CLEVELAND, Ohio — A plan to replace bulky concrete barriers along Superior Avenue on Public Square with stainless steel bollards is at long last ready for review and approval by the City of Cleveland.
The vetting of the design in public meetings, which began Thursday, January 5, marked the latest step in a saga that started in March 2017 when the city installed the concrete barriers in response to homeland security concerns. Small Door Bollard
Many observers felt the barriers marred the widely acclaimed, $50 million renovation of the square completed in 2016 as the urban centerpiece of the Republican National Convention.
Two children stop to say hello as they play in the fountain at Public Square in downtown Cleveland during the 2016 Republican National Convention. (Joshua Gunter, Cleveland.com) Wednesday, July 20, 2016. Cleveland.com
On Thursday, the nonprofit LAND Studio presented the early-stage “conceptual” design for the bollard installation at a meeting of the Downtown/Flats Design Review Committee. The committee approved the design, as did the city’s Planning Commission, which met Friday, and whose approval is needed for a building permit.
Both bodies recommended refinements to the design, which LAND Studio will pursue with the design team in the coming weeks before returning for final approval and the selection of a bollard manufacturer.
LAND Studio has been shepherding the design process at the behest of the nonprofit Group Plan Commission, a civic organization devoted to improving downtown’s major public spaces.
The Group Plan Commission, which has worked with the City of Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority on the bollard design, could start installing them as early as this fall, said Nora Romanoff, LAND Studio’s associate director and Public Square project manager.
The goal is to remove and replace the barriers with a bollard installation that could meet higher safety standards while also improving aesthetics.
“We’re just eager to go through the process and continue this momentum,’’ Romanoff said.
The renovation of the square was designed by James Corner Field Operations, the firm that co-designed the High Line Park in New York, which turned a disused elevated rail line into a highly-acclaimed urban amenity.
The firm’s goal in Cleveland was to unify Public Square as a single 6-acre pedestrian space after more than a century in which it had been divided into four quadrants divided by Ontario Street, running north-south, and Superior Avenue, running east-west.
The Field Operations design required removing Ontario Street. In a compromise with RTA, the city agreed to a design that would retain Superior Avenue while narrowing it from 72 to 48 feet, and keeping it open for buses and police only.
But in 2017, in response to homeland security concerns that surfaced after the renovation of the square, the city installed the concrete barriers along Superior Avenue, interrupting the unified flow of space sought by Field Operations.
Ugly concrete barriers were installed in Public Square in 2017, marring a $50 million renovation completed in 2016.Steven Litt, Cleveland.com
The city also installed large concrete barriers at open spots around the edge of the square that were also deemed vulnerable to attack by weaponized vehicles.
LAND Studio started working with Field Operations as early as 2017 on a design to replace the concrete barriers with bollards. Fundraising for construction stalled under former mayor Frank Jackson, but Justin Bibb, who was elected as Jackson’s successor in 2021, promised in his campaign to make the project a priority.
Last March, at Bibb’s request, City Council approved spending $1.5 million on the project. In December, the city announced it had raised the full $3.5 million needed for construction.
Cuyahoga County contributed $1 million, along with $500,000 from RTA, Romanoff said. Other funders include KeyBank, The Sherwin-Williams Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, Bedrock, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Rocket Mortgage, and JACK Entertainment, according to a city news release.
“I’m really excited that we’ve gotten to this point rather quickly,’’ said Sanaa Julien, executive director of the Group Plan Commission. “The funding community and the partners around the square have been tremendous.’’
Romanoff said the bollard design calls for installing approximately 60 bollards in two curved sections that will narrow Superior Avenue from 48 to 26 feet at the central crossing point.
The design also calls for raising that section of the avenue slightly to create a “tabletop,’' or “speed table’' that will signal to buses that they should proceed slowly.
“It’s a visual and physical reminder that this is a pedestrian crossing,’’ Romanoff said.
Slides from the design review and city planning presentation of conceptual plans for the replacement of concrete barriers in Cleveland's Public Square with bollards.Courtesy City of Cleveland, James Corner Field Operations
Paving and other materials have not yet been specified in the design, but the proposal calls for shiny, cylindrical bollards with a contemporary rather than a historical look.
In addition to the roughly 60 bollards along Superior Avenue, another 27 would be installed at points around the outside of the square to replace the large concrete planters there.
Romanoff said that once the design is fully reviewed and approved, the Group Plan Commission would be ready to order bollards from a manufacturer — a process that she said could take 16 to 30 weeks. Supply chain issues that have dogged construction industries could affect the timing of the project, she said.
Romanoff called the project “hugely important because of intense public interest. Public Square is so important to the city and hearts and minds of Clevelanders.”
A key factor in the project is that the design team, which includes Osborn Engineering of Cleveland, needed to know exactly where to place the bollards because of a complex web of utility lines just below the square’s surface.
Some will be sunk deeply; others will be removable to help facilitate special events or linked underground with shallow connections designed to root them firmly in place without disturbing utilities below.
“It’s a wonderful potpourri of bollards,’’ Romanoff said.
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