Thursday, January 28, 1999
Arts campus plan hits snag on shelter
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Planners of a sprawling public arts campus in Over-the-Rhine have revised their vision and now hope to build a $99.2 million kindergarten-through-12th-grade school and theater. But their dream will mean relocating a homeless center.
Trustees of the Greater Cincinnati Arts and Education Center met in a closed-door session Wednesday evening at the old Guilford School downtown to hear the preliminary findings of a feasibility study on the proposed campus, which would sit on Central Parkway near Music Hall.
Planners earmarked $6.5 million of the project's cost to relocate the Drop-Inn Center and a pipefitters' union. Although the union agreed to move, the shelter's supporters
are balking.
“Moving is the same thing as closing, in my view,” said Pat Clifford, general coordinator of the center, which serves more than 10,000 people a year. “Do you know how hard it would be to move? Nobody wants a homeless shelter. We'd be a homeless homeless shelter.”
Arts campus supporters plan to meet with Over-the-Rhine activists in coming weeks to resolve the conflict. Campus supporters abandoned plans to put an amphitheater in Washington Park after many of the same activists complained.
Planners envision that Central Parkway will someday be an “arts corridor” stretching from the Cincinnati Ballet's facilities at Liberty Street to the Emery Theatre at Walnut Street.
The arts campus, they say, is the first step.
Fund raising hasn't started on that plan, which Cincinnati Pops Maestro Erich Kunzel first estimated would cost $220 million when he proposed it in 1996.
But Mr. Kunzel said he hopes Cincinnati Public Schools, state and federal sources and private and corporate donors each will foot a third of the cost.
If CPS officials successfully pass a tax increase and funding is secured this year, the school could open within three years, said Gerald Hammond, president of Steed, Hammond, Paul, Inc., the architects conducting the feasibility study.
Mr. Kunzel said the project is as important to the future of Music Hall as it is to Cincinnati's students.
“We're in a location where we're being hurt in terms of ticket sales because of the nature of the neighborhood,” he said. Two Cincinnati Pops musicians were robbed outside Music Hall and the Pops had 500 fewer subscribers last year than the previous year, he added.
“When I came to Cincinnati 33 years ago, Music Hall was the cultural center of the city,” he said. “Now we're so isolated.”
The feasibility study is expected to be done in March.
headTHE VISION
If approved, the arts campus would include:
• Phase 1: Visual arts and arts/academics buildings for students in grades 4-12, an adjacent facility for kindergarten through grade 3, and a rehearsal and performance theater for students. The school would replace the School for Creative and Performing Arts and Schiel School. Total cost: $99.2 million.
Also: A public arts and music library. Planners hope county library officials will agree to build and pay for it.
• Phase 2: An 1,800-seat performance hall, a film production facility, a 1,500-space parking lot and possibly an ensemble theater.
Planners haven't established a budget or timetable.
A corny idea to keep good little movies
Council targets gun makers
Arts campus plan hits snag on shelter
Bullet train possibilities tantalize
Mary Tyler Moore reveals her wounds
Sabin center plan proposed
N.Ky. convention center opening gala sold out
Pope renews morality plea, condemns death penalty
Teacher pulls kids into pope
Temporary bridge over Fort Washington Way
Dad has custody of tot left in trash
School vouchers director claims program sabotaged
Winter on hiatus 1 more day
Cap costs area schools millions
Grand jury to hear about shooting, wild police chase
Laser pointer curbs rejected
Miami pair plead not guilty
NKU tuition up 5.2% next year
Schools find new tax tough sell
Women of Faith share three days
Adopt a lizard, say 'I love you'
Time to get involved for a 'vision' for 12th Street
GOP's weak field is its own fault
Ambulance runs could cost insurers
Churches helping needy on 'Souper Bowl' Sunday
Colombians here check on loved ones
Design work starts on 50 at I-275
Detective's trial may turn on the word 'in'
Emergency school funds sought
Fix on way for tie-ups at Towne, 122
TRISTATE DIGEST
Woman pleads guilty in burglary
