2012: Transforming the Bridge | 12136

Team: Hallie DelVillan, Olga Andriyevska

Location: Akron, Ohio

Overview: The Detroit-Superior Bridge is recognized as a major landmark for the city of Cleveland, as its existence even pre-dates the Terminal Tower, and yet it has been overlooked within the efforts to revitalize the cityscape. Various minute interventions throughout town have responded to the two trends that have recently characterized the city: a loss in urban dweller density on the one hand, and the flourishing of Cleveland as a health mecca on the other. Redevelopment projects of the Flats and Warehouse District have tackled the first issue by making the idea of downtown living once again attractive. What is missing, however, is public neighborhood space – a common ground at a human scale that can be accessed freely by residents with no obligation to buy a particular service or product. The Detroit-Superior Greenway is a proposal to re-interpret a majestic infrastructure in the same way that its industrial counterparts in the Warehouse District have done: by preserving the existing structure and assigning a new meaning to it. The bridge, no longer just a thoroughfare, becomes a destination. Welcome to the Greenway!