Hello Derek, 

I have been meaning to comment here - but...been busy like you ...here goes!
 

You mention two primary reasons to take the wrecking ball to the Breuer: 

1. Asbestos,

2. Ugly looks

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1.            Asbestos.  Every building that was built up to about 1980 had asbestos in it.  Steel supported office towers had blown on asbestos as fire insulation on the steel and as ceiling acoustical absorption, and elsewhere.  So, every pre 1980’s building needs asbestos remediation.  Every pre-1980 building across the county that is remodeled has an asbestos abatement contract issued. 

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Asbestos is no reason to tear down a building because the asbestos needs to be removed first - whether or not the building is to be a rehab or a demo.  If the building was demolished with the asbestos in it the asbestos dust would blow all over the neighborhood as it did with the world trade towers. Not very civic friendly and illegal.

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The county should never have bought the building until it was remediated.  That was the county’s first irresponsible action with regard to the Breuer.  Now the County bears the liability.   Really stupid move.

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So with the Breuer Tower the asbestos mitigation contract needs to be completed first and is entirely cost independent of whether or not the building is to be reused or demolished. 

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Neither the demolition of the building or the rehab of the building can be started before the building is tested and asbestos free.

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2.         Ugly.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but tax dollars are from the pocket of the beholder.   I don’t believe that your opinion (or mine) of the appearance of the Breuer Tower is relevant to whether or not the building is demolished or reused.  It is too fickle and arrogant for taxpayers to operate their budgetary decisions on beauty or ugly.  For example, the County doesn’t purchase its automobiles on the popular opinion of their looks.  Purchase requests specify certain criteria – four door, engine size, etc. – and the purchases are not predicated on what the car looks like.   The County Commissioners are responsible to spend our money wisely, and by the Commissioners’ own estimates a new building of the same square footage will cost at least 30 million more than remodeling the existing building.  I believe that our Commissioners have a fiduciary duty to make the decision which is most economical.  To allow the Commissioners any more latitude that the least expensive is violative of common sense and the public bidding laws through out  the country. 

I am exploring an Ohio taxpayers lawsuit to contest the Commissioners and compel them to make the most economical decision.  If anyone is familiar with these laws in Ohio and would like to help please contact me.

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In addition, federal investigators also are interested in how Carbone's former company received a $10 million contract from the Cuyahoga County commissioners in 2006 to oversee the conversion of the old Ameritrust Building on East Ninth Street into the county's new headquarters.

Federal investigators are probing the $10 million contract Carbone's former company got from the Cuyahoga County commissioners in 2006 to oversee the conversion of the Ameritrust Building on East Ninth Street into the county's new headquarters.

The commissioners debated hiring the business for less than a minute. About 18 months later, the county abandoned the project, saying they didn't have the money to finish the $200 million-plus project. The county paid a Carbone-led team of contractors about $1.4 million.

Just as we reported here on realNEO - something about this whole deal has always had a bad smell.

Carbone construction company, former president are linked to federal bribery charges

and then of course there's this news on Breuer -

Ameritrust complex back in Cuyahoga County's hands after developer Doug Price drops plans

Hagan says, "Frangos is just trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of the county. This is what he thinks unbridled capitalism is."

And the medcon? Is that what Mr. Hagan thinks unbridled capitalism is? Talk about vermin in the Public Square!!! Sheesh. This government and their cronies need a long stay in capitalism rehab and we the people need a good disinfectant for NEO. We musn't forget to wash behind our ears while we're at it: Though the dirt on its face is and has been apparent, let us not neglect every nook and cranny in this scrub down, eh?

There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!

       Mario Savio December 3, 1964 Free Speech Movement

This may not be about freedom of speech, but I think you may get the drift here - so odious, sick at heart, put our bodies upon the gears, make it stop, prevent the machine from working... Or as in that Pink Floyd lyric... tear down the walls. Now who's the ugly one?

This from David Ellison in an email yesterday:

"The entries for the exhibit have mostly all come in by the deadline.  We have had them mounted and will be designing and installing early next week.  The county agreed to let us include the six we (the taxpayers in Cuyahoga County) paid $24,000 apiece for.  We go select these materials from what they have on Monday. 

On Wednesday evening, the exhibit will be open after the gala Ingenuity Opening party (about 7-10). 

On Thursday, there will be an opening reception for the exhibit at 5:30.  We will have approximately 30 entries, plus the county's six, from as far away as Venice Italy, Queensland Australia, Lebanon, and California.  The big Cleveland firms are represented in the county's six, and several smaller Cleveland firms and local practitioners have submitted entries.  

Steve Litt is preparing an article on the subject of the exhibit that may be run Wednesday or Thursday. 

It was never a competition - so we don't technically have specific "winners" - though I'm sure the jurors and spectators will have their favorites."

The email note on the entries came as an add on to a chain of correspondence that stemmed from research I did with Marc Lefkowitz on the City Planning Commission website, then on the County Auditor's website and finally at the County Recorders office. We expect to soon post the deed for the Breuer exchange. One tidbit that enticed us to read further than the web allows is the caveat that the new building will have a plaque to Richard Jacobs bolted onto it. May we never get to that end.

In other related news, Carbone Construction is wracking up the kudos:
Justice Center has 'problems'
Faulty work plagues some new Ohio schools
no kidding cause according to this, Carbone's schoolwork goes back a ways, (this from a dispatch article published in 2002)

"Voinovich's former executive assistant, Andrew J. Futey, openly markets his connections, emphasizing the importance of his experience in the governor's office and knowledge of "what's happening in Columbus.''

Futey represents RP Carbone, a construction-management company that has received $7.6 million in unbid school work since 1999."

Don't remember who Carbone is? This guy:

Carbone to manage county HQ project

This is the guy who is slated to take down (deconstruct) the Tower if that happens (god forbid). Remember the long silence at the CPC meeting while the Carbone rep wracked his brain about the company's experience in deconstruction? Why with all the other construction companies that might be appropriate for an adaptive reuse of the building, would the county hire this guy to put in even a nonstructural element given his track record. I guess maybe this is just how it goes in Corruptland.

I can't wait to see the entries for the Breuer at Ingenuity; we desperately need some intelligent, innovative thinking on the issue. It's time to get this discussion away from the corrupt government uses and back into the discussions being had by innovators in the arts and environmental communities.

Have you thought about the proximity of the Breuer Tower to the District of Design? Hey, what a great anchor for the "get designs to market" aspect of this great idea, right? This is where the District intersects with the banking and financial community, right? Wrong. Check out the map of the District of Design. These guys have deftly eliminated the godfather of 20th century design from their planning. Unlike Nottingham Spirk who renovated and restored the Walker Weeks Christian Science Church on the Portage Escarpment and placed in conservation the greenspace surrounding it, apparently these guys are so forward looking that they forgot to include the Bauhaus leader of both architecture and furniture design. Oops. And somewhere (was it during the Green Cleveland show at CIA?) that the school (CIA) was born out of and based on the Bauhaus School model. It is no wonder that we should feel the spirit of the Bauhaus here in Cleveland since so many eastern Europeans came across the lake in the dead of night from Canada to work in the steel mills and factories here. But Cleveland's Eastern European immigrant history goes even further back, (including Hungarians like Breuer) making the Breuer Tower an even more important icon of not only design history, but one of the history of our own historic preservation movement and our population.

Will we have to take this Breuer issue to the Supreme Court as was done against a similar design planned by the Pennsylvania Railroad for NY's Grand Central?

Here's the history for historic preservation and landmarks of that edifice: (from the wikipedia)

In 1968 Penn Central unveiled plans for a tower designed by Marcel Breuer even bigger than the Pan Am Building to be built over Grand Central.

The plans drew huge opposition including most prominently Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She said "Is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all her proud monuments, until there will be nothing left of all her history and beauty to inspire our children? If they are not inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the strength to fight for her future? Americans care about their past, but for short term gain they ignore it and tear down everything that matters. Maybe… this is the time to take a stand, to reverse the tide, so that we won't all end up in a uniform world of steel and glass boxes."

New York City filed a suit to stop the construction. The resulting case, Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City (1978), was the first time that the Supreme Court ruled on a matter of historic preservation. The Court saved the terminal, basing its decision on the notion that only if a change to a historic structure prevented said structure's owner from bankruptcy could such an alteration be made.

Penn Central went into bankruptcy in 1970 in what was then the biggest corporate bankruptcy in American history. Title to Grand Central passed to Penn Central's corporate successor, American Premier Underwriters (APU) (which in turn was absorbed by American Financial Group. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) signed a 280-year lease in 1994 and began a massive restoration. Midtown TDR Ventures, LLC purchased the station from American Financial in December, 2006.[3] The New York Post reported in July 2007 that TDR is controlled by Argent Ventures[4]

That was then, this is now. So I repeat, is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees...?

Read it and weep... from the tax appeal procedure of Ninth Street Euclid Limited Partnership -- Jacob's Group name for the properties we (the county) purchased for the new admin building:
"In discussing the Tower’s highest and best use, as vacant, Mr. Kell concluded that while its location would make it a logical site for an office or office/retail development, the long-term logical use is not supported by current demand, and, therefore, the best interim use of the property would be for parking operations."

In 2002, it might have been "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" as so oft happened here in Cleveland.

Also in 2002 this was mentioned in Crain's Cleveland Business: "Jacobs Group abated asbestos on two floors of the building last year to establish an estimate for how much it would cost to remove all the cancer-causing material from the structure. Ridding the building of environmental concerns would position Jacobs Group to compete to become the new home of Cuyahoga County government, which is considering a plan to consolidate in a single location the offices in its current administrative building and in many of the 40 other buildings the county occupies throughout downtown.

However, in the application for Clean Ohio Funds, Jacobs Group has proposed that if it fails to win the county offices, it would convert the Ameritrust complex into a mixed-use development incorporating office, retail and housing. A Jacobs Group spokesman, Jeff Linton, said he does not have a time line for the alternative proposal if the developer must pursue it."

According to Amy Aldano at Clean Ohio Funds, the application never made it to them from Jacobs. I wonder what happened.

Notice that Eaton does not own its headquarters, it is not part of there business model that being property management.  They lease the space and they do not have any intentions for moving, if you hear they are it is a rumor, they are happy there. 

The Ameritrust tower sold for only 20M which is cheap because it has issues as we all know, no need to recant them, in fact the 20M sale shows that doesn’t it.  The fact that Jacobs took a 30M loss does as well.   

If the market is tight for offices then new building go up, when there is a glut it get less profitable and also more competitive.

I look at the complex and see two parts; it appears that finally others are as well, better late than never I say.  What is century and what is 70’s, I separate them, it would have been wise for the Jacobs Group to do so as well, but I suspect the size of the complex over shadowed the other buildings.  I also know that Jacobs Group had some very distracting infighting and also let go of much of it holdings. 

As for the tower, it is a tough sell now; we all know the details no need to recant those.  It has asbestos, it leaks it has low ceilings and what was CAT5 in 1970?   If a corporation is looking for a headquarters and has an affection for 1970 architecture, they need to step up, they could have bell-bottom Fridays!  The employee lounge could have beanbag chairs!    

So I say look at the other buildings and please do not tear down anything century.  I also said look at what is shared on the block I really think the rotunda would be better served as a retail mall, much like the Grand Arcade.  I think that it can be more than an entrance.  Look ahead I say, the solution to the office glut is to convert many older buildings to residential and then they will drive retail. 

As for the Breurer as it stands it needs a developer and 80M, that developer also needs a corporation looking for 500,000 sq ft, if the county was approached with an offer over 20M they would let go of the building providing the developer had a tenant.  It as we know requires another 60M to get it up to speed.  Yes Norman it would be worth 80M if it was ready to lease or if it had a long term lease existing, apples to apples. 

I have been looking at the “Super Block” and thinking still about parking and wondering if the county plans to reuse the old garage, they may be. 

I see the Halles garage and think what a great building for residential.   I see the building next to 1010, to its East and think that could be residential as well.  There are a lot of old parking garages around the area.  Then I read that the CAC is in trouble, 750K in dept, nobody is going there for catered events, the corridor project and the dirt.  I think its ground floor is under utilized and needs renovation; it had a modern update that needs to come off.  I think the county could loan them 1M and then use the 250K to fix the front of the building.  Next year they could begin repaying it after the corridor is done.

Parking really needs to be looked at; I keep being told there is plenty.  I wonder if we have a Med Mart and a new convention center will that be true?  I know that the city has a target of 30,000 residents in the CBD, I do not think all of them would give up a car, they will use it less but I would not expect that type of change this early on. 

Parking is interesting it is like a commodity, for instance if I had a new garage I could approach the Halles people and say I will trade you spaces for your garage and then convert their garage to residential.  I would guarantee them a lease for a period of time that equals the value of their garage, or offer them life leases but restrict them from trading them, except to the owner of the garage, sort of like a first option to buy maybe? 

It require analysis both financial and also a waiting line model, seeking a point of optimization.  If I was told that parking in the region is optimized, I would question that, but it would be a better response than there is plenty?  What do we have plenty of class “A”, “B”, “C” ??? 

This is not complex but we are looking at many details, if the city builds a med mart and new convention center traffic will pick up, the city needs to be active and vibrant. 

The county can cycle money through projects, smaller projects then seek the best with respects to financial analysis, they actually need me, I am a blue-collar guy with a degree in QBA did I create the super block?  Am I the salvation of 1010 Euclid?   

Power of one! 

I have been called everything from the Golden Boy to the type of person people love to hate.  It’s all the same to me judgmental.

I am asking the county to step outside of the box, but only of those that know how to function outside of the box.  The city as well, find your connections, but it all needs a visionary.   An urban planning department with out visionary is sad, in fact it is nearly impossible, most have vision and they all no how it works.   It should be common to say, I have vision I need it analyzed.  But care needs to be taken not to become entrenched in an idea, economics rule they are tied to physics.  Attention to detail is paramount, it is how we glorify our existence.