Soapdish: Pioneer Days
In this week's Soapdish, columnist Casey Coston looks back at some of Cincinnati's urban pioneers who paved the way for neighborhood revitalization and those heeding the call to rehabilitate and reenergize now.
Architecture + Design
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Soapbox Speaker Series: Urban Pioneers
Risk takers. Urban dwellers who took a chance to revitalize a building, then a neighborhood, and ultimately, entire communities. It takes a certain kind of individual to make that leap of faith, investing sweat equity into an old shell of a building on a rough street. At Soapbox, we think it's a common character trait, a cult of personality if you will, that joins these urbanists together. Come meet some of the pioneers who have reinvigorated Cincinnati's past and are working hard on its future by reviving vital, urban neighborhoods.
P&G opens ‘Pop-up’ store in NYC
As part of their new campaign, "Have You Tried This Yet?," Procter & Gamble opened a 10-day 'pop-up' store in New York City to promote 18 of its new products. The store is divided into demo areas where customers can interact with the products and receive complimentary samples. P & G wants customers to understand the value and performance of its products by keeping the customers engaged with this temporary store.Read the full story here.
Spring Grove residents help create $60K development fund, rehab properties
A group of past and present Spring Grove Village residents are invested, literally, in Cincinnati's smallest neighborhood. The Village Development Corporation has been loaned $60,000 from people who want to help the organization continue its ongoing work to rehab homes in the neighborhood.Village Development Corporation board member and Spring Grove advocate Carl Servizzi took the lead in creating the fund, and contacting potential lenders. "It's just one of several funding sources for the organization's rehab work. With the sluggish economy, traditional bank funding has been difficult to come by," said Servizzi. The fund is a win-win for both Spring Grove and the lenders. The Village Development Corporation has a unique source of funding and lenders will be paid back - with a 5 percent interest rate - over the next three years, according to Servizzi. The Village Development Corporation writes a simple, legally binding promissory note with each lender."If you had a CD in the bank for $5,000 or $10,000 you'd be getting less than 2 percent because interest because rates are so low. So a five percent simple interest rate made it attractive when I'm selling people on the idea," Servizzi said.The Village Development Corporation for more than 20 years has invested in the upkeep, maintenance and rehab of its residential and business district. The organization is currently focused exclusively on rehabbing blighted neighborhood properties. The development corporation then sells the property to homeowners. Homes range in price from $50,000 to $100,000. As a result, people who live in Spring Grove Village take real pride in the community and trust the Development Corporation's work. That shows in the enthusiastic response to the new fund, Servizzi said."People respond to the Development Corporation and what we have done for the community," he said, estimating the organization has rehabbed and sold about 20 houses in the past 15 years. The homes are targeted toward lower- to moderate-income homeowners, who are looking for an affordable place to live and raise their families. In recent years many rehabbed properties have been foreclosed homes that were abandoned and fell into disrepair. "The average homeowner stays in a home for seven or eight years then move on. The people who buy these homes generally stay much longer than that," Servizzi added.Writer: Feoshia HendersonPhotography by Scott Beseler.
Branding firm Landor Associates reaches out to local influences for inspiration
Employees at downtown branding firm Landor & Associates are looking outside the company walls for a little creative inspiration. In a new campaign set to start within the next week, Landor is reaching out to local influencers including the city's bloggers for a design campaign that uses some simple tools of the branding trade. The initiative is just one of a series the company is planning as a way to offer inspiration for Landor employees and Cincinnatians. "The tools that we use to tell our brand stories are things like color, words and photography. We thought, why don't we take these tools and give people an opportunity to tell their own stories?" said Landor Client Manager Mara McCormick. The campaign is an expansion of an in-house project. Landor originally brought its 150 employees together with a simple mission: express your feelings and thoughts creatively at a specific time of day. "Each employee got to chose from an array of kits where they found things like a camera, color swatches or sketch paper. We encouraged them to express themselves at 1:10p.m.," she said. "So maybe they were feeling super stressed that day because they had a lot on their plate. They could use the color red and describe why red reflected what they were thinking or feeling." The 1:10p.m. time was tied to the company address: 110 Shillito Place. Landor then used some of the submissions to start a wider conversation. "We collected everything back from people and sifted through it. Then we talked about what we wanted to bring to light in our windows along Race Street that speak to wonderful color expression, imaginative sketches or fun or expressive words," McCormick said. The process not only offered some outside-the-box methods of expression for Landor employees, but for Cincinnatians on the street as well. "People are stopping and talking and having conversation at the windows. Everyone has an opinion on why someone did something, or how they would do it. It's an inspiration to the city and give's people insight into what we do," McCormick said. Soon, those outside Landor will have a chance to add their creativity to the mix. The company will hand out kits to local influencers with the same instructions. Details are still being worked out as to whether those expressions will be displayed in windows, inside the building or somewhere else, McCormick said. This won't be the last time Landor reaches outside of everyday work to spur creativity. The company plans on making this type of project a regular part of getting creative juices flowing. "We're using this as an opportunity to communicate more about ourselves and engage the community, now and moving forward," McCormick said. Writer: Feoshia Henderson Source: Landor & Associates Client Manger Mara McCormick You can follow Feoshia on twitter @feoshiawrites
County launches sustainable planning workshop series
Sometimes, being "green" is about more than cutting energy consumption or increasing the amount of leftovers that hit the recycling bin. In fact, some of the most powerful aspects of the sustainable/environmentally-friendly movement are focused on another aspect entirely: the revitalization and renewal of existing resources, rather than the environmentally costly demolition and new construction that was once the norm. This is a fact not lost on Hamilton County, as evidenced by the recently launched seminar series, "Sustainable Hamilton County: Reinventing our Communities." According to the Hamilton County Planning Partnership, the four-event series is designed to "provide factual data and leading research findings, encourage critical thinking, and promote discussion and collaborative action to achieve sustainable development in Hamilton County."The first session of the series, "The Built Environment: Retrofitting Cities, Communities and Neighborhoods," took place Friday at the Anderson Township Center. Keynote and panel speakers provided a deep bench of expertise on sustainable development: from architects to designers, community planners to experts on aging in the community, the presenters covered many of the topics that arise as Hamilton County works to redefine itself as a sustainable, vibrant community. Keynote speaker June Williamson discussed strategies for - and successful examples of - suburban communities that broke from the stagnant, high-consumption model of feeders to an urban area to become sustainable communities in their own rights. As a counterpoint, Model Group Vice President of Development and OTR Chamber of Commerce Vice President Bobby Maly discussed the revitalization taking place in that historic Cincinnati neighborhood.According to Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission Senior Planner Catalina Landivar, the event and the three to follow are intended to bring together disparate parts of the community: academics and members of Cincinnati's educational community, business leaders and local residents. The seminars give these various stakeholders information and a common touchstone around which to discuss how to best move Hamilton County forward.And with just the first event under its belt, the series can already claim success of sorts; Landivar says planners had to close registration, after a rush of participants booked all the available seats for the event. The next session in the Sustainable Hamilton County series, "Trends that are Changing our Communities: Housing, Transportation, Health," takes place 8 a.m. to noon Friday, Nov. 19 at Techsolve, 6705 Steger Drive. The third session, "Fiscal Sustainability and Quality of Life of Our Communities," takes place Friday, Jan. 21. A final follow-up session, "Sustainable Hamilton County: We Can Do It!" is scheduled for March 11, and will give participants the chance to discuss their thoughts about the sessions and suggest what the community needs to do to move forward with a sustainable revitalization plan.For more information on the Sustainable Hamilton County series, contact Catalina Landivar, Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission Senior Planner, at (513) 946-4455 or catalina.landivar@hamilton-co.org. Writer: Matt CunninghamPhotography by Scott Beseler
Building Value partners with Zoo on deconstruction in Avondale
Construction of a new green space and streetscape in Avondale begins with the deconstruction of three Cincinnati Zoo owned properties in the neighborhood. Thanks to a unique partnership with the Zoo, Building Value, with help from ACT Recycling and Rumpke, will recycle or reuse as much as 85 percent of the material from the houses on the sites. The Zoo selected Building Value to deconstruct the homes at Vine Street and Forest Avenue because of their expertise in salvage and deconstruction work and focus on good green practices. All of the salvaged material from the deconstruction will be available for purchase at Building Value's retail store located at 4040 Spring Grove Ave. "We'll recycle everything that we can that can't be reused - metal to a recycling center, the wood that can't be used will be ground up by Rumpke for mulch and compost. ACT Recycling will handle the concrete foundations, breaking them up for future construction aggregate," according to Lisa Doxsee, communications manager for Building Value. Building Value's partnership with ACT Recycling and Rumpke began in late 2009 with the goal to increase the amount of building material that can be recycled or reused in a typical demolition project. Since the partnership began, Rumpke has recycled more than 22,000 pounds of wood material and assisted with 23 jobs. The deconstruction process reduces the volume of waste requiring landfill disposal by 19,000 cubic feet, provides enough lumber for 1,485 square feet of affordable housing and the salvage of lumber and panel products avoids the generation of green house gasses equivalent to removing more than six passenger cars from road. The deconstruction process by the Zoo will take approximately 25 days to complete and employ a crew specially trained by Building Value. Workers who were previously unemployed, underemployed or economically disadvantaged are trained through Building Value's programs including Youth Build, a national program for high school dropouts who want to gain skills while pursuing their high school diploma."To date we've trained close to 100 people through our programs some of whom are now working for companies like Messer Construction, CHC Fabrication and numerous area apprenticeship programs. We can't think of a better way to support the community than to provide people an opportunity to learn new skills that will eventually lead to a new career," says Jerry Janszen, director of Building Value.Once deconstruction is complete and the land cleared, the project at the corner of Forest and Vine Streets will be feature a new green streetscape that will showcase the Avondale community. "The new green space benefits residents and builds upon collective projects moving the community to be a great place to live, work, worship and play," said Avondale Community Council President Patricia Milton.Writer: Henry SweetsPhotography provided.
Green Homes Summit celebrates second year with new events, residential focus
Area residents, homebuyers and residential homebuilders interested in shrinking their carbon footprints and cutting their energy bills have an opportunity to significantly advance their knowledge of green building this November. The second annual Green Homes Summit will feature seminars, vendors and home tours aimed at one purpose: making green technology a viable option for residential construction and renovation."We've realized we really need to reach the consumer," says Libby Hunter, residential committee chair for the US Green Building Council's Cincinnati chapter. "Probably one of the biggest planks of our mission right now is to educate."To that end, she says this year's summit is mainly focused on the common questions of homeowners looking to green their existing homes, or consumers thinking about building a new home that incorporates environmentally friendly features. A series of three workshops will give attendees a chance to learn about a wide range of topics, from "Greening Your Old House" by Margo Warminski to "Solar Photovoltaics" by Dave Boezi. A tradeshow, open to both ticket holders and the general public, will feature more than 50 green building product vendors, and keynote speaker Randy Florke, a nationally known real estate and design expert, will give a presentation based on his recently published book, "Recycle, Restore, Repurpose: Create A Beautiful Home.""It's for professionals and residents, with the bulk of the educational events aimed at residents," says Hunter. One of this the most unique events at this year's summit is a four-location tour of homes incorporating green technology. Ticket-holding attendees will get the opportunity to visit a LEED Silver-certified home in Hyde Park, homes in Northside's Northwind and Rockford Woods developments, and a condominium in Over-the-Rhine's Belmain building. Contractors and vendors will be on hand to answer attendees' questions about the green technology incorporated into each of these buildings."We realized there's such a need to get the word out to the residential public," says Hunter. She and the summit's co-organizers are hopeful the event will take a major step toward educating Cincinnati's homeowners about how they can incorporate a little - or a lot - of green technology into their homes and lives.The Green Homes Summit is presented by AIA Cincinnati's Congress of Residential Architecture, U.S. Green Building Council's Residential Green Building Committee, AIA Cincinnati's Committee on the Environment and Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati, and scheduled for 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. November 13 at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.Writer: Matt Cunningham Photography by Scot Beseler.
Bridging Broadway opens first of three community engagement sessions
Bridging Broadway, an organization that evolved out of the anticipated development of a downtown casino site, is hosting the first of three community dialogues this Saturday, from 12:30-4pm, at Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine. Saturday's half-day session is designed to gather feedback from residents, businesses and landowners of the historic neighborhoods surrounding Broadway Commons with the goal of contributing to the recommendations ultimately made to the city.No ordinary design charette, the session includes a guided walking tour of Pendleton developed by University of Cincinnati Professor and Planning Commissioner, Michaele Pride. Pride says the walking tour, which will take several different routes to ensure all aspects of the study area are observed, is an important part of the process. "The idea comes from an established body of best practices from the community development industry and is used as a tool for residents and stakeholders together, to inventory the possibilities, problems and opportunities of their neighborhood. The tours will concentrate on areas that are within a direct impact zone of the casino development and are the greatest to benefit from - and also to be concerned about - the kinds of new interests and attention that will come with the casino's development."Rather than just gathering information from census data and aerial photos and GIF databases, we acknowledge the role of personal, direct experience, directed view and feel as a valid dataset and so we're mining the experience and views and perspectives of the community."Later, groups will discuss their observations in small groups and synthesize their findings. Jeffrey Stec, Executive Director of Citizens for Civic Renewal, will help to integrate and conclude this part of the process. The second and third dialogues, taking place this winter, will focus on what residents, business and landowners. Pride, an Over-the-Rhine resident, noted the importance of these early sessions."The process helps build community capacity for addressing change," she said.The community dialogue is free and open to the public and takes place Saturday October 23 from 1-4pm at Memorial Hall. You can register here. Writer: Sean RhineyPhotography by provided
RetroFittings Repurposes Style
In partnership with the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning and St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Stores, the eighth annual RetroFittings fashion show will use fashion to inspire the spirit of giving.
Soapbox Speaker Series: Urban Pioneers
Risk takers. Urban dwellers who took a chance to revitalize a building, then a neighborhood, and ultimately, entire communities. It takes a certain kind of individual to make that leap of faith, investing sweat equity into an old shell of a building on a rough street. At Soapbox, we think it's a common character trait, a cult of personality if you will, that joins these urbanists together. Come meet some of the pioneers who have reinvigorated Cincinnati's past and are working hard on its future by reviving vital, urban neighborhoods.
P&G opens ‘Pop-up’ store in NYC
As part of their new campaign, "Have You Tried This Yet?," Procter & Gamble opened a 10-day 'pop-up' store in New York City to promote 18 of its new products. The store is divided into demo areas where customers can interact with the products and receive complimentary samples. P & G wants customers to understand the value and performance of its products by keeping the customers engaged with this temporary store.Read the full story here.
Spring Grove residents help create $60K development fund, rehab properties
A group of past and present Spring Grove Village residents are invested, literally, in Cincinnati's smallest neighborhood. The Village Development Corporation has been loaned $60,000 from people who want to help the organization continue its ongoing work to rehab homes in the neighborhood.Village Development Corporation board member and Spring Grove advocate Carl Servizzi took the lead in creating the fund, and contacting potential lenders. "It's just one of several funding sources for the organization's rehab work. With the sluggish economy, traditional bank funding has been difficult to come by," said Servizzi. The fund is a win-win for both Spring Grove and the lenders. The Village Development Corporation has a unique source of funding and lenders will be paid back - with a 5 percent interest rate - over the next three years, according to Servizzi. The Village Development Corporation writes a simple, legally binding promissory note with each lender."If you had a CD in the bank for $5,000 or $10,000 you'd be getting less than 2 percent because interest because rates are so low. So a five percent simple interest rate made it attractive when I'm selling people on the idea," Servizzi said.The Village Development Corporation for more than 20 years has invested in the upkeep, maintenance and rehab of its residential and business district. The organization is currently focused exclusively on rehabbing blighted neighborhood properties. The development corporation then sells the property to homeowners. Homes range in price from $50,000 to $100,000. As a result, people who live in Spring Grove Village take real pride in the community and trust the Development Corporation's work. That shows in the enthusiastic response to the new fund, Servizzi said."People respond to the Development Corporation and what we have done for the community," he said, estimating the organization has rehabbed and sold about 20 houses in the past 15 years. The homes are targeted toward lower- to moderate-income homeowners, who are looking for an affordable place to live and raise their families. In recent years many rehabbed properties have been foreclosed homes that were abandoned and fell into disrepair. "The average homeowner stays in a home for seven or eight years then move on. The people who buy these homes generally stay much longer than that," Servizzi added.Writer: Feoshia HendersonPhotography by Scott Beseler.
Branding firm Landor Associates reaches out to local influences for inspiration
Employees at downtown branding firm Landor & Associates are looking outside the company walls for a little creative inspiration. In a new campaign set to start within the next week, Landor is reaching out to local influencers including the city's bloggers for a design campaign that uses some simple tools of the branding trade. The initiative is just one of a series the company is planning as a way to offer inspiration for Landor employees and Cincinnatians. "The tools that we use to tell our brand stories are things like color, words and photography. We thought, why don't we take these tools and give people an opportunity to tell their own stories?" said Landor Client Manager Mara McCormick. The campaign is an expansion of an in-house project. Landor originally brought its 150 employees together with a simple mission: express your feelings and thoughts creatively at a specific time of day. "Each employee got to chose from an array of kits where they found things like a camera, color swatches or sketch paper. We encouraged them to express themselves at 1:10p.m.," she said. "So maybe they were feeling super stressed that day because they had a lot on their plate. They could use the color red and describe why red reflected what they were thinking or feeling." The 1:10p.m. time was tied to the company address: 110 Shillito Place. Landor then used some of the submissions to start a wider conversation. "We collected everything back from people and sifted through it. Then we talked about what we wanted to bring to light in our windows along Race Street that speak to wonderful color expression, imaginative sketches or fun or expressive words," McCormick said. The process not only offered some outside-the-box methods of expression for Landor employees, but for Cincinnatians on the street as well. "People are stopping and talking and having conversation at the windows. Everyone has an opinion on why someone did something, or how they would do it. It's an inspiration to the city and give's people insight into what we do," McCormick said. Soon, those outside Landor will have a chance to add their creativity to the mix. The company will hand out kits to local influencers with the same instructions. Details are still being worked out as to whether those expressions will be displayed in windows, inside the building or somewhere else, McCormick said. This won't be the last time Landor reaches outside of everyday work to spur creativity. The company plans on making this type of project a regular part of getting creative juices flowing. "We're using this as an opportunity to communicate more about ourselves and engage the community, now and moving forward," McCormick said. Writer: Feoshia Henderson Source: Landor & Associates Client Manger Mara McCormick You can follow Feoshia on twitter @feoshiawrites
County launches sustainable planning workshop series
Sometimes, being "green" is about more than cutting energy consumption or increasing the amount of leftovers that hit the recycling bin. In fact, some of the most powerful aspects of the sustainable/environmentally-friendly movement are focused on another aspect entirely: the revitalization and renewal of existing resources, rather than the environmentally costly demolition and new construction that was once the norm. This is a fact not lost on Hamilton County, as evidenced by the recently launched seminar series, "Sustainable Hamilton County: Reinventing our Communities." According to the Hamilton County Planning Partnership, the four-event series is designed to "provide factual data and leading research findings, encourage critical thinking, and promote discussion and collaborative action to achieve sustainable development in Hamilton County."The first session of the series, "The Built Environment: Retrofitting Cities, Communities and Neighborhoods," took place Friday at the Anderson Township Center. Keynote and panel speakers provided a deep bench of expertise on sustainable development: from architects to designers, community planners to experts on aging in the community, the presenters covered many of the topics that arise as Hamilton County works to redefine itself as a sustainable, vibrant community. Keynote speaker June Williamson discussed strategies for - and successful examples of - suburban communities that broke from the stagnant, high-consumption model of feeders to an urban area to become sustainable communities in their own rights. As a counterpoint, Model Group Vice President of Development and OTR Chamber of Commerce Vice President Bobby Maly discussed the revitalization taking place in that historic Cincinnati neighborhood.According to Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission Senior Planner Catalina Landivar, the event and the three to follow are intended to bring together disparate parts of the community: academics and members of Cincinnati's educational community, business leaders and local residents. The seminars give these various stakeholders information and a common touchstone around which to discuss how to best move Hamilton County forward.And with just the first event under its belt, the series can already claim success of sorts; Landivar says planners had to close registration, after a rush of participants booked all the available seats for the event. The next session in the Sustainable Hamilton County series, "Trends that are Changing our Communities: Housing, Transportation, Health," takes place 8 a.m. to noon Friday, Nov. 19 at Techsolve, 6705 Steger Drive. The third session, "Fiscal Sustainability and Quality of Life of Our Communities," takes place Friday, Jan. 21. A final follow-up session, "Sustainable Hamilton County: We Can Do It!" is scheduled for March 11, and will give participants the chance to discuss their thoughts about the sessions and suggest what the community needs to do to move forward with a sustainable revitalization plan.For more information on the Sustainable Hamilton County series, contact Catalina Landivar, Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission Senior Planner, at (513) 946-4455 or catalina.landivar@hamilton-co.org. Writer: Matt CunninghamPhotography by Scott Beseler
Building Value partners with Zoo on deconstruction in Avondale
Construction of a new green space and streetscape in Avondale begins with the deconstruction of three Cincinnati Zoo owned properties in the neighborhood. Thanks to a unique partnership with the Zoo, Building Value, with help from ACT Recycling and Rumpke, will recycle or reuse as much as 85 percent of the material from the houses on the sites. The Zoo selected Building Value to deconstruct the homes at Vine Street and Forest Avenue because of their expertise in salvage and deconstruction work and focus on good green practices. All of the salvaged material from the deconstruction will be available for purchase at Building Value's retail store located at 4040 Spring Grove Ave. "We'll recycle everything that we can that can't be reused - metal to a recycling center, the wood that can't be used will be ground up by Rumpke for mulch and compost. ACT Recycling will handle the concrete foundations, breaking them up for future construction aggregate," according to Lisa Doxsee, communications manager for Building Value. Building Value's partnership with ACT Recycling and Rumpke began in late 2009 with the goal to increase the amount of building material that can be recycled or reused in a typical demolition project. Since the partnership began, Rumpke has recycled more than 22,000 pounds of wood material and assisted with 23 jobs. The deconstruction process reduces the volume of waste requiring landfill disposal by 19,000 cubic feet, provides enough lumber for 1,485 square feet of affordable housing and the salvage of lumber and panel products avoids the generation of green house gasses equivalent to removing more than six passenger cars from road. The deconstruction process by the Zoo will take approximately 25 days to complete and employ a crew specially trained by Building Value. Workers who were previously unemployed, underemployed or economically disadvantaged are trained through Building Value's programs including Youth Build, a national program for high school dropouts who want to gain skills while pursuing their high school diploma."To date we've trained close to 100 people through our programs some of whom are now working for companies like Messer Construction, CHC Fabrication and numerous area apprenticeship programs. We can't think of a better way to support the community than to provide people an opportunity to learn new skills that will eventually lead to a new career," says Jerry Janszen, director of Building Value.Once deconstruction is complete and the land cleared, the project at the corner of Forest and Vine Streets will be feature a new green streetscape that will showcase the Avondale community. "The new green space benefits residents and builds upon collective projects moving the community to be a great place to live, work, worship and play," said Avondale Community Council President Patricia Milton.Writer: Henry SweetsPhotography provided.
Green Homes Summit celebrates second year with new events, residential focus
Area residents, homebuyers and residential homebuilders interested in shrinking their carbon footprints and cutting their energy bills have an opportunity to significantly advance their knowledge of green building this November. The second annual Green Homes Summit will feature seminars, vendors and home tours aimed at one purpose: making green technology a viable option for residential construction and renovation."We've realized we really need to reach the consumer," says Libby Hunter, residential committee chair for the US Green Building Council's Cincinnati chapter. "Probably one of the biggest planks of our mission right now is to educate."To that end, she says this year's summit is mainly focused on the common questions of homeowners looking to green their existing homes, or consumers thinking about building a new home that incorporates environmentally friendly features. A series of three workshops will give attendees a chance to learn about a wide range of topics, from "Greening Your Old House" by Margo Warminski to "Solar Photovoltaics" by Dave Boezi. A tradeshow, open to both ticket holders and the general public, will feature more than 50 green building product vendors, and keynote speaker Randy Florke, a nationally known real estate and design expert, will give a presentation based on his recently published book, "Recycle, Restore, Repurpose: Create A Beautiful Home.""It's for professionals and residents, with the bulk of the educational events aimed at residents," says Hunter. One of this the most unique events at this year's summit is a four-location tour of homes incorporating green technology. Ticket-holding attendees will get the opportunity to visit a LEED Silver-certified home in Hyde Park, homes in Northside's Northwind and Rockford Woods developments, and a condominium in Over-the-Rhine's Belmain building. Contractors and vendors will be on hand to answer attendees' questions about the green technology incorporated into each of these buildings."We realized there's such a need to get the word out to the residential public," says Hunter. She and the summit's co-organizers are hopeful the event will take a major step toward educating Cincinnati's homeowners about how they can incorporate a little - or a lot - of green technology into their homes and lives.The Green Homes Summit is presented by AIA Cincinnati's Congress of Residential Architecture, U.S. Green Building Council's Residential Green Building Committee, AIA Cincinnati's Committee on the Environment and Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati, and scheduled for 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. November 13 at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.Writer: Matt Cunningham Photography by Scot Beseler.
Bridging Broadway opens first of three community engagement sessions
Bridging Broadway, an organization that evolved out of the anticipated development of a downtown casino site, is hosting the first of three community dialogues this Saturday, from 12:30-4pm, at Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine. Saturday's half-day session is designed to gather feedback from residents, businesses and landowners of the historic neighborhoods surrounding Broadway Commons with the goal of contributing to the recommendations ultimately made to the city.No ordinary design charette, the session includes a guided walking tour of Pendleton developed by University of Cincinnati Professor and Planning Commissioner, Michaele Pride. Pride says the walking tour, which will take several different routes to ensure all aspects of the study area are observed, is an important part of the process. "The idea comes from an established body of best practices from the community development industry and is used as a tool for residents and stakeholders together, to inventory the possibilities, problems and opportunities of their neighborhood. The tours will concentrate on areas that are within a direct impact zone of the casino development and are the greatest to benefit from - and also to be concerned about - the kinds of new interests and attention that will come with the casino's development."Rather than just gathering information from census data and aerial photos and GIF databases, we acknowledge the role of personal, direct experience, directed view and feel as a valid dataset and so we're mining the experience and views and perspectives of the community."Later, groups will discuss their observations in small groups and synthesize their findings. Jeffrey Stec, Executive Director of Citizens for Civic Renewal, will help to integrate and conclude this part of the process. The second and third dialogues, taking place this winter, will focus on what residents, business and landowners. Pride, an Over-the-Rhine resident, noted the importance of these early sessions."The process helps build community capacity for addressing change," she said.The community dialogue is free and open to the public and takes place Saturday October 23 from 1-4pm at Memorial Hall. You can register here. Writer: Sean RhineyPhotography by provided
RetroFittings Repurposes Style
In partnership with the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning and St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Stores, the eighth annual RetroFittings fashion show will use fashion to inspire the spirit of giving.
