Cleveland, once the nation's 5th largest city, is now referred to, without prejudice, as a shrinking city. But with that status comes opportunity, in particular to repackage and re-imagine the use of vacant and infill sites. That is a big part of the idea behind the Cleveland Design Competition, which the Lincoln Institute has been supporting since 2007. The annual event seeks to generate ideas for under-utilized sites in Cleveland, and showcase the potential for great urban design in the city. Past sites that have been the focus of the competition include the Irishtown Bend section, a play area in Detroit Shoreway, and a multi-modal transportation center on the lakefront.
This year, designers from all over the world were asked to submit concepts for a future home for the expanding Campus International School, currently located in the annex of the First Methodist Church on Euclid Avenue. Ideas submitted for the Cleveland Design Competition are meant to help the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cleveland State University, Campus International School, and schools all over the world imagine the possibilities for school facilities and advance the conversation around public education.
Australian architect Michael Dickson of Brisbane was the winner of the $5,000 first prize, from the 92 received submissions from 20 countries, for conceptual plans for the school integrating public activity at an infill site in downtown Cleveland. The $2,000 second place prize was awarded to Michael Robitz, Sean Franklin and Alexandra VanOrsdale of New York, New York. The $1,000 third place prize was shared by Drozdov & Partners Ltd. team of Oleg Drozdov, Anna Kosharnaya, Pavel Zabotin, and Andrian Sokolovsky of Kharkov, Ukraine, and Vincent Feld of Paris, France.
The winners were announced at Cleveland State University’s Student Center atrium on August 19 by Armando Carbonell, senior fellow and chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute, which has for many years been engaged in Cleveland -- including notably the production of a feature length documentary film, Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City. The institute’s founder, John C. Lincoln, was a prominent business and civic leader in the city. Kathryn J. Lincoln, chair of the board of the Lincoln Institute, has been engaged in the Cleveland Design Competition and also serves as a member of the Group Plan Commission, which is examining ways to enhance downtown.
Five teams were also recognized as noteworthy in the 2011 Cleveland Design Competition: A New School Vision: Mason White, Lola Sheppard, Nikole Bouchard, Zoe Renaud-Drouin, Paul Christian, Fionn Byrne, of Toronto; Jedidiah Lau of Hong Kong; the KGD Architecture team of Stephen Zuber, Carlos Coello, Courtney Boardman, Chad Smith, Ningning Shang, Leah Kleinman, Suttiruck Wongsawan, Randall Wong, and Amanda Wigen, of Rosslyn, Virginia; the Wendel Architecture team of Michael Conroe, Leanne Stepien, Giona Paolercio, Stephanie Vito, of Amherst, New Tork; and the Studio NU team of Athanas Fontaine, Chad Brintall, Michael Johnson, of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Images of the winning submissions will be available starting in October at www.clevelandcompetition.com. All entries will be featured as part of a public exhibition from September 16-18 at Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland and at the Colonial Marketplace Arcade from September 26-October 29th in downtown Cleveland.
