Adaptive Re-use/Asbestos Abatement - Cleveland

[MayDay]

I had the pleasure of seeing one of the gems of Cleveland architecture - the former Cleveland Trust rotunda building. Vacant since the mid-1990s, I had never seen this building's interior as I'm not originally from the area. For those of you not familiar with Cleveland Trust - they were the bank that threw the city into default back in the Dennis Kucinich days. The rotunda building was constructed in 1905, and features an enormous stained-glass dome. The adjacent 383-foot, 427,000 sq. ft. tower was constructed in 1971 and designe by modernist architect Marcel Breuer (noted for the Whitney Museum in NYC)

Cleveland Trust eventually became Ameritrust, which was acquired by now KeyBank in the early 1990s. The result of these mergers was the rotunda building and tower being vacated. The tower's J-shaped floorplates and brutalist pre-cast concrete exterior make it difficult to re-tenant, but the existence of asbestos throughout 95% of the building make it impossible. Thus, the owners of the complex have applied for a Clean Ohio grant for asbestos abatement, which will make a renovation more feasible. The city expressed interest to market the building to the county, so the county can consolidate many of their offices. Failing that - the goal is some sort of mixed-use project, possibly even with residential.

Follow this link to more info and photos http://www.clevelandskyscrapers.com/cleveland/clevelandtrust.html

Two sample pics - the interior and the adjacent tower:

 

[jordanb]

The original building is beautiful but the tower looks like a Soviet apartment bloc.

How feasable is it to nock the tower down and use the original building for something?

 

[MayDay]

I don't think anyone would miss the tower (save for the token black-turtlenecked ponytail folks who would rail on that it's a modernist masterpiece, blah blah blah), but unfortunately I don't think any demolition/implosion technique in existence would prevent damage to the rotunda building. One could place one hand on the facade of the tower, and the other hand on the facade of the rotunda building. Also, the tower's lobby opens into the rotunda.

To give you an idea of the proximity, here's a vintage photo from when the tower was first built (rotunda building is in bottom left of photo):

 

[Cardinal]

The black turtleneck crowd would be equally horrified by the suggestion of recladding the building. I suppose that is all the more reason to propose it.