Author: Randy A. Simes

Randy is an award-winning urban planner who founded UrbanCincy in May 2007. He grew up on Cincinnati’s west side in Covedale, and graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s nationally acclaimed School of Planning in June 2009. In addition to maintaining ownership and serving as the managing editor for UrbanCincy, Randy has worked professionally as a planning consultant throughout the United States, Korea and the Middle East. After brief stints in Atlanta and Chicago, he currently lives in the Daechi neighborhood of Seoul’s Gangnam district.

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News

Tis the season to experience Cincinnati

Like every holiday season, there is a ton of stuff to see and do in Cincinnati. Of course you have your long-standing traditions like the train display downtown, carriage rides, the Christmas Tree and ice rink on Fountain Square and the Cincinnati Zoo’s Festival of Lights. In addition to these goodies I’m going to recommend a couple of other things to check out before this holiday season expires.

The Ensemble Theatre is hosting a special holiday show called Expectations of Christmas. This show covers the many interesting facts, stories and songs of the holiday season. There will only be one performance on December 15th at 7pm. Tickets are $10 and all proceeds benefit Tender Mercies in Over-the-Rhine. You can order tickets by visiting the Ensemble Theatre’s Box Office (GoogleMap), or by contacting boxoffice@cincyetc.com or 513.421.3555.

Holly Jolly Trolley and Fountain Square Ice Rink – Randy Simes

The Krohn Conservatory always is a must for my family during the holiday season. This year will be no different. They will have their live nativity scene on display from December 5th through January 4th, Santa will be there on December 13th and 20th at 1pm, and there is the always lovely holiday floral show that is open daily from 10am-5pm until January 4th.

In addition to all that there will be a holiday craft making event from 1-3pm on Sunday, December 14th. At the craft making event you will be able to join a park horticulturist for an educational program on how to make unique holiday crafts.

Check out pictures from my family’s visit there last year at this time. The pictures show the holiday floral show as well as the live nativity scene outside. You can also view pictures from the train display downtown, ice rink on Fountain Square, Santa and some other holiday scenes from Downtown during the 2006 holiday season.

If you feel like sharing any additional holiday events please share them in the comments section for this article.

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Business Development News

Uptown Commons details emerge

Towne Properties recently announced some details regarding their development plan for the empty site right now in between McMillan and Calhoun (GoogleMap) streets in Clifton Heights. The $100 million project is proposed to include roughly 150 apartments, 77,000 square feet of retail space, 2 hotels and about 100,000 square feet of office space.

A public plaza near the western most terminus of the University Park Apartments (UPA) building across the street would also be an important feature of the development that would be privately managed and operated. The development would consist of mid-rise buildings that would sit atop parking garages serving not only the development but the surrounding uses as well.

Uptown Commons – Public Plaza Perspective

The Clifton Heights neighborhood business district (NBD) is already a great node for the community. A quality development here, with the right mix of uses could potentially create one of the biggest and best NBDs in Cincinnati (and that’s saying something given the competition).

Rents for the apartments will exceed the $1 per square-foot range which is comparable to the rents charged at UPA. Those apartments actually have a waiting list while also boasting some of the highest prices per square-foot of any rental units in the city. The hotels and office space will add some much needed year-round traffic in an area currently dominated by seasonal students.

Towne Properties cited that work could begin as soon as next Fall if financing is in place. Financing that they feel confident will be there even amidst the financial crisis and lending freezes being seen across the nation. Towne also noted that the development has been drawn up with the streetcar in mind as they are expecting the streetcar system to loop their development.

You can download the detailed site plans courtesy of by Cole + Russell at the following links:

Uptown Commons – Site Plan
Uptown Commons – Upper Floors Plan
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News

Lytle Park plan taking root

Lytle Park is rich with history and is poised for a face lift. The park sits on the site of the Lytle family homestead that was built back in 1809. The homestead site then became known as Lytle Square and was then owned by the City of Cincinnati in 1905.

Lytle Square was then marked to be demolished to make way for the connection of I-71 to Ft. Washington Way. Public protests saved the parkspace and led the creation of what is known to be one of the first uses of air-rights over an expressway in the nation. Lytle Tunnel nows runs underneath this small yet important park in the south-eastern portion of Downtown.

The park also boasts an 11-foot statue of Abraham Lincoln that was a gift to the City from the Taft family. The Taft family connections don’t end there though as the Taft Museum of Art is located on the eastern edge of the park.

The park is now in the process of a master plan that will give the park a new look with new features. A couple new water features are planned, a new stair connection to Lytle Street (GoogleMap), new garden space, new streetscape along 4th, and more open lawn spaces for creative use are some of the key features of the plan.

At a November 20th public meeting the plan was “well-received” and no major changes were suggested. No specific timetable, budget or financing has been set for the changes, but the next step is to finalize a master plan with more specifics that will be taken to the Cincinnati Park Board for approval.

Preliminary Lytle Park Master Plan (259kb)

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News

Boylan Bottling Co.

This is a shameless promotion but I can’t help it…this stuff is amazing. The Boylan Bottling Company was started over 100 years ago originally producing Birch beer. The family-owner, New Jersey based company also produces a host of another products as well.

I recently had my first Boylan experience at Coffee Emporium in Over-the-Rhine. I had a Diet Cream Soda which was amazing and was hard to distinguish from other non-diet drinks. Their regular drinks apparently are made with cane sugar as compared to the typical high fructose corn syrup that most companies use nowadays.

Coffee Emporium is the only place that I have seen this in Cincinnati. Can it be found elsewhere around town, or has anyone else had similar experiences? I just need to know, I’m hooked.

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News

Can Nippert Stadium really be expanded?

With the success of the Bearcat football program combined with the already tight confines of Nippert Stadium it is only natural that talks have been in progress about expanding the stadium. The expansion would not only add more seating capacity, but take care of some other much needed improvements for concessions, restroom facilities and luxury suites.

Recently University of Cincinnati Athletic Director, Mike Thomas, described Nippert as the Wrigley Field of college football. The small and intimate setting certainly agrees with that. The surrounding buildings that are incorporated into the stadium also plays along with that theme.

Well the University had some drawings done by a Baton Rouge architecture firm a little while ago and have been sitting on those drawings ever since. There have recently been rumors flying about that Coach Brian Kelly has met with UC officials about these plans. What are your thoughts? Too soon, not enough, awesome, tacky, too modern?

Personally I think it works pretty well with a few exceptions. The area behind the west concourse that is sandwiched in between the stadium and Tangeman University Center (TUC) will become a dark and damp place as a result of this. It would also block out much of the sunlight that floods TUC via the giant glass wall on that side of the building.

The other issue I have is with covering most (or all) of the CCM building that is in the south endzone. The building is one of the coolest features of the stadium and I think could be manipulated in some way to incorporate luxury suites and avoid being blocked out (get creative).

Images from Trahan Architects – Click to view larger sizes