Cincinnati-based developer Develco Inc. helps with a park, which is one of the main catalysts for revitalizing downtown Springfield, which is one of the five goals for the Greater Springfield Moving Forward initiative. Read the full story here.
Only a few years ago, Cincinnati, Ohio’s Over-the-Rhine (OTR) neighborhood was known for having one of the highest crime rates in the city. Today, the area—believed to be the largest, most intact urban historic district in the United States—has been transformed into one of Cincinnati’s most vibrant sectors. Read the full story here.
Students at Northern Kentucky University no longer have to worry about running out of juice before they run out of class. This fall, NKU became as the first college in the nation to install free cell-phone charging stations on campus. The initial 17 goCharge kiosks get plenty of action already, and senior network manager Bob Weber has already fielded requests for 12 more that he hopes to add in the next few months. With the capacity to charge all cell phones, tablets and mp3 players, the goCharge stations make it easy for students to stay connected while they stay on campus and do the work they need. Already popular in airports, bars and even casinos, free charging stations for electronic devices seem like a natural fit for cell-phone-toting college students who often spend long hours on campus. “There has been an overwhelming response from students and staff who have taken advantage of this free benefit,” according to Weber. By Elissa Yancey
A festival without music may not sound much like a festival, but a new offering focusing on Cincinnati architecture may make you reexamine the way you look at the city. ArchiNati is a weeklong tour of Cincinnati that includes walking tours and excursions to specific sites and film screenings. But this architecturally focused festival isn’t for architects, it’s geared toward giving all citizens new insights into the buildings around them. “We tried to find places that would spark an interest in architecture for people,” says Mercedeh Namei, co-director of ArchiNati. Organized by the Young Architect’s and Intern’s Forum, the young professional committee of the Cincinnati Chapter of the AIA, festival planners hope to form a critical mass of people for the tours. “We want to increase awareness in the general public,” says John Back, co-director of ArchiNati. “We want people to come and say, ‘Wow, there are incredible places in Cincinnati.’ ” Modeled after Open House New York, the tour will take visitors from Brazee Street Studio, a sustainable art studio in Oakley, to the High Steel Tour at Union Terminal. Both old and new will be featured with a specific goal of spotlighting spaces the public may not know about. At the end of the week, several offices in the Eight Street Design District will open their doors so visitors can see exactly what architects and designers do. While many of the ArchiNati tours are free, specific ones like the High Steel Tour do have a fee, but organizers insist the trip is worth the cost. Union Terminal tourists will climb 300 stairs and ladders to the steel trusses which support one of the largest half domes in the world. The fee isn’t intended to make a profit for the festival; the only goal is to promote Cincinnati. “People leave, but what some leave behind is architecture,” Namei says. “We can save it and teach people about good architecture.” By Evan Wallis
Entrepreneurs, mark your calendars. A two-day intensive workshop, sponsored by CincyTechUSA, is scheduled for Oct. 26-27 at the Ft. Mitchell Country Club. It will cover all aspects of preparing a competitive SBIR/STTR proposal from strategic planning to proposal writing, submission and post-submission follow-up. When it comes to strategic planning, doing your homework in advance makes a major difference. The workshop guides you to learn how to research SBIR/STTR program details and Technological Innovation and Commercial Merit, develop strategies to help your proposal meet agency requirements and do intelligence work before you write your proposal. In addition, you’ll learn how to craft a fundable proposal, including gathering the right tools, understanding the review process and following step-by-step instructions. You’ll even get a glimpse into common errors and pitfalls so that you can avoid them. The workshop also features chances to learn about how to submit government grants, from the NIH to the DoE and DoEd. For more information or to register: Call or email Dorothy H. Air, PhD, 558-7339, or dorothy.air@uc.edu. By Elissa Yancey
At Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, Executive Director Mary B. Rivers leads the charge to ensure affordable housing opportunities and encourage community collaboration to build a healthy and inclusive neighborhood. Located at 114 W. 14th Street in the heart of the Washington Park redevelopment area, OTRCH has provided support and opportunity to low-income residents for more than 30 years. Its current structure is the result of the 2006 merger between ReSTOC and Over-the-Rhine Housing Network aimed at creating an even stronger advocacy presence for residents struggling with issues ranging from poverty, to substance abuse, to chronic homelessness. Over-the-Rhine continues to experience growth and redevelopment as the city’s urban core, and the hub for its rich and vibrant arts community. With its massive collection of Italianate architecture, eclectic residents, hip retail and entertainment venues and storied past OTR has become the much beloved home to a diverse community. As that community continues to evolve, there is one organization on a mission to provide support and tell the stories of low-income residents and members of the recovery population, including the homeless. “OTRCH provides a range of affordable housing options for singles, the elderly, and recovery populations leaving shelters,” says Rivers. “We manage some 400 units in OTR.” In addition to individual units, OTRCH operates the Jimmy Heath House, which serves the chronically homeless and those struggling with alcoholism by providing case management and support as well as a safe place to live. OTRCH is also working with 3CDC and local developers to offer market rate housing including the newly renovated condominiums on the corner of 14th and Race, as well as new construction on Pleasant Street. This week there is one more reason to spend your evening mingling with the residents and community members of Over-the-Rhine - OTRCH’s signature fall benefit. This year’s event, “Celebrating our Beloved Community,” a dinner + poetry reading benefitting Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, Thursday, Oct. 13 from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Music Hall. The event will showcase four local poets with deep roots in the city's urban core: Pauletta Hansell, Desirae Hosley, Michael Henson, and Richard Hague. They will be accompanied by acoustic guitar. Thursday's poetry was developed with input from OTR community members. The poets worked in community venues, including the Children’s Creative Corner, to reach a diverse group of residents. Participants ranged from homeless, to low-income residents to newly transplanted condo-dwellers. “It’s about connecting with people and seeing the value they bring to the neighborhood,” says Rivers. “Spoken word embodies the spirit of this community. It creates a way for everyone to experience and share in the love for OTR.” In keeping with the spirit of OTRCH, residents old and new alike shared their thoughts about what makes their neighborhood special. “The idea was to weave the conversation into the lives of the residents,” says Rivers. Workshops focused on sharing stories and encouraging conversations focused on the love of OTR. “It was an opportunity for people that have lived in OTR for a while to talk about what they love about their neighborhood – and an opportunity for people to listen,” says Rivers. This year’s event will also include door prizes and food from What’s for Dinner. In addition, OTRCH will give this year’s Partner Award to the OTR Marianists, three men who are dedicated to the people of the community, and who do everything from providing healthcare to the homeless, to helping those formerly incarcerated, to teaching in neighborhood schools. Do Good: • Attend “Celebrating our Beloved Community.” Tickets available online or at the door. $50 general admission; $20 with student ID • Volunteer on Saturday mornings. Call Brittany Skelton, 513-381-1171 about Saturday morning volunteer opportunities. • Donate furniture, beds and household items to community members in need. New items preferred. • Participate in the Jimmy Heath Community Kitchen by bringing a covered dish and eating a meal with the residents. Call Andy Hutzell, 513-381-1171, for details. • Spread the word! Use our social media buttons to share this story on Facebook or Tweet about it to your followers. By Deidra Wiley Necco
Instead of sitting vacant and filled with cobwebs and ghosts like many historical buildings in Cincinnati, the old Art Academy is being restored to hold staff offices and a library for its neighbor, the Cincinnati Art Museum. When the Art Academy moved from Eden Park to its downtown warehouse space in OTR in 2005, the CAM acquired the building. Under the previous CAM director, the building was marked for demolition. Aaron Betsky, current director of the Art Museum, asked Neutelings Riedijk Architects of Rotterdam to update the master plan. The new vision plan included renovation of the vacant section. The environmentally focused AEC Emersion Joint Venture was selected to design the renovation and the building is now on track for LEED Gold certification and a spring 2013 opening. Danis Building Construction is the Construction Contractor. The first two floors of the old site will be offices to consolidate staff offices and free up more space for public exhibitions. The third floor will be a public museum library; complete with a west-facing terrace overlooking downtown. Along with preserving the historical integrity of the first two stories of stone walls, Emersion plans to incorporate plywood from previous exhibits to furnish the offices with bookshelves, cutting up and repurposing fake historic wainscoting to create abstract wall patterns and sound absorbing walls. The designers are also reusing old Plexiglass display cases to create new shelving and screens. The Art Museum is also partnering with Building Value to salvage additional items from the old academy and repurpose them for the new offices. “We are going for a more artful approach to the renovation and sustainability,” says James Cheng, lead designer at Emersion. “We are trying to take things from the execution of their mission and reuse the material that would otherwise be thrown away.” By Evan Wallis
After arriving on the University of Cincinnati’s campus fewer than two years ago, two instructors are creating a new certificate program for students to help them see and think differently. A two-day symposium put together by the assistant professors culminates nine months of planning, as well as the launch of the new cross-collegiate certificate program. Look Better, hosted Oct. 13 and 14 in and around the main Clifton campus, will focus on interdisciplinary visual research, practice and pedagogy. “UC is an up and coming university,” says Stephanie Sadre-Orafai, assistant professor of anthropology. “But there is no program of visual culture studies.” The new certificate program blends courses from the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning and the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. The goal is to teach students “how to effectively combine critical theory and social analysis with art, media and design practice.” The symposium will feature speakers from across the university, country and “innovative scholars” from as far away as Germany, Sadre-Orafai says. The lengthy list of presenters includes “mostly young but up-and-coming scholars and artists,” Sadre-Orafai says. About 100 people have registered for the event so far, and Sadre-Orafai, along with her co-organizer Jordan Tate, an assistant professor of fine art, anticipate a regional response by inviting students and faculty from every university within two hours of Cincinnati. “The goal of both the symposium and certificate is to generate a broad, campus-wide discussion on what is at stake in how we see and provide a platform to think about how we might develop new artistic, media and design forms and practices to intervene in dominant visions,” according to the Look Better blog. Sadre-Orafai and Tate met during a faculty orientation in fall 2010 and realized that they were both interested in studying the same topics. It wasn’t until some of their students – who were taking both anthropology with Sadre-Orafai and photography with Tate, said they were learning about some of the same things in each class that the momentum for Look Better started. “It organically came about," Sadre-Orafai says. “We asked, ‘How can we do more stuff together?' ” The entire event is free and open to the public, but Sadre-Orafai says registration is encouraged because of potential space constraints. By Taylor Dungjen
We've come a long way, baby, redux. And if you have any doubt, ask one of these five women, each of whom is staking her claim on the future of the city in a creative and surprising way. Join Soapbox's Evan Wallis and Scott Beseler as they explore some serious feminine mystique.
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