Through the decentralization of industry, and the shift from an industrial to a more service based economy, large-scale industry and shipping has moved away from city centers. This shift has left behind postindustrial waterfront sites, where cities have re-centralized away from the water’s edge, with severe rifts between the urban core and the waterfront. This is most evident at the site designed by Daniel Burnham, as a part of the 1903 Group Plan, to be the social, industrial and political center for the city of Cleveland. He envisioned a public space connected to and stimulated by the surrounding civic buildings as well as activity generation from the Union Terminal at the apex of the malls, however this was never completely realized when the transit station was moved to Terminal Tower. The effects of this action coupled with those of deindustrialization led to the current void that exists between the cities’ urban core and that of its lakefront, hindering any efforts for the preservation or use of this historically significant site.
This thesis will address that disconnect through a exploration of the historical context, current needs, and future potential by creating a transitional design that will bridge the current void between the urban core and the lakefront. Transitional design within the context of this thesis encompasses the visualization of the space between spaces; the threshold which delineates the transition point from one place to another. Transit stations in the past, specifically train stations, have often served as the iconic gateways or thresholds of cities or towns. As such, architectural experience of transitional space can be best expressed through a design of multimodal transit station where notions of movement and space can be explored at a large and urban scale. The methodology of design will focus on using linear movement forces found in Zaha Hadid’s works particularly in MAXXI and the use of public space and landscape in Wiess Manfredi’s Olympic Sculpture Park and in George Hargreaves master plan for the University of Cincinnati to readdress the Malls as way to bridge the void between the city and its lakefront.