It's no secret that we here at the ole Soapbox are vocal and diehard supporters, evangelists even, when it comes to our fair city's urban core. Cincinnati's center city, encompassing downtown and Over-the-Rhine, possesses a wealth of resources, tapped and oftentimes untapped, that ultimately provides an economic and cultural dynamo for the entire region. Like ripples in a pond, a strong center city radiates outward and benefits an entire region as a whole. Conversely, the opposite is also true - no successful major metropolitan area has ever been premised on the "doughnut" model, regardless of what anyone in Mason or West Chester would have you believe.
That's not to say we're anti-suburbs. Far from it in fact. Recognizing, however, that suburbanites and those in Sprawslville and beyond need to be reminded that we're all in this together, and a healthy region starts with a healthy urban core. After spending ten years in Detroit, I witnessed firsthand the type of city-suburb trench warfare that ultimately weakens an entire region like a cancer. Many (but by no means all) who left the city didn't just move 10 or 15 miles out, they seemingly sought to sever their connection to the urban core as if it were a gangrenous limb. The same suburbs-meets-solipsism mindset exists here as well - just read the Enquirer's Letter to the Editor for a dose of that - but it's often rooted in ignorance and a lack of understanding rather than anything else.
In an historic building on Short Vine in Corryville, the
Niehoff Urban Studio, along with the Community Design Center, is dedicated to addressing urban issues that challenge the quality of life in Cincinnati, and educating the greater community at large in the process. The off-campus Studio is a part of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) at the University of Cincinnati, and invokes an inter-disciplinary approach for students to study and interact with all aspects of urban issues relevant to the city center. In so doing, one hopes that the vast gulf that sometimes exists between city and suburban mindsets can perhaps be bridged, or at least lessened.
While the Niehoff Studio is a university outpost, it is also a place for community-driven study and discussion of urban issues for the benefit of Cincinnati and other urban centers. It is a place where all - not just University - but community as well, can come together and participate in educational classes, events, symposia, and exhibits that explore a myriad of urban issues.
In speaking with local philanthropist/fundraiser extraordinaire, UC Trustee and Urban Studio namesake, Buck Niehoff, he noted his deep support for the Studio and its mission. Lamenting the lemming-like manifest destiny that so often lures suburbanites to corn-fields-cum-ersatz-Stepfords, Niehoff observes, "People have really forgotten how to live in the city - the pleasures of the urban lifestyle - and have instead retreated into gated, suburban communities that are very exclusionary." Niehoff further points to the "diversity in the urban environment," diversity which "makes a city exciting and wonderful." Unfortunately, however, many people have forgotten how to live in a central city, in an urban environment. In Niehoff's view, the Studio can help educate not just students, but the community at large, in the "pleasures of the urban lifestyle."
The Studio began, with the support of Niehoff and Director Frank Russell, in 2002 as an off-campus classroom in the Emery Center downtown, currently in the space now-occupied by Coffee Emporium. As the program expanded - what Russell deemed a "victim of our own success"- and coffee-loving urbanistas began flocking to Coffee Emporium and Over-the-Rhine in general, the program looked to move Uptown where there were still areas in need of real help. With the support of the University, they identified a building at the corner of Daniels and Vine in Corryville. The at-risk but historic structure once served as a Turnverein Hall for the Turnverein Society, an old German-American organization founded by refugees of the 1848 Revolution in the German states. These hardy and hale German-Americans preached "sound body sound mind!" through a variety of athletic and gymnastic activities, and the Cincinnati chapter was the first in the U.S. The Studio renovated and stabilized the landmark, relocating in 2007, and in the process also hoping to stabilize the struggling business district while also putting more eyes and ears on the street.
While that mission is still ongoing, the programs at the Studio have engaged students and the surrounding urban community in all aspects of urban living. Set up across continuous, thematic cycles, the initial programs, from 2002-2004, focused on food and urban quality of life. Students and faculty looked at a host of issues related to production, distribution and consumption of food within the Cincinnati food system, including proposed urban supermarket designs, food festivals and street vendors. From 2004-2006, the program examined Over-the-Rhine, including issues ranging from transit to green housing opportunities and adaptive re-use of existing historic structures. This work involved nearly fifty community groups and yielded nearly seventy student design and related research projects for the use of the community partners.
Subsequent programs looked at housing and related community development issues for the Uptown communities, and the current theme looks at "
Great Streets and Gateways," focusing on revitalizing the MLK/Madison Road corridor, from Madisonville to Camp Washington. In all cases, Russell observes, "you create a theme, and then it's about everything but the theme," as so many other factors and variables need to be brought into the equation when considering community development, economic growth, quality of life and environmental improvements - but it's all directed around one geographic area.
John Yung, a student who participated in the Spring 2010 Comprehensive Planning Workshop, found his experience to be the "perfect environment for breeding innovative ideas and fostering creative solutions by providing valuable hands-on experience with real world issues that affect everyone in the Cincinnati metro area." This approach is innovative in several aspects: it allows for continuity and greater depth of focus; it utilizes an interdisciplinary approach, including aspects of anthropology, business and political science, which is rare for DAAP; and, critically, it facilitates community engagement which, according to both Niehoff and Russell, is a "key component for the Studio."
In this sense, a larger body of work is created, relevant not only to the institution but to the stakeholders and community at large, with projects that can be carried forward in the community. Russell concurs with Niehoff's observation, that the Studio is "ultimately about educating the public about quality of life in the city…about urbanism, providing a forum and venue to talk about the issues related to space and place in the city." Spreading this message far and wide, from the city to the suburbs, can only help strengthen this region.
As noted at the outset of this column, a doughnut is not the model for a successful metropolitan region. The Niehoff Studio and Community Design Center help keep the doughnut hole filled, and in so doing ensure that the city's urban core continues to grow, expand and thrive.
Photography by Scott Beseler.
Niehoff interior
Niehoff facade
Frank Russel, speaking at Soapbox lecture series
Student development model
Students brainstorming
Soapbox and the Niehoff Urban Studio have partnered to present a quarterly speaker series covering urbanist topics and themes. This Spring we focused on the local food ecosystem. Stay tuned for our next installment this September.