Clifton : Development News

With 10 restaurants and bars launched in 10 years, and more set to open soon, Four Entertainment Group (4EG) continues its successful run with Igby’s downtown, at 122 E. Sixth Street in between Main and Walnut streets.

4EG founders Bob Deck, Dave Halpern, Dan Cronican and Ben Klopp have two spaces reserved in the new U Square development in Clifton, one of which will be the group’s third Keystone Grill (other locations are in Covington and Hyde Park) and an adjacent bar.

“I think Cincinnati’s just moving in the right direction,” says Deck. “I grew up here, so, just seeing the city change over the last, you know, six or seven years, with all the independent restaurants and all the independent owners, it’s pretty cool.”
Deck and his partners cemented their commitment to the city by opening a central business office in Over-the-Rhine, across the street from The Anchor-OTR restaurant and above Zula, a bistro and wine bar slated to open soon.

“We moved our offices down here because we’re invested in the city,” Deck says. “We didn’t have a central office, so we thought, ‘Hey what better place than to put our offices down in OTR, and support the whole area and movement.’”

Just across downtown, Igby’s represents 4EG’s collaboration with Core Resources, Beck Architecture and 3CDC. Think its name sounds mysterious? That’s the point.

“We called it Igby’s because we really wanted to come up with a name that didn’t really give you any idea of what the bar would be before you walked in,” Deck says
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“We’re really designing this bar around good beer, and good wine and good craft, fresh cocktails,” Deck says.

Open Monday through Saturday, Igby’s weekends ramp up the energy by opening its second and third floor open up and featuring a DJ.

The space itself is huge—approximately 7,500 square feet. The Civil War era building posed challenges, but developers persevered through massive restoration work to create a wood-filled, modern and hyper-stylized space. Igby’s atrium features balconies around each level so that patrons can look up or down onto the other floors. Igby’s also has an outdoor patio with a lounge.

Cincinnati Chef Lauren Brown has a five-item menu, featuring oysters, sodabread and cheese and even seasonal salads, that is served from 4 to 10 pm. “It’s really meant to accompany people coming in and having some drinks,” Deck says. “It’s all very high-quality and fresh, and everything we can source locally, we try to source locally. It’s hard to source West Coast oysters locally, though.”

All of the juices for the extensive cocktail list are also fresh. Mixologist Brian Van Flandern from New York created the craft cocktail menu, which includes the bourbon-tinged Black Cherry Sling (with a kick of nutmeg), the Apple Toddler, which has Gerber Apple baby food in it, and locally themed drinks like RedsRum and Naked in Newport. Igby’s has 16 beers on tap, including craft beers, imported bottles and cans.

By Stephanie Kitchens

Would you like a loaf of bread and a bag of farm-fresh veggies to go along with that hammer? As they searched for walkable ways to sustain healthy diets after the closing of Keller’s IGA in 2011, Ludlow Avenue residents in Clifton discovered food in unlikely places.

The Ace Hardware store on Ludlow began stocking fresh produce — tomatoes, apples, oranges, etc. — in the summer following the closing of IGA. It also began stocking Shadeau breads, which have been selling well in recent months — more than 600 loaves in October alone, according to Bryan Valerius, general manager of Ace Hardware on Ludlow and former Keller’s manager.

Across the street, CVS shoppers noticed an expansion of canned food options in addition to a wider selection of beers, which allows community members to continue to live a car-free, if less “fresh” life. 

Valerius says that business has increased at Ace in recent months, but that's after the foot traffic decreased when IGA closed.

“The biggest thing I hear from people around here is they don’t like getting in their car and driving to the grocery,” Valerius says.

Ludlow Wines owner Mike Anagnostou agrees. “One of the appeals of Clifton is not having to own a car,” he says. “The day-to-day necessities are all in walkable distance.”

Not all kinds of business were impacted, though, Anagnostou says.

“The weekend entertainment crowd — the people who come to Esquire, Graeter’s, Olive’s, Dewey’s — hasn’t changed,” Anagnostou said. “It’s the weekday traffic [that has declined].”

While both he and Valerius think that IGA’s reopening will help rebuild businesses, they also share doubts about its ambitious January 2013 opening date.

“It’s a very bureaucratic process,” Anagnostou says. He remembers the construction issues that arose when he went through the process of opening his shop. “You get to a certain point where they say, ‘Now you need this, now you need this.’ I truly believe we’re going to get a grocery store. I also believe Mr. Goessling and his crew have been overly-optimistic as to when they’re going to open.”

Valerius estimates the store will require 13-16 weeks of work before it can open again. He thinks the construction time will help his business.

“I’m pulling for [IGA owner] Steve Goessling,” Anagnostou says. “I want him to open.”

Eli Mock, Ludlow native and University of Cincinnati student, used to shop at Keller’s IGA before it closed, and thinks the grocery store’s reopening will make his diet healthier.

“It’ll be easy to pop in and get food for dinner after classes,” Mock says. “It’ll add some diversity to what I eat. I won’t have to rely so much on fast food.”

In its third year, the Heights Music Festival reaches deeper into the local music scene to highlight lesser known, hard-working local bands.

This fall's version, which takes place this weekend (Nov. 9-10) includes new names and innovative collaborations with artistically focused Cincinnati non-profits. 

"We actively sought out bands that have not had this kind of opportunity," says festival found Rome Ntukogu, of Far-I-Rome Productions. For example, Oui Si Yes, a seven-piece band that rarely plays out because of complicated performance schedules, will be part of the Heights this weekend.

What started as a once-a-year, one-night/four-venue event evolved into a biannual celebration of bands across a wide range of genres. This fall, one all-ages venue (Rohs Street Cafe) will feature collaborations with student artists from the Music Resource Center in Evanston and Elementz of Over-the-Rhine.

"I'm really excited about the Music Resource Center showcase we are doing," Ntukogu says. "They are going to create a small lineup of five of their students to perform." 

Some will be MCs, some poets. All will perform at Rohs Friday. 

Elementz offers its own showcase at Rohs Saturday.

"We like to bridge the gap between scenes," Ntukogu says. "We're trying our best to reach out into different pockets in Cincinnati."

His goal is to expose young musicians to each other, allow them to become fans of one another, and together, build a stronger and more connected music and arts community in Cincinnati.

The fall Heights Festival features just four venues, down from previous festivals' higher club count. Ntukogu explains it's part of his plan for "surprises" for the spring 2013 festival. "We want to expand and add a few venues outside of the Clifton Heights business districts," he says. "I would like to double our venues by next spring."

By Elissa Yancey
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As many areas of Cincinnati are being rejuvenated, including OTR and Washington Park, the City of Cincinnati approved a comprehensive approach to focus on development in the city as a whole, not just targeted neighborhoods. 

Last Friday, the City Planning Commission approved and adopted Plan Cincinnati, which was designed with input from residents. The Plan is an opportunity to strengthen what people love about the city, what works and what needs more attention, says Katherine Keough-Jurs, senior city planner and project manager.
 
The idea is to re-urbanize suburbanized Cincinnati; in a sense, to return to the strengths of the city's beginnings. Cincinnati was established just after the American Revolution in 1788 and grew into an industrial center in the 19^th century. Many of those industries no longer exist in the city, which is part of why Cincinnati has become more suburbanized in the past 50 years. One of the long-term goals of the Plan is to bring new industries to Cincinnati.
 
With a new approach to revitalization, Cincinnati is blazing the trail for other cities. With a focus on building on existing strengths rather than tearing down structures and creating new ones, the Plan aims to capitalize on the city's “good bones” and good infrastructure.
 
Cinicinnatians had a huge role in developing the Plan. The first public meeting for the Plan was held in September 2009, when residents offered their insights into “what makes a great city?" and "what would make Cincinnati a great city?” A steering committee of 40 people representing businesses, nonprofits, community groups, local institutions, residents and City Council helped develop the Plan.

The Plan also got support from a grant from the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which the City received in 2010. The grant allotted $2.4 million over three years to support the Land Development Code, which combines and simplifies Cincinnati's codes, reviews the development process, implements Form-based Codes and considers more creative uses for land. The grant allowed the city to start implementing some of the ideas voiced in public meetings.
 
Visionaries included youth, too. City staff worked with community centers and Cincinnati Public Schools to develop an art project for children. They were given clay pots and asked to paint their fears for the city on the inside and their dreams for the city on the outside. The children saw the big issue was quality of life, just like the adults did.
 
“It was an interesting way to get the kids involved and thinking about the future,” Keough-Jurs says.
 
The Plan aims to strengthen neighborhood centers—the neighborhoods’ business districts. It maps out areas that people need to get to on a daily basis and found that most are within about a half-mile of the business districts. But in some neighborhoods, residents can’t access their neighborhood centers. 

The accessibility of a neighborhood center is based on walkability—not just for pedestrians, but also about how structures address walking. For exampke, if a pedestrian can walk from one end of the neighborhood center to the other without breaking his or her pattern (the window shopping effect), the area is walkable; if he or she has been stopped by a parking lot or vacancies, it’s not walkable, Keough-Jurs says.
 
The neighborhood centers are classified in one of three ways in the Plan: maintain, evolve or transform. Some neighborhoods have goals to maintain levels of walkability, whereas others need to gradually change or evolve. Still others need to completely transform in order to strengthen their business districts.
 
“Cincinnati is at the heart of the region,” Keough-Jurs says. “If we strengthen Cincinnati, we strengthen a region.”

The next step for the Plan is to go before the Cincinnati City Council, specifically the Livable Communities Committee, which is chaired by Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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A collaboration between the Uptown Consortium and Hark + Hark sets its sights on engaging community members in Uptown in the arts in new, creative, and super cool ways.

Together, they host monthly art events as Modern Makers. This month, Modern Makers presents performances from ALICE (in wonderland) by Cincinnati Ballet II Second Company at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center on Wed., Oct. 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. Modern Makers is sponsored through Uptown Consortium and Hark and Hark, both nonprofits.

“Bringing and highlighting arts and the arts environment to uptown Cincinnati by featuring and displaying different art programs and opportunities for everyone…is the main key of what we’re trying to do,” says Janelle Lee, Uptown Consortium’s Director of Business and Community Affairs and a member of the Cincinnati Ballet Board of Trustees.

Most of the monthly art shows are held in Corryville on Short Vine or on Glendora Avenue, right behind Bogart’s. 
About a year and a half ago, Uptown Consortium partnered with Hark and Hark, an art and community-based firm started by two former University of Cincinnati DAAP graduates, Catherine Richards and Ahn Tran, to create Modern Makers. The second season of Modern Makers coincides with UC’s school year, with different art shows each month from August until June. 

This year’s MM season kicked off with a chef, who prepared food through art. The event was an overwhelming success, according to Lee.

All MM events are free and open to the public; food is provided by a restaurant on Short Vine. Each event also features an interactive creative art project; for example, last year for Mardi Gras, participants created masks.

In November, Modern Makers will present the second annual “Light Up Short Vine,” Wed., Nov. 28—a Christmas celebration complete with lights, a Christmas tree, Santa Claus and CCM carolers.

By Stephanie Kitchens

The University of Cincinnati recently added four new degree certificates to the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. The Sustainable Landscape Design, Urban Agriculture, Urban Landscapes and Green Roofs certificates are in the horticulture department and focus on green living. The four certificates are available at the undergraduate level, but graduate students can arrange for credit.
 
A certificate in Sustainable Landscape Design focuses on the sustainability aspect of building and landscape design. The Urban Agriculture area of study examines contemporary issues in horticulture, urban design, livability and quality of life, food security and sustainability. A certificate in Urban Landscapes focuses on the role of plant life in a sustainable urban environment. The certificate in Green Roofs addresses contemporary issues in living architecture, while focusing on the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable urban design.
 
The certificates give students the opportunity to add a specialized area of study to their overall horticulture degree. Plus, it allows them to enhance their skills and build their resumes, says Virginia Russell, associate professor of architecture at DAAP. She teaches a class on infrastructure and green roofs in the Urban Landscape realm of study.  
 
New courses in urban agriculture and ecology, living architecture and plant biogeography were added to the horticulture program in response to students’ passion for sustainable living. Many horticulture students have done service projects in the community to gain experience and enhance their skills, says Russell.
 
Students aren’t the only ones interested in green projects. The UC Master Plan, which was developed by Hargreaves Associates, a landscape architecture firm, includes different aspects of sustainable landscape design. These aspects have been incorporated into projects around campus, including the sub-grade retention basin near the student recreation center that uses recycled storm water for irrigation purposes. UC also installed two green roofs over the summer—one on Procter Hall and one on the DAA building of DAAP.
 
Russell believes that green living is important for everyone because so many areas of expertise are beginning to show concern for the environment. For example, professionals in medicine, the culinary arts and all fields of design should understand the importance of plant-based tools, such as new types of packaging, a food-secure supply chain and the therapeutic uses of plants and gardening.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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How do you wear beauty? Fuse Theory has some ideas…

University of Cincinnati College of Design Architecture Art and Planning (DAAP) student Alexandra Scott has an eye for beauty found in the “ugly and unusual” and some inspired ideas about the expression of individuality.

That’s why only a year into her college career, she decided to launch her own line of hand-designed, dyed and screen printed apparel and accessories based on the premise that “everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

Scott is the creator, owner-operator and designer for her brand, Fuse Theory, a line of clothing and accessories for men and women that she developed after just one year in the DAAP program’s fashion design and product development track.

A native Cincinnatian and graduate of Walnut Hills High School, Scott says she has always been interested in art and fashion, but wasn’t sure at first how to combine the two.

“I wanted to find a way to open people’s eyes to the beauty found in the unexpected,” she says.

Scott derives inspiration from the fusion of ideas and concepts into an aesthetic that reaches a little deeper to connect beauty with individuality.

The brand name Fuse Theory unifies this connection with wearable pieces of art that are as comfortable as they are interesting. The brand seeks to combine color, texture and emotion to find beauty in life’s imperfections. Her trademark eye image, which can be found on her designs, symbolizes both her aesthetic and philosophy.

Although Scott’s designs are grounded in the basics, they’re far from unremarkable.

“My designs are not about impressing others,” she says. “It’s more about expressing the emotional side of fashion.”

She focuses on comfortable pieces that allow the wearer to be creative. “I don’t want my customers to be walking billboards for my brand,” she says. “I want them to buy my designs because they mean something.”

Both artisan and entrepreneur, Scott’s merchandise is a work of art from the initial design concept to the hand dying and screen-printing that bring pieces to life. Any flaws in the process contribute to the individualistic and emotional intent of her work.

Currently, Scott is collaborating with local graffiti artists on a new collection that incorporates street art onto men’s and women’s apparel. Look for these new designs online in late August.

In the meantime, Scott’s handiwork can be found online at fusetheoryapparel.com, or in the community on Aug. 25 at the Price Hill Cultural Heritage Festival, at Second Sunday on Main in Over-the-Rhine or at the West Chester Art Market every other Saturday.

Scott says she would like to feature her brand with local retailers and eventually open her own store. She will graduate in 2014, and the possibilities are likely to expand. We can’t wait to see what’s next.

By Deidra Wiley Necco

Soon the Cincinnati Children's Hospital's Burnet campus will have an impressive new addition. The hospital will expand its research arm with a new 15-story clinical services building.

The ground reaking will be in June, and the building is set to open in 2015. Cincinnati-based Messer Construction is the project's general contractor; architects are GBBN, GPR and HDR.

The new $180 million, 425,000-square-foot facility will house:

• New labs
• An outpatient clinic
• Imaging facility for clinical trials and research
• Office space
• Supporting infrastructure

The building will be financed through a combination of operating cash and investments, future operating cash flows and philanthropy, hospital officials say. It will be located along Sabin Way, next to the research building finished in 2007.

Physically, the building will also connect research and patient care.

“The new clinical sciences building will create a physical link between the discoveries in our current research facility and their application to patient care in our clinical locations,” says said Arnold Strauss, MD, director of the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation, in an announcement.

The new building will allow the hospital to hire up to 100 new research faculty over the next five years.

"Expanding our research space is essential to supporting our world-class faculty investigators. These investigators are developing and evaluating breakthrough discoveries for patients. They work closely with clinical staff to apply those discoveries to improving the health of children here and throughout the world," Strauss adds.

By Feoshia Henderson
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Completing assignments in college can seem pointless when there is no more return than a grade. So, instead of designing a fictitious building, why not pair students with the developer to design viable ideas for a real structure in their own city?

The pilot project for the startup Student Designed (SD), founded by Adam Treister, did just that. Treister, a DAAP architecture alumni and architect at City Center Properties (CCP), paired CCP with 34 interior design students to spend an entire quarter working on developing ideas for the Guildhaus building in Over-the-Rhine. Last Friday, all 34 students presented their ideas for the ground floor, basement and sub-basement of the building on Vine Street. CCP doesn't yet know if they will use one of the designs, but the project gave students real-life experience and a development company 34 ideas for the development of their building.

"The building has a lot of potential," Treister says. "We are seeing some very innovative uses for the Guildhaus."

Treister has been working on the idea for more than a year, and now, with a site designed by Mindbox Studios, SD is launched. SD is a database-driven site that brings students, professors and companies together. The idea was born out of seeing countless hours spent on projects that never came to fruition. The site allows businesses to submit projects, teachers to review them, and students to search and send on to their professors. Businesses will specify a charitable donation when they post a project that they want to outsource to a university. Universities can then search through the projects, and assign them to students. SD will provide a cheaper outsourcing of work for businesses and provide income to universities, all while giving students real-world experience.

"Student Designed provides a better experience for everyone involved," Treister says.

After winning Xavier's Launch-A-Business competition in 2011, Treister received six months of mentorship and assistance in developing his idea, and now, after launching the site, he is applying for a spot in the first round of UpTech in Northern Kentucky. At first, Treister plans on working on getting projects for UC and Xavier, but thinks the business will grow organically. 


By Evan Wallis

In Silicon Valley, GOOD Ideas for Cities spurred development of new transit plans for buses with wi-fi, comfy seats and bike racks traveling business-friendly express routes. In Los Angeles and New York, and just this month in Portland, Ore., like-minded sessions have paired the area’s top design minds with pressing city concerns in an effort to reinvigorate civic problem-solving.

Cincinnati marks the next stop of the GOOD Ideas for Cities tour, which pairs designers with city problems proposed by urban leaders and spotlights solutions at public forums. The University of Cincinnati’s Niehoff Urban Studio hosts the program, which will culminate with a public event May 16.

“Cincinnati is the perfect city for us to go to next as part of the GOOD Ideas for Cities program,” says Alissa Walker, Los Angeles-based writer and community members at GOOD. “We're seeing many of the challenges there that other mid-sized cities are facing, issues around urban renewal, transportation, and fresh food access. But there's also such a vibrant and established creative community that's already so engaged in the city.”

Frank Russell, director of the Niehoff Urban Studio, has begun looking for civic-minded designers who want to be a part of the program. “Cincinnati has the benefit of a tremendous pool of design talent due to its place as a design and brand hub as well as its world-class design educational institutions,” he says. “I am excited to invite these emerging leaders to engage with GOOD to envision creative solutions for Cincinnati.”

Since 2008, GOOD has hosted 10 of these events in three cities and at three schools. Last year, GOOD added the urban think tank CEOs for Cities to the mix and changed the name to GOOD Ideas for Cities. This year’s outreach into five mid-sized cities is funded in part by ArtPlace, a collaboration of national foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts and other federal agencies.

“We hope GOOD Ideas for Cities will be able to connect these creatives with local urban leaders to design some innovative and exciting ideas for Cincinnati,” Walker says. “We also hope to see some of those ideas become reality, as we've seen happen at several of our events across the country so far.”

For examples of previous GOOD Ideas for Cities projects, click here.

To apply to be one of Cincinnati’s GOOD Ideas for Cities’ civic-minded designers or design teams, email Frank Russell.

By Elissa Yancey
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Local business owners look forward to hiring and growing, proving more confident in the future than their national peers, according to a first-of-its-kind survey by UC's Carl H. Linder College of Business and the Goering Center for Family and Private Business, launched the Greater Cincinnati Family Business Survey (GCFB).
 
The study was sent to more than 900 local businesses to gage their opinions on the economy and the future. It mirrors the National Federation of Independent Businesses, but adds a local focus. After comparing the local findings to the broader study done by the NFIB, Cincinnati businesses owners expected higher sales and earnings and favored the prospect of expansion.
 
“For a long time, I thought it would be interesting to do a study on the family businesses in the area.” says Sid Barton, executive founder of the Goering Center. “You can get national surveys and indications of large companies, but there wasn’t anything focused on local businesses.”
 
Barton knows the results aren’t the most reliable because of the sample size of 200, but he plans on conducting the survey each quarter to grow the sample size until it is large enough to break apart into specific business types. Barton would also like to measure the accuracy of business owners' projections.
 
“Our intention is to get as much promotion as we can,” Barton says. “We think this can really tell us about the economic landscape. We also want to see how good business owners are at predicting future growth.”
 
Barton says a main focus was employment expansion in the area.
 
“Most of the employment over the past decade has come from private business,” Barton says. “It hasn’t come from the large firms, because those are slowly becoming smaller.”
 
By Evan Wallis