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Marcel Breuer Cleveland Trust Tower, Cleveland, Ohio Letter of Support from Peter Lawson Jones, Cuyahoga County Commissioner Dear Concerned Citizen: Thank you for your correspondence regarding the prospective demolition of the Ameritrust Tower, located at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Ninth Street and designed by the renowned modernist architect, Marcel Breuer. As you are probably aware, on Thursday, March 29, 2007, the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) voted 2-1 to raze the tower, with me casting the dissenting vote to preserve the building. In determining as I did, I employed a *decision matrix* that considered the following factors: (1) architectural significance; (2) aesthetics; (3) preservation/sustainability; (4) functionality/work flow; and (5) cost.
As regards aesthetics, some critics of the tower find it physically unattractive. At the risk of sounding cliché, however, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Furthermore, tastes have a tendency to change over time. Because some do not find the building visually pleasing, however, is not reason enough to justify its demolition. Moreover, the highly regarded firm of Davis, Brody and Bond demonstrated in a presentation to the BOCC that the tower can be externally treated and the new structure designed in a way that creates a physically compelling final product. Our relatively recent embrace of preservation and sustainability as a society and a community also militates for the preservation of the tower. With the new administrative complex, we aspire at a minimum to achieve silver LEEDS certification. The demolition of the tower will jeopardize this goal, particularly as it has been designated a historic structure by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office. Furthermore, demolition will be tricky, given the proximity of other structures to the site. Finally, the waste of the thousands of tons of materials that went into the construction - less than forty years ago - of this building as well as the adverse environmental impact resulting from the dumping of the debris in local landfills hardly constitutes a positive ecological outcome. A fourth consideration
is functionality and work flow. Although the tower*s floor plates are
too small to accommodate County departments on a single and, in most cases,
on even two floors, this concern is exaggerated. Most office communication
today is conducted via e-mail and telephone. Moreover, through creative
intra-departmental organization and grouping, the desired face-to-face
interaction can be achieved. A competent interior workplace architect
and designer need only, as Tim exhorts the contestants in Project Runway,
*Make it Finally, impossible
to ignore is the matter of cost. A minimum of $20 million can be saved
by choosing adaptive reuse over new construction. The Marcel Breuer
Tower debate now proceeds to the City of Cleveland Planning Commission,
which, by charter, must approve the demolition and construction of all
public buildings within the municipality*s boundaries. On Friday, March
30, 2007, the Planning Commission voted to approve the demolition of three
smaller structures on the site and passed a motion that no action is to
be taken regarding the Breuer building until the panel has the opportunity
to: Now that the fate
of the building resides with the Planning Commission, I urge you to share
your views to that body as well. The names, phone numbers, and e-mail
addresses of the panel members are provided below. I also urge you to
communicate with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which, in an editorial dated
Tuesday, April 3, 2007, declared that the Marcel Breuer Tower is not a
*serious candidate for renovation.* You can read the editorial at:
Again, I thank you for taking the time to share your views and concerns regarding the Breuer Tower with me. As always, please do not hesitate to contact my office if we can ever be of any assistance whatsoever. Sincerely, Peter Lawson Jones
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