosted a forum with Charles Waldheim and several contributors to the book, including CUDC Director, Terry Schwarz, who wrote a chapter about Cleveland. And earlier this month, Mason White discussed the Third Coast research effort during a lecture he gave at Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design.The prosperity and resilience of every Great Lakes city is inextricably linked to the health of the lakes themselves. The Third Coast Atlas helps us understand the challenges and opportunities of Northeast Ohio within a larger ecological, cultural, and economic context. This will lead to better land use and development decisions for our region.(Third Coast Atlas)

Habitat for Hard Places and the Ecologically Inclusive City

City residents live in the midst of many other creatures, even if we sometimes don’t notice them. Birds, bugs, bats, and squirrels are all around us. We share our communities with bigger animals too, like deer, coyote, foxes, and groundhogs.(Source: BBC.com)Life can be difficult for creatures in the city. Near my office in Playhouse Square, I often see birds on the sidewalk, killed in collisions with downtown buildings.If we took the needs of birds in mind when designing tall buildings, our cities might be less fatal to our feathered friends. Likewise, city parks could include plants that support bee populations and landscapes that help small mammals survive. It’s not about handing over the city to wild creatures, but finding ways for peaceful coexistence. My dog was recently sprayed by a skunk in our (relatively urban) Cleveland Heights neighborhood. So I do understand that sharing space with wildlife can have some unpleasant consequences. But consider the fact that a bat can eat its body weight in insects in a given night. Our bat neighbors play a big role in keeping mosquitoes and bug-borne illnesses at bay.An ecologically healthy city creates a sense of symbiosis between people and wildlife. You don’t have to invite a raccoon to breakfast. Although you might find one in the self-service buffet known as your garbage can on trash day. But we should look for ways to help other species feel at home in the city, for their benefit and our own.In Cleveland, a key habitat area is the Cuyahoga River. The Cuyahoga has suffered a lot of abuse over the years, most notoriously catching fire several times due to industrial pollution. The last river fire was in 1969. The spectacle of a burning river helped lead to the enactment of the Federal Clean Water Act in 1972.Today, the river no longer burns and a diverse range of fish live there. To support these growing populations of fish, Cuyahoga River Restoration launched Habitat for Hard Places, an initiative to provide habitat opportunities within the ship channel. It’s important to note that fish habitat will  not displace existing businesses or disrupt land uses in the Flats. Places for fish can be tucked in around existing and proposed human development.Cuyahoga River Restoration and the CUDC recently invited 65 people for an afternoon trip through the ship channel aboard the Holiday Cleveland. Participants included developers, property owners, ecologists, fish and water scientists, landscape architects and students, and staff from the Ohio and US EPA.(Source: Katie Slusher)Jane Goodman, Executive DIrector of Cuyahoga River Restoration, narrated the tour. Where most people see vacant sites and development potential, Jane sees habitat. In fact, opportunities for restoring habitat are prevalent in the ship channel.Elaine Price at the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and Doug Paige at the Cleveland Institute of Art have been conducting fish habitat experiments in the Cuyahoga for several years, including small habitat islands designed to float in the river and vegetation baskets installed within the metal bulkheads. These installations offer food and places to rest, both of which are essential to the survival of young fish.At the CUDC’s invitation, a group of Landscape Architecture students from Ohio State are looking at behind-the-bulkhead design ideas to integrate fish habitat into Cuyahoga ship channel. Under the guidance of OSU faculty members Halina Steiner and Karla Trott, students in a Spring 2017 design studio looked at the specific needs of a diverse group of fish stakeholders. (From: The GAR-OUP PLAN, Christian Moore and Alexandra Lemke, The Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture, 2017)The students developed a range of innovative design proposals for riverfront public spaces that would benefit both fish and people. A new group of Ohio State students will be working on habitat designs for the ship channel this spring, beginning in January.(From: fish follies, Ross Rogers and Marty Koelsch, The Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture, 2017) The CUDC was fortunate to receive a grant from the Ohio EPA’s Environmental Education Fund, which we’ll use to share the students work through a folio of postcards from the river’s edge. We hope this project will inspire fish- and people-friendly development along the river. For more information, please contact Terry Schwarz, Director of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative at tschwarz@kent.edu or 216.357.3426

Cleveland Public Library: Community Vision Plan Wrap-Up!

 We’re happy to announce the final publication of our CPL150 Community Vision Plan!For the past three years, CUDC staff have been working with the Cleveland Public Library (CPL) on their Community Vision Plan. One of CPL’s strategic priorities is to prepare the library system for its 150th anniversary, in 2019. CPL150, the name of the engagement process, involved 13 of the system’s 27 branch communities to ask what they need from their local library branch.CPL faces a challenge familiar to many institutions serving communities in Cleveland: How can we best meet the needs of our patrons in a changing context of new technologies, aging facilities, and declining population? How can each branch custom-tailor its library experience to meet the specific needs of its community?For each group of branches, the team engaged community members in a series of public meetings, surveys, open houses, advisory committee meetings, and targeted focus groups, for a three-year total of over 1,500 points of engagement. The team then produced a report for each group, summarizing the engagement feedback and the final recommendations. These recommendations included physical improvements, like interior reconfiguring or exterior seating areas, but also ideas for improving services, as well as larger neighborhood connections which can better integrate each branch into its surroundings. We summarized this overall branch experience into four distinct, nested levels: library building; library grounds; neighborhood; and library services.The final reports, from all three years, are on our CPL150.org site, available for perusal or download:Group 1 (2015): Fleet, South, Sterling, and Woodland branches (Purchase report on Amazon)Group 2 (2016): Brooklyn, Mt Pleasant, and South Brooklyn branches (Purchase report on Amazon)Group 3 (2017): Eastman, Hough, Union, Walz, and West Park branches (Purchase report on Amazon)In addition, we’ve assembled a Summary Report which outlines some of the major themes we heard across most or all branches studied (Purchase Summary Report on Amazon). The design team found that far from becoming obsolete, our neighborhood libraries are more important than ever for the many ways they continue to serve their local population. Our library branches are information centers, community work spaces, workforce assistance centers, after-school gathering spots, and more.Please visit cpl150.org for more information on our three-year collaboration with the Cleveland Public Library!

Kristen Zeiber Lecture | October 6

Lecture: “Scaling Up: Design with People and Places”Kristen ZeiberFriday, October 6th12(noon) — 1pmCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the public

RSVPs encouraged on Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/573039656153285/

In her talk, Kristen will speak about navigating scales, from architecture to urban design to regional design, in her exploration of the connection between people and the places they live. Work presented ranges from small-scale design/build to watersheds, from the post-Katrina Gulf Coast to post-coal Pennsylvania. She argues that across all scales, designers should work for people, and with respect for their relationship to the landscapes where they have chosen to live—even if those places have environmental or economic risk.

Kristen Zeiber is a Project Manager, Urban Designer, and Adjunct Faculty at Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC). She has been with the CUDC since 2013, and contributes to the organization’s neighborhood planning, research, mapping, and student advising. She also teaches the annual Midwest Urban Design Charrette for Masters students in Architecture and Urban Design in collaboration with several other universities. She is on the Board of Directors and co-chairs the Scholarship Committee for the Cleveland chapter of ACE Mentors, a nonprofit extracurricular program which introduces high school students to the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering professions.

Kristen’s previous Community Design Center and Design/Build experience includes over four years post-Katrina at Mississippi State University’s Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, MS, with founder David Perkes; and short internships with the Center for Urban Pedagogy in New York and the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont. She holds a MS in Architecture Studies (SMArchS-Urbanism) from MIT, and a Bachelor’s of Architecture from Penn State University.

Greggor Mattson Lecture | September 29

Lecture: “Who Needs Gay Bars? Why Planners Should Care And What You Can Do”Greggor MattsonFriday, September 22nd12(noon) — 1pmCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the publicRSVPs encouraged on Facebook event page: www.facebook.com/events/118361948853908/The high profile closures of gay bars over the last five years have brought to public attention what the gay press has worried about for years: the geographical focus of LGBTQ life is changing. Popular and scholarly attention have blamed our "untethered," "ambient," "post-Gay" landscape on two factors: geolocating smartphone apps such as Grindr or Tindr, and the growing social acceptance of LGBTQ people. This talk challenges these assumptions for all but the most metropolitan gay cities. Almost everything we know about LGBTQ placemaking in the U.S. comes from four major cities with iconic gay neighborhoods, global financial institutions, international tourist draws—and only 15% of the U.S. population.This talk examines the gay bar as an institution in its own right, focusing on the role it plays in secondary cities such as Cleveland, Fresno, or Oklahoma City, and outpost bars that are the only gay bar within an hour's drive of another. In these small cities, often in red counties of red states, smartphone apps are of little use and social acceptance is more elusive. Data include 50 interviews with gay bar owners and managers, site visits to over 80 gay bars in 27 states, a new national dataset of gay bar listings from 1977-2017, and a longitudinal study of San Francisco's three gay bar districts. Mattson shows that bars in general have been squeezed in recent years, and that gentrification, changing leisure patterns, and corporate chain competition are more relevant to the challenges facing gay bars than narratives of technological or social progress. Mattson reports on several ways that urban planners, municipalities, Chambers of Commerce, and Convention Bureaus could support gay bars, and argue why they should start doing so. And he argues that we need to abandon planning stereotypes of LGBTQ people as the shock troops of gentrification or canaries of the knowledge economy, and start treating regional gay bars as social institutions in their own right.Greggor Mattson is Associate Professor of Sociology at Oberlin College and the Director of the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. With degrees in sociology from Oxford University and the University of California, Berkeley, his research lies at the intersections of the sociology of sexuality, culture, and urban studies. The author of The Cultural Politics of European Prostitution Reform: Governing Loose Women and Before It Was Hingetown, listed among the best writing from and about Northeast Ohio from 2016 by the Cleveland Scene. He is currently working on a book about changes in American gay bars over the last twenty years. He blogs at greggormattson.com and @GreggorMattson on Twitter. 

Ben Herring Lecture | September 22

Lecture: "Source Material: Identities in Architecture"Ben HerringFriday, September 22nd12(noon) - 1pmCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the publicRSVP on the Facebook event page.Join us at the CUDC this Friday, September 22nd for a talk by Ben Herring, project manager at redhouse studio architecture. His interactive presentation will explore meaning through materiality in architecture. The applications of architectures are no longer simple, nor simply for providing shelter. The uses of architecture include identities as concrete as defining the face of business (Facebook Headquarters, Gehry Partners), as personal as defining home (Incremental Housing Complex Quinta Monroy, Elemental), and as controversial as redefining our memory (Vietnam Memorial, Maya Lin). These projects are young. However, architecture is prehistoric. In turn, many well established views on the state of the art of architecture have been declared and deconstructed throughout architectural history.The aim of this presentation will be to review an abbreviated collection of these influences on architectural history. This survey of trademark architectural definitions, agendas, and identities will then be used to provide a groundwork for discourse on how we approach architecture today.Clifford Benjamin Herring is a designer specializing in new materials and architectures for public good. Ben was administered various honors at Ball State University where he received degrees in Architecture and Economics. He has previously served as a board member for PBS and NPR member stations in Southern Indiana and is currently seated as the executive board treasurer for the Refresh Collective (the organization responsible for the Fresh Camp). Ben is a project manager at redhouse studio architecture where his work includes new material developments and various non-for-profit and commercial architectures. As a workshop director for the CUDC's Making Our Own Space (MOOS) program, Ben works with youth throughout Cleveland, Ohio to influence their neighborhoods through design and construction.Let us know you're coming. RSVP on the Facebook event page and please spread the word!View the CUDC's full 2017 Fall Lecture Series. 

Jacinda Walker Lecture | September 15

Lecture: "Design Journeys: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Design Disciplines"Jacinda WalkerFriday, September 15th12(noon)-1pmCUDC, 1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200Free and open to the publicJoin us at the CUDC this Friday at lunch for a talk by Jacinda Walker, the second event in our 2017 Fall Lecture Series. Jacinda Walker will discuss the objectives of her research work, “Design Journeys: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Design Disciplines.” This solutions-based thesis presents fifteen strategic ideas to expose African-American and Latino youth to design-related careers. The interactive talk will reveal her research approach, illustrate the problems, share the design principles needed to close the diversity gap, and include the first groundbreaking updates on the Design Diversity Index project. Attendees will leave with a clear definition of this complex problem and a deeper appreciation of what is required from educators, parents, organizations, and designers of all disciplines to diversify our profession.The Design Journey Map, created by Jacinda Walker, is a tool to guide progress towards increasing diversity in the design fields.Jacinda Walker is the founder of designExplorr, an organization that celebrates design learning by creating opportunities that expose African American and Latino youth to design. She also serves as Chair of AIGA’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force. Walker has over 20 years of industry experience as a designer, entrepreneur, and instructor. Jacinda earned her BFA in graphic design from the University of Akron and an MFA in Design Research & Development with a minor in Nonprofit Studies from The Ohio State University. Her future goals include working with organizations to establish design education initiatives and to develop design programs for underrepresented youth.For more information about the upcoming talk, please contact the CUDC at (216) 357-3434 or cudc[at]kent.edu 

2017 CUDC Fall Lecture Series | Schedule

We invite you to join us for our annual Fall Lecture Series at the CUDC. This semester's theme for lectures and events is "ReMaking the City," an iterative action that links the diverse range of speakers.Most lectures are scheduled for Fridays from noon to 1pm and held in our CUDC conference room (1309 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200). All events are free and open to the public, but the Youth Maker Workshop and Habitat for Hard Places Boat Tour require reservations. Sign up for the CUDC mailing list to receive more information on how to register, when it becomes available.We also plan to livestream our lunch talks on Facebook. Please follow Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative's FB page to get updates on which events will be streamed online.Check out the Fall Lecture Series schedule below or download an 11" x 17" poster (3.2 MB PDF). Feel free to hang the poster in your office or share via social media—we hope to have lots of new attendees this year!

Katie Slusher Joins CUDC as 2017-18 Post Graduate Fellow

 CUDC is happy to welcome our new Post Graduate Fellow for 2017-18, Katie Slusher. The Post Graduate Fellowship was started at the CUDC in 2013 to provide a one-year position for a recent graduate holding a Master's degree in Architecture, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, or Planning.Katie recently moved to Cleveland for the fellowship, making the transition to our northern latitude from Austin, Texas. She holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, where her design and research pursuits focused on interdisciplinary work in complex historical and social contexts. While at UT, she contributed to research on the infrastructure and migrant experience of immigrant detention in Texas. This work was exhibited as part of the Humanities Action Lab’s States of Incarceration project, a collaborative, nationally-touring program of exhibitions and engagement events focusing on the crisis of mass incarceration in the United States. Above: The scale of the floor graphic allows visitors to the States of Incarceration exhibit to physically navigate complexities of the asylum system in Texas. (Design and installation by Katie Slusher)  Prior to her graduate studies, Katie worked as a designer and educator in Richmond, Virginia. She contributed to projects at a variety of scales, from wayfinding and exhibition design to architectural work for institutions including the Gettysburg Foundation and the College of William & Mary’s Muscarelle Museum of Art. In addition to her work in design practice, Katie’s interest in issues related to equity and education brought her to Blue Sky Fund, where she worked facilitating experiential outdoor education programming for elementary and middle school students in East End neighborhoods.We look forward to engaging Katie in our CUDC professional projects and supporting the individual research project she'll develop throughout the year-long fellowship. We also hope you'll have a chance to meet her at our office or at a Cleveland design event sometime soon. 

CUDC's Jeffrey Kruth named 2017-18 McCloy Fellow on Global Trends

The American Council on Germany (ACG) has named CUDC Senior Urban Designer, Jeffrey Kruth, as the 2017-18 McCloy Fellow on Global Trends. Through the fellowship, the ACG examines issues of “urbanization, climate change and sustainability, technological breakthroughs, and demographics and social change".  Kruth will investigate “Postindustrial Futures” by examining strategies of managed decline in cities and culturally oriented development through urban design projects in eastern German cities and the Ruhr Valley.The goal of the fellowship is to examine the role of public sector and institutional coalitions in their capacity to foster redevelopment opportunities and the emerging cultural landscape associated with these projects. As in the US, regions in Germany have seen decades of deindustrialization and population loss. However, German strategies for redevelopment vary significantly when compared to the US, resulting in a nuanced framework for policy options and the proliferation of alternative identities.This work builds on the CUDC’s extensive work with vacant land reuse in Northeast Ohio, and Kruth’s investigations into post-industrial cities throughout the US. Kruth will meet with researchers, government officials, and urbanists throughout his month of travels. Upon completion, Kruth will take his findings and build dialogs surrounding best practices for planning, urban design and development priorities throughout the region. Congratulations Jeff!

CUDC Wins 2017 EDRA Great Places Award for Making Our Own Space (MOOS)

Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative is honored to receive the 2017 Great Places Award in the Planning category from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).The EDRA Great Places Awards recognize professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design and pay special attention to the relationship between physical form of the built environment and human activity or experience. The Great Places Planning Award specifically recognizes the CUDC’s Making Our Own Space (MOOS) initiative, a youth program focused on engaging and empowering middle and high school students with the skills to transform their neighborhood public spaces.MOOS is led by CUDC staff in close partnership with a team of local and nationally-renowned designers. Focused on outdoor spaces owned by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP) and the City of Shaker Heights, Ohio, this initiative uses hands-on, on-site workshops to build physical and social infrastructure in collaboration with the surrounding community. Outdoor workshops organized by students addressed issues related to shared spaces, inclusive decision-making and helping to bring diversity to the design fields by involving youth from underrepresented groups. In response to the project, the City of Shaker Heights created a committee of staff, residents and councilpersons to increase leadership opportunities for middle and high school youth. The Shaker School District is exploring how to incorporate the MOOS placemaking workshop into its curriculum. The EDRA Award jury stated, “This is a great example of planning that involves youth in place making and community building.”Started in 2015 by Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC), the program supports the CUDC's Design Diversity initiative by raising awareness in African American and Latino communities about the range of design careers available to youth. MOOS workshops expose students to design thinking and making, employing interdisciplinary approaches from architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, planning, and graphic design.Making Our Own Space is made possible through the generous support of the Saint Luke’s Foundation, The City of Shaker Heights, and the Cleveland Foundation's Minority Arts & Education Fund.Follow us at: wearemoos.orgInstagram: @wearemoos

WATERMARK: Summer 2017

Did you know that Giddings Brook runs underneath the Hough neighborhood? About 100 years ago, the brook was buried in a pipe so that houses, streets, businesses, schools, and churches could be built on top.

This summer, there will be events and programs to help remember Giddings Brook. Councilman TJ Dow is supporting an effort by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, and artist Mimi Kato to mark the path of this invisible brook the following events. All will be held at the intersection of Giddings Road and Superior Avenue (right across the street from the Addison Library).

Mon, June 12, 20171-3 PM WATER, PLANTS & WILDLIFE WORKSHOP This free workshop is open to all, especially neighborhood kids who are home on summer break. We’ll learn about rainwater and where it goes after it falls on streets, sidewalks, and rooftops in the neighborhood. We’ll also learn about native plants and invasive species. Participants will receive seed packets they can plant. We’ll also make and install animal sculptures to remember the wildlife that used to live along Giddings Brook. Free refreshments for all!

Thurs, July 20, 20171-3 PM TEMPORARY WATER PARK AT WATERMARK 100 years ago, people could swim in Giddings Brook when the weather got warm. Now that the brook is hidden underground, we’ll try to recreate the experience of water with sprinklers, wading pools, and a sandy beach on the site. Come cool off with Watermark!

Sat, Aug 26, 2017noon-4 PM WATERMARK WALK & COMMUNITY COOKOUT A free event where residents can learn about Giddings Brook and enjoy lunch. This event also includes a rain barrel workshop with the City’s Office of Sustainability.

Bygone Landscapes of Cleveland and New Orleans: the conduit of the everyday

Maggie Hansen, Director, Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design, Tulane UniversityThis spring our Masters of Landscape Architecture students engaged in a studio with Maggie Hansen of Tulane University. Maggie worked with students at the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative on a 5-week vertical studio titled “Bygone Landscapes of Cleveland and New Orleans: the conduit of the everyday”. This was a continuation of the Master of Landscape Architecture Traveling Workshop that took place in New Orleans over spring break.This collaborative studio kicked off with the KSU students visiting New Orleans. Over 3 days, they visited sites designed to support both hydrological function and community gathering. In addition to site visits, they discussed design and policy approaches to urban hydrology with designers, policymakers, and planners, including Aron Chang of Blue House, Colleen McHugh of the City of New Orleans Office of Resilience, and Austin Allen and Diane Jones of Design Jones. The exchange between Tulane’s Small Center for Collaborative Design and the Kent State Landscape program revealed many shared challenges for Cleveland and New Orleans.The studio has been developed in conversation with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Project Clean Lake Program. In 2011, NEORD entered into a consent decree to address water quality issues in Lake Erie by capturing 98% of CSO – the highest level of capture nationally. This capture is primarily achieved through the construction of 7 deep storage tunnels, ranging from two to five miles long, up to 24 feet in diameter and located up to 300 feet underground – the tunnels hold water in a rain event and release it for treatment. As NEORSD has constructed these tunnels, they’ve acquired a series of parcels where tunnel access and construction staging has occurred. These sites will continue to be used for maintenance of the tunnels and the District recognizes the opportunity for the sites to serve as neighborhood amenities following construction. The studio is looking at the potential of these parcels to engage the layers of hydrology and neighborhood fabric more fully, in hopes to expand the range of possibilities for NEORD as the work continues. The students began the studio with visits to 3 sites in the Dugway watershed, and a tour of ‘restored’ sites with NEORSD, to see the sites under construction and some of the completed ‘parklets’ following construction. From these observations and an analysis of the site layers, the students developed ‘deep section’ models of the sites, as a means of understanding the complex, layered systems impacting each site, and as a starting point for design.The studio will deliver a booklet of conceptual ideas to the District following the 5-week studio. We will publish the booklet on our Issuu site when completed.