Sherwin-Williams' HQ tower's height edges upward

Featuring a sloping roofline approaching 600 feet above Superior
Avenue and West 3rd Street, the new Sherwin-Williams HQ tower
will join Terminal Tower, 200 Public Square and Key Tower as
the city's four tallest buildings and will be four of the six tallest
structures in the state of Ohio (Ian McDaniel).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

By 2024, Cleveland's four tallest buildings will surround Public Square.

Barring an unlikely dramatic change in the tower's programming and design, Sherwin-Williams' (SHW) new global headquarters is nearing its final form. While some plans of the HQ may be submitted to the city this month, some interior designs may not be finalized by SHW's Build Our Future committee until after site preparation work gets under way this coming winter on the west side of downtown Cleveland's Public Square.

The biggest news is that HQ's tower final form will approach and possibly reach the 600 foot level above the northwest corner of Superior Avenue and West 3rd Street, according to sources on the HQ design team. Those sources also gave NEOtrans enough details to allow our graphics expert Ian McDaniel to sketch a rough massing of what the tower could look like and how it might appear contextually in the city's skyline.

As we have seen, the HQ's features have changed over time as the design process has moved along and outward from the tower's elevator/stairwell core. More changes could occur. However, the changes are becoming less dramatic as SHW gets ready to submit its first batch of blueprints to the City Planning Commission for review.

How Sherwin-Williams' new HQ tower will appear in the downtown
Cleveland skyline as viewed from Lake Erie. It is assumed that the new
tower's sloping roofline will angle up to Public Square (Ian McDaniel).

In addition to being about 600 feet tall, the HQ tower also would feature nearly 40 floors. The number of floors would equal that of the dark-green Erieview Tower on East 9th Street. But the physical height will exceed Erieview's 529 feet and put it firmly in fourth place among downtown Cleveland skyscrapers. Exceeding it will be three of its Public Square neighbors -- 200 Public Square (45 stories, 658 feet), Terminal Tower (52 stories, 708 feet), and Key Tower (57 stories, 948 feet).

The reason is that the top of SHW's HQ will reportedly have a sloping roofline that reduces the size of the floorplates on the upper floors and tops off the structure with a decorative feature. The effect is similar to that of the much shorter Atria office complex in North York, suburban Toronto. It not only gives the building a soaring appearance, it can also differentiate it from other buildings, as a principal of SHW HQ architect Pickard Chilton recently explained.

At the 2017 grand opening of another tower with a sloping roofline, 609 Main in Houston also designed by Pickard Chilton, developer Gerald Hines urged Jon Pickard to "Tell them about the top of the building -- why it’s not a flat top!”

“Well, we thought that a flat top gets a little bit lost in the skyline,” Picard explained to the audience, including PaperCityMag.com. “If we could create a silhouette that is memorable, then wherever you are. . . you see that slope, then you know the building.”

The sloping roofline of SHW's new HQ will reportedly be very
similar to that of one of the Atria II or III office buildings in
North York, Ontario, in suburban Toronto (Google).

Even though the SHW HQ architect also designed 609 Main and both buildings will feature glass-curtain-wall exteriors, design team sources cautioned that SHW's HQ will have a different form. SHW's 1-million-square-foot HQ tower will be more boxy and angular below the sloping roofline. Floorplates will likely average about 25,000 to 27,000 square feet. That and large windows will allow natural light to penetrate deep into the office building.

And the tower will likely have indents in the exterior, including an outdoor terrace cut into the lower midsection of the building overlooking Public Square. While it won't be open to the public, the terrace will offer a unique corporate amenity space for employees, suppliers and clients.

The feature offers a similar "terrace with a view" as that which is notched into the exterior of Ernst & Young Tower, 950 Main Ave., although it faces toward Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River. Such a space can also offer a place for employees to think, grasp a bigger picture and recharge their creativity.

"The key partners we have selected are aligned with our vision of creating a next-generation workplace that supports serving our customers at the highest level, retaining and attracting top talent and igniting creativity, collaboration and industry-leading innovation," said SHW Chairman and CEO John Morikis in a written statement last fall.

SHW HQ architect Pickard Chilton has designed
glass-curtain-wall office towers with sloping rooflines
before, like 609 Main in Houston. However, the SHW
HQ will reportedly be more boxy (HarveyCleary).

Sources said there's a possibility that SHW's HQ development team, notably general contractor Gilbane Co., will get started started on site work before Pickard Chilton and the interior architect, Vocon Partners LLC, submit their full package to the city for review. The design team is in no rush to finalize everything, especially the interior details.

Supplier sources indicate that the high cost of construction materials, namely steel but others as well, has pushed SHW's HQ construction estimates well above the minimum projected expenditure of $600 million. SHW HQ suppliers may wish to wait a few months before they start to place materials orders. Ratings agency Fitch Solutions estimates that steel prices will fall from the present record high of $883 per metric ton to $600 per metric ton in 2022.

In the meantime, SHW is soliciting employees to "Find their color" in the HQ's interior design and layout. And with over 1,700 SHW paint colors, "there's a perfect color for every mood, every space and every project," to quote a certain paint company's ads.

To that end, SHW has put mock-ups of proposed office designs on the second floor of the Midland Building -- one of the 91-year-old Landmark Office Buildings at 101 W. Prospect Ave. that the 155-year-old company has called home since they were built.

From a Public Square view, the new SHW HQ may appear more
boxy but also will likely show its tallest side, reaching about 600
feet above the street. It will also have a terrace facing the square.
This imposing façade will fill a void in Public Square's street scene
 for the first time in more than 30 years when two smaller office
 buildings were demolished for an unbuilt tower (Ian McDaniel). 

After July 12, when all employees have returned to the office on a hybrid schedule of three days a week, they will have the opportunity to take a walk through their potential future workspaces and give their feedback to members of the design team. Only managers have toured the mock-ups so far.

Among the proposed work spaces are smaller cubes and collaboration rooms. There is a more open floor layout of cubes, more seating areas to do ad hoc meetings or to take one-off calls. SHW considers its current HQ as antiquated and not meeting the work needs of today. Up to 3,500 people will work in the new building.

"A new space was developed on 2-Midland to provide employees a peek into what the new workplace experience will be in our future HQ," according to a notice distributed to SHW employees in the first week of June.

"Last week," it continued, "we kicked-off guided tours for employees. HQ, BTC (Breen Technology Center) and WTC (Warrensville Technology Center) employees will be invited to attend a tour over the next few months. Be on the lookout for your invite between June and August. Beginning in September, self-guided tours will be available during regular office hours."

As viewed from the south side of downtown Cleveland, the new
SHW HQ tower will fill a wide gap in the city's skyline west of
Public Square with a significant skyscraper (Ian McDaniel).

SHW is putting extra effort into the interior design details after getting some pushback earlier this year from some members of the design team. Those members criticized the C-Suite-level Build Our Future committee on open-floor designs as well as a design concept of having employees work from any cubicle or workstation.

While the HQ will rise one block west of Public Square, SHW continues to plan for its new Center of Excellence (CofE) fronting the square. The CofE will be three stories tall and serve as a learning center and amenity space, as noted on SHW's official site plans.

The structure will reportedly offer up to 80,000 square feet of conference facilities for employee training and corporate functions, a small company museum for touring new recruits and VIPs, plus a rooftop lounge for after-work cocktail parties.

The CofE will be used as SHW's talent recruitment venue, sources said. It is proposed to be connected to the HQ via a skybridge above West 3rd. The HQ, in turn, will be connected to a large parking garage via a skybridge above Frankfort Avenue.

The new parking garage will have a liner building along West 3rd to comply with the city's building code. That liner building must hide the parking deck along its entire street frontage with at least 70 percent of that building comprised of active uses such as retailers, restaurants, hotel lobbies, residences, cultural amenities or recreational spaces.

Official Sherwin-Williams headquarters site plan (SHW).

Sources continue to say that no public uses will be provided along Frankfort or in the interior of the HQ tower. Instead, there will be a loading dock for the HQ tower on Frankfort, shown as a notch on the official site plan. However, the tower may be angled to open up a larger sidewalk area at the corner of West 3rd and Superior where a sidewalk café or other public space could be provided.

SHW will not use all of the land it acquired last year for the HQ. Instead, it is opening up its property along West 6th, St. Clair and Frankfort for development in order to expand mixed uses from the Warehouse District into the HQ campus area.

That could allow some public uses along Frankfort immediately east of West 6th or be held for future HQ expansions. However, none of those potential uses or activities have been identified thus far.

Way back in October 2018, NEOtrans was the first to report that SHW was pursuing a new HQ. We were also first to report the hiring of many of SHW's HQ project partners in 2019 as well as the selection of the west side of Public Square as the site of the new HQ.

The company had also hoped to build its new research and development facility on Scranton Peninsula near downtown but apparently couldn't get landowner Scranton Averell Inc. to return phone calls. NEOtrans noted that Brecksville's ex-VA Hospital site was in the running; SHW ultimately chose it for the R&D facility.

END

Cleveland-Cliffs seeks new HQ, but where?

Cleveland-Cliffs’ logo may not be on the façade of 200 Public
Square in downtown Cleveland for much longer. In several
years, the HQ of the Fortune 500 firm will reportedly be else-
where. But where? And will it be in a new or existing building?
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

According to several sources, a newly expanded Cleveland-Cliffs is actively looking for a new location for its headquarters. Similar to when NEOtrans was first to report 2 1/2 years ago of Sherwin-Williams (SHW) seeking a new HQ, Cliffs’ search efforts are also in the early stages. Unlike Sherwin-Williams, Cliffs apparently hopes to move more quickly in its search.

To read the rest of this story, see NEOtrans' new site at https://neo-trans.blog/

Gordon Square apartment project may fill visible corner

The Krueger Group would like to build this 27-unit market-rate apartment
building on the southwest corner of West 58th Street and Breakwater
Avenue in the Gordon Square area. This rendering view is from appro-
ximately the front door of the Parkview Nite Club (Dimit). 

 

A Cleveland-based developer and construction contractor is broadening its horizons by getting involved in more multi-family buildings. To that end, The Krueger Group proposes to build a 27-unit, market-rate apartment building at the southwest corner of West 58th Street and Breakwater Avenue in the Gordon Square area.

To read the rest of this story, see NEOtrans' new site at https://neo-trans.blog/

Forgotten Triangle forgotten no more

All phases of the Woodhill Homes redevelopment can proceed now that the program has received the maximum $35 million grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Only phases one and two had the green light and are now under construction (HUD).

Cleveland received the best news possible today for the redevelopment of one of the city’s oldest public housing sites. The Woodhill Homes redevelopment won the largest possible federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Last year the project was a finalist for HUD’s $35 million Choice Neighborhoods grant but came up just short.

To read the rest of this story, see NEOtrans' new site at https://neo-trans.blog/

Millionaire’s Row mansion down to the 11th hour

City Planning Commission is due to hear a demolition request in June
for the historic Allen-Sullivan mansion, 7218 Euclid Ave. In its place,
  Signet LLC of Akron proposes to build a 160-unit residential complex on
6 acres extending south to Carnegie Avenue (ClevelandHistorical.org).

Unless someone with deep pockets comes through in this 11th hour, the 134-year-old Allen-Sullivan mansion, 7218 Euclid Ave., will be the subject of a demolition request next month. According to a city official who did not want to be named publicly, a demolition permit application submitted on behalf of Signet Real Estate Group is scheduled to be heard June 4 by the City Planning Commission’s Design Review Committee....

To read the rest of this article, see NEOtrans' new site at: https://neo-trans.blog/ 

Library Lofts, MLK Branch Library to amplify UC's boom

Designed to look like well-stocked bookshelves, Library Lofts
and the ground-floor MLK Branch Library could start construc-
tion in August after City Planning Commission approved final
designs for the project today (Bialosky, SO-IL/JKURTZ).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

With final approval secured today from the City Planning Commission, developers of the Library Lofts apartment building, 10541 Euclid Ave., and its ground-floor Martin Luther King Jr. Branch Library hope to start construction in August.

The 11-story, 207-unit apartment building and Cleveland Public Library branch will be one of many large structures likely to be under construction at this time next year in University Circle. One of those is already underway -- the Artisan, a 24-story apartment tower at 10600 Chester Ave. that will be the tallest building in the nationally renowned cultural district.

That tower adjoins the site where Library Lofts will rise. Both are in the Circle Square development -- a $300 million to-do list of new towers between Euclid and Chester avenues, plus MLK Boulevard and East 105th Street.

Library Lofts' façade is designed by Bialosky + Partners Architects, LLC to look like fully stocked bookshelves. Panzica Construction Co. is the general contractor. Different architects, SO-IL of Brooklyn, NY and JKURTZ Architects of Cleveland, designed the new MLK Branch Library.

The first two buildings in Circle Square are projected by developers White Oak Realty Partners of Chicago and Midwest Development Partners of Cleveland to add about 750 residents among 505 market-rate apartments. Future phases are planned to add another apartment tower roughly as tall as Artisan, a hotel and an office tower, most with neighborhood-oriented ground-floor retailers, plans show.

Library Lofts, at left, is just one building in a much larger deve-
lopment called Circle Square. Euclid Avenue is along the bottom
of the image with MLK Boulevard at the far right (Bialosky).

To make that possible, it will require changes to roadway infrastructure that was redesigned in the 1940s and 50s. University Circle's main thoroughfares were redesigned from being pedestrian- and transit-oriented 100 years ago to become "vehicular cattle chutes," as described by University Circle Inc.'s President Chris Ronayne.

Initial improvements include removing the high-speed turning lanes from Chester east to Stokes south to create a 90-degree angle, thus slowing down vehicular traffic and making walking safer again. That work is underway, coinciding with the Artisan's construction.

But nearly $8 million more in public funding is needed to remove high-speed turning lanes from Chester east to MLK Boulevard south, as well as a short stretch of Liberty Boulevard between MLK and Stokes. Reconstructed/added roads/lanes and the utilities below them are planned along Chester between Stokes and MLK, along MLK southbound and counted into a rebuilt Reserve Court.

Some new infrastructure doesn't involve roads. It involves two new public spaces. One is Library Plaza, envisioned between Library Lofts/MLK Library and Fenway Manor Apartments. The other is University Circle Plaza. The latter would restore part of the old traffic circle that gave this urban district neighborhood its name, but would do so as a pedestrian plaza in front of a proposed office tower.

"We always thought University Circle and the Cleveland Clinic campuses would eventually become one," Ronayne said. "Circle Square is the linchpin that brings them together as one place. This project changes the game. This infill development is knitting it together."

Interior of Cleveland Public Library's new, two-level MLK Branch
Library, on the ground floors of Library Lofts (SO-IL/JKURTZ).

The traffic circle named University Circle used to be a walkable, transit friendly place with Uptown at Euclid and East 105th to the west and the 195-year-old Western Reserve University plus Case Institute of Technology to the east. Ronayne and others have called it Cleveland's second downtown.

"It had vibrant walkable streets and great transit service but became an auto district," he said. "The roadway infrastructure divided University Circle and Cleveland Clinic."

He said disinvestment from surrounding neighborhoods like Hough and Fairfax combined with suburban investment and outmigration turned University Circle into a place that people either sped through or briefly visited. Few people lived there even as Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University and other "eds and meds" employment grew quickly in recent decades.

"The institutions stayed through divestiture," Ronayne added. "We didn't lose them to outmigration.  Much is owed to them. They're why the neighborhood has come back around. Library Lofts is turning a place out of a parking lot."

He said construction on Library Lofts and the MLK Branch Library is due to start in late summer, as early as August. The new building will measure about 184,000 square feet and cost about $55 million to build. Of that, the library will be about 28,000 square feet and $18 million. It will replace the 51-year-old, 18,200-square-foot MLK branch library which will be demolished when the new library opens.

How Library Lofts and the new MLK Branch Library will look
from a planned new Library Plaza on the east side of the new
building, next to Fenway Manor (Bialosky, SO-IL/JKURTZ).

Thanks to a 2017 levy, Cleveland Public Library is in the midst of a 10-year, $100 million facilities improvement program to renovate or build new 27 branch libraries throughout the city. That work will be followed by a $65 million renovation of the Main Library downtown.

"We're happy to fulfill our promise to the community," said library Chief Operations Officer John Lang in a written statement. "We're creating more modern, accessible and inclusive spaces that will benefit the community for years to come. Each branch will pay homage to its neighborhood through design and public art."

Steve Rubin, a principal with Midwest Development Partners, did not respond prior to publication of this article to an email seeking comment and additional information.

By this time next year and within a few blocks of East 105th, between the Veterans Administration Hospital and East 105th/Quincy Red Line station, construction should be under way on the following major projects of 100,000 square feet or more among all phases:

+ Artisan --10600 Chester Ave., 24-story, 342,805-square-foot apartment tower over structured parking and ground-floor retail, White Oak Realty Partners; construction began in April 2021.

+ Addis View Apartments -- 1870 E. 90th St., a four-phase development totaling 400 apartments on both sides of East 90th started with a 93,000-square-foot, 141-unit first phase, The Inspiron Group; construction began May 3, 2021.

How East 105th Street south of Cedar Avenue looks now might bear
little resemblance to how it could appear a year from now. By then,
multiple construction projects will likely be visible here. And there
will be more traffic with the completion of last segment of the Oppor-
tunity Corridor Boulevard through to Interstates 77 and 490 (KJP).

+ Innovation Square -- 2258 E. 105th St., a three-phase mixed-use development totaling 223 housing units starting with an 80,000-square-foot, 85-unit first phase, Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp.; groundbreaking is due spring 2021.

+ ARPI Apartments -- 1866 E. 93rd St., a two-phase development expanding over to East 90th Street totaling 160 units but starting with 42 apartments and 40,000 square feet in phase one, ARPI Development LLC; groundbreaking due in early summer 2021.

+ Library Lofts/MLK Branch Library -- 10541 Euclid Ave., an 11-story, 184,000-square-foot apartment tower over public library, Midwest Development Partners; groundbreaking due in August 2021.

+ Cedar-105 mixed-use development -- 10408 Cedar Ave., a 5-10 story, roughly 150,000-square-foot development with 250-300 micro-unit apartments and urban-format Meijer grocery store, Fairmount Properties and Cleveland Clinic Foundation; groundbreaking possible in late 2021.

+ Cleveland Clinic new Neurological Institute -- 9606 Euclid Ave., a 5-10 story, 400,000-square-foot hospital building, Cleveland Clinic Foundation; groundbreaking possible in winter 2021-22.

+ Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute expansion -- 2030 E. 105th St., a 4-6 story, 100,000-square-foot hospital building, Cleveland Clinic Foundation; groundbreaking possible in winter 2021-22.

+ Global Center for Pathogen Research & Human Health -- vicinity of Cedar Avenue and East 105th, a 5-10 story, 400,000 square feet office and research facility, Cleveland Clinic Foundation; groundbreaking possible in Spring 2022.

END

New pathogen center heralds start of Innovation District

Joining other research buildings near the intersection
of Cedar Avenue and East 105th Street will be the new
Global Center for Pathogen Research & Human Health.
With construction due to start one year from now, the
new structure will be one of the first tangible results
from the new Cleveland Innovation District (KJP).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

Earlier this year, state and local officials announced the launch of the Cleveland Innovation District and the availability of $565 million in public funds to get it rolling.

Not wasting any time, Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to firms to design and build a research campus led by a new Global Center for Pathogen Research & Human Health. The RFP provides a little more clarity on what CCF has in mind for the research campus and pathogens center.

Groundbreaking for the new $500 million, 1,000-employee pathogens center is anticipated in Spring 2022, said Alicia Reale Cooney, CCF's senior manager, corporate communications, in a e-mail sent in response to questions posed by NEOtrans.

"Planning is in early stages but Cleveland Clinic’s Global Center for Pathogen Research & Human Health, part of the Cleveland Innovation District, will include approximately 400,000 square feet of additional research space to be located along Cedar Ave. for the growth of research operations and training and innovations," she said.

Seen at left in this conceptual rendering, Cleveland Clinic's planned
new Neurological Institute will measure about 400,000 square feet.
That's the same size as the proposed new pathogen center. However
no renderings are available yet of the new pathogen center (CCF).

Cooney did not have a cross-street to identify where along Cedar the pathogen center would be located. She added that a more general location would be in the area of "Cedar Avenue near Cleveland Clinic's main campus."

Construction industry sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity said CCF didn’t provide a map or detailed location information in the RFP. But they were told by CCF representatives the clinic wants the pathogen center to connect to their existing research buildings.

That would put it in the vicinity of Cedar and East 105th Street, in the midst of IBM Explorys Solutions, Tomsich Pathology Laboratories, Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center and Brooks Life Sciences' biorepository.

The RFP also didn't specify how the 400,000 square feet of space should be provided -- be it in a horizontal or vertical building.

Looking north up East 105th Street toward the Cedar Avenue inter-
section shows the available land for development that could soon
arrive at this northeast end of the Opportunity Corridor (KJP).

But the scale of the building and the diminishing amount of land near the intersection of Cedar and East 105th suggests a structure similar to that of the new, 400,000-square-foot Neurological Institute at 9606 Euclid Ave. Conceptual renderings show that facility could top out at seven stories.

The pathogen center will also be the first phase of a larger research campus containing multiple smaller buildings with different focuses, sources said. Sizes of the individual buildings are not yet indicated by CCF. They will be determined by the winning design-construction team and based on program needs.

"We can share more information once details are available," Cooney said. "We hope to have more details soon." 

Some of the funding for the new pathogen center will be used to foster new technology companies in the Cleveland Innovation District and/or attract major employers here. The goal is to add 1,000 new jobs at Cleveland Clinic by 2029 and another 7,500 jobs in Ohio by 2034, state officials said in January.

Tucked away on Arthur Avenue, east of East 105th Street, are these
surviving, decaying houses. They are due to be replaced by a new
research campus resulting from the Innovation District announced
in January. New housing is planned west of East 105th (KJP).

Also last winter, CCF reissued requests for proposals for its new Neurological Institute and for nearly doubling the size of its 130,000-square-foot Cole Eye Institute. The added Cole Eye building will be located at 2030 E. 105th St. Both expansions were put on hold during the pandemic.

Additional development is coming to the area of Cedar and East 105th. On 3 acres of land at the southeast corner of that intersection, CCF is partnering with Fairmount Properties to develop up to 300 micro-unit apartments, several dozen townhomes and a 40,000-square-foot Meijer grocery store. Financing for the project is still coming together.

Fairmount is considering a second phase of roughly equal scale on the block immediately west, bounded by Cedar, East 103rd, East 101st Street and Wain. Both phases could rise to about 5-10 stories each, sources said.

END