Cleveland Browns' vision for the lakefront could benefit from public input

Published: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 6:00 AM

Elkus Mandfredi ArchitectsA visually polished rendering of the Cleveland Browns' vision for the downtown lakefront, with development clustered around Browns Stadium, is meant to elicit interest from developers, who would undoubtedly come up with their own designs.

The Cleveland Browns would appear to have very little in common with Case Western Reserve University.

But the team’s announcement that it wants to catalyze development on the downtown lakefront is motivated by a spirit of enlightened self-interest similar to that which CWRU has shown over the past decade by jump-starting the $150 million-plus Uptowndevelopment in University Circle.

The university helped assemble eight acres of land and build the partnerships needed to create the beautifully designed housing, retail and cultural development now under construction at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road.

The Browns could play a similar role on the lakefront if the team lures private investment to the publicly owned waterfront land around Cleveland Browns Stadium and North Coast Harbor.

But while the Browns forge ahead, they ought to heed one of the great lessons of Uptown, which is that the University Circle project aimed high in terms of design from the very start and strove to blend private development with enticing streetscapes, plazas and other public spaces.

The first phase of Uptown, which will be completed over the next 18 months, will include more than 100 apartments, a collection of restaurants and nightclubs, and a new Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. Even in the early stages of construction, the project looks great.

Initial renderings of the Browns’ lakefront proposal, prepared by the Boston firm of Elkus Manfredi Architects, look more polished than they actually are. They call for a cluster of “mixed-use” buildings along the waterfront northeast of the stadium, along with a field house immediately north of the stadium, a walkway connecting to the downtown Mall and a 1,000-space parking garage north of the Cuyahoga County Courthouse.

It’s all intended to create interest among potential developers, who would then hire their own architects and come up with their own plans.

Despite the early and hypothetical nature of the Browns’ vision, it’s important to make sure that Cleveland is sending clear signals to potential developers about civic goals for the lakefront.

What’s missing now is a firm understanding that a great deal of public planning has already taken place on the lakefront - and that certain waterfront issues ought to be accepted as settled in Cleveland.

Elkus Manfredi ArchitectsThe Cleveland Browns changed their downtown lakefront proposal slightly when asked about whether it was wise to show a building on the lakefront that would have encroached on the linear axis extending north from the center of the downtown Mall.

First among these is the idea of a continuous public promenade at the water’s edge. The Browns’ development proposal includes such promenades, but it’s unclear whether the commitment to keep them is firm.

Cleveland lawyer Fred Nance, general counsel to the Browns, who spoke about the plan Tuesday in a preview with editors and reporters of The Plain Dealer, said that “if there are certain things that should be immutable, we’re open to looking at them.”

That’s not quite a ringing confirmation.

Chris Warren, the city’s director of regional development, said the city certainly does want promenades at the water’s edge. Warren also said the city wants the project to be environmentally sustainable - another factor that ought to be accepted as a given.

Equally important is how future development proposals on the lakefront interact with historic features such as the downtown Mall and the Group Plan District, just south of Lakeside Avenue.

The initial plans from Elkus Manfredi showed a large, mixed-use building at the northwest corner of North Coast Harbor. The building was situated in such a way that it would block the straight-line view looking north from the Mall to Lake Erie.

This might have suggested to a potential developer that blocking the view north from the Mall wouldn’t be that big a deal. That’s probably not a good signal to send, even at this early stage.

When questioned about the lake view, Nance said immediately that he understood its importance and that the plan would most likely be altered. Indeed, by last evening, the Browns said they were revising the plan to incorporate the visual axis running north from the Mall.

That’s just one small example of how the Browns could benefit from sharing their plans with the public and incorporating the best new and old ideas about how to develop the lakefront. After all, it is the public’s land.

So far, the team’s concepts grew out of private meetings with the city, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and neighbors on the waterfront, including the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the Great Lakes Science Center.

“We tried to keep those [discussions] quiet so nothing got out that would upset people,” Browns President Mike Holmgren said Tuesday at The Plain Dealer.

Elkus Manfredi ArchitectsA bird's eye view shows how the Cleveland Browns would create a mixed-use district around the downtown stadium on the Cleveland lakefront.

Now that the team has announced its intentions in a general way, it could work with Elkus Manfredi and with the public to develop urban-design guidelines that express firm understandings about views, public spaces, sustainability and other features that could help make their project a success.

CWRU followed a similar course in University Circle, and the early effort is paying off handsomely. The Browns ought to follow that example.