A new annual competition that targets interstitial spaces in Cleveland has been announced. The brainchild of local architects Michael Christoff and Bradley Fink, the Cleveland Design Competition will look at a different marginalized or complex site each year, the goal being to generate ideas as to how it can be revitalized into something that serves the city.
This year's project is Irishtown Bend, a waterfront site owned largely by the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority that is plagued by unstable and shifting soil. Entrants are asked to come up with theoretical designs that could help restore the property and devote a large portion of it to public use. The goal, according to Christoff, is to “engage both the regional and the national design community to address these problems, and hopefully to generate new ideas that we couldn't bring out without a competition.”
Other city and private agencies are also taking interest in the program, which counts among its sponsors the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Cleveland chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, local architecture firms Forum Architects and Process Creative Studios, the Ohio Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Ohio City Near West Development Corp.
The registration deadline is April 16, with entries due on May 1. More information on the project, including previous Irishtown Bend plans and studies, can be found at www.clevelandcompetition.com.
