John Kuntz/Plain Dealer file

Key Center renovations start with public spaces

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The new owner of Ohio’s tallest building plans to set out a fresh welcome mat at Key Tower’s front door.

The Millennia Companies, which bought the Key Center complex for $267.5 million in late January, hopes to start an outdoor plaza overhaul in May. The landscaping project is likely to coincide with lobby renovations at the 57-story skyscraper, which looms over downtown Cleveland's Public Square.

The Cleveland Landmarks Commission recently reviewed plans for the plaza makeover, being designed by Vocon and DERU Landscape Architecture, with heavy involvement from Millennia. The changes will need approvals by major office tenants, including Cleveland-based KeyCorp. Some aspects of the plan will require additional public reviews.

Renderings show that the granite-clad plaza, completed in 1991, will become a softer, greener space. The proposed design includes more obvious walking paths, better sight lines between public spaces and an outdoor pavilion that will be accessible from both the plaza and the lobby of the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center.

Matt Solomon, Millennia's director of design and construction, said the plaza project will cost just over $1 million. It's part of a broader, $20 million effort to revamp public areas inside and surrounding Key Tower and the Marriott.

The plaza and tower lobby renovations could be complete in early autumn. Millennia hopes to start construction at the Marriott later in the year.

-- Story by Michelle Jarboe, The Plain Dealer

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

The nighttime view

A nighttime rendering depicts the reimagined plaza at Key Center. An angled walkway will provide a clearer path for pedestrians moving between Public Square to the south and the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland to the north. Posts bearing globe-shaped lights will line the path.

Solomon said 15 to 20 lampposts will replace the existing glass block towers on the plaza. The granite bases of the towers are deteriorating, and Millennia believes the new LED fixtures will offer better illumination without blocking views between the tower and Mall A on the other side of West Mall Drive.

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

The daytime view

A daytime rendering shows the new plaza design, with the pavilion and Key Tower on the right. The 0.82-acre space is largely hard surfaces today. The renovations will include a net gain in trees and new planting beds lining the angled walkway.

Millennia doesn’t actually own the plaza, which is city-owned property. But the building landlord controls and maintains the outdoor space under a long-term lease agreement. The plaza renovations will be privately funded.

Don't Edit

Jayme Schwartzberg/DERU Landscape Architecture

Existing plaza design

Landscape architect Jayme Schwartzberg described the existing Key Center plaza as “a sea of pink pavement,” where pedestrians are battered by wind and smokers try to shield themselves between Key Tower and the Marriott.

"We fully recognize that this is a really critical connection to capitalize on the investment that's already been made in the city," Schwartzberg said of the plaza during a March 9 presentation to the Landmarks Commission.

Don't Edit

Jayme Schwartzberg/DERU Landscape Architecture

Existing plaza design

The renovation plans met with positive feedback from members of the commission, which reviews projects that involve historic buildings or that sit in historic districts. Key Tower is not a landmark building, but the plaza falls into the local landmark district that spans the Malls.

“The interior and exterior of Key plaza, I’ve always found a little bit stark and unfriendly,” said Giancarlo Calicchia, a sculptor and onetime stonemason who sits on the commission.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

The same view, reimagined

A rendering shows the same view of the plaza, from Rockwell Avenue looking north, after the renovation project. Schwartzberg monitored foot traffic and wind speeds outside of Key Tower to help shape the new design.

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

Proposed view from Mall A

A rendering shows how the renovated plaza will look from the eastern end of a crosswalk on West Mall Drive. The pavilion will nestle into the space just south of the Marriott, where glass screening will act as a buffer against the wind.

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

Proposed view from Key Tower

A rendering shows how the renovated plaza will look to people leaving Key Tower and walking toward West Mall Drive. Public Auditorium and the Drury Plaza Hotel, in the old Cleveland Board of Education Building, are visible on the other side of the Malls.

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

Proposed view from St. Clair Avenue

A rendering shows how the plaza will look from St. Clair Avenue, at the north end of the property. The renovation project will incorporate the existing drop-off and valet area for the Marriott hotel.

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

View of outdoor pavilion

Solomon envisions the pavilion on the plaza as a space that will serve Key Tower tenants during the day and Marriott guests in the evening. The overhead structure will be steel, with a glass roof, and glass windscreens will surround the seating area.

"We want this to be a public space," he said. "But I would like to note that the Key Tower management will control security during the day and the Marriott will control security during the evening hours."

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

View of outdoor pavilion

Millennia could set out fire pits or heat lamps to make the pavilion useable during colder months. There won't be food service on the plaza, but the landlord plans to replace the newsstand at Key Tower with an eatery called Marble Room Sushi. And the real estate company expects to rebrand and renovate the restaurant at the Marriott.

Don't Edit

Vocon

Proposed view along St. Clair

A rendering of the St. Clair Avenue side of the Marriott shows a new, glassy entrance to the restaurant and a proposed drop-off lane outside. Solomon confirmed that the preliminary name of the restaurant is Il Venezian, though that could change.

Don't Edit

Jayme Schwartzberg/DERU Landscape Architecture

Existing view along St. Clair

Millennia Chief Executive Officer Frank Sinito and his wife, Malisse, plan to remake the dining and event spaces at the Marriott.

The banquet facility that was part of the Club at Key Center, a private club that closed last year, will become the St. Clair Ballroom. A new fitness center on the building's third floor will replace the club's former athletic facilities.

Don't Edit

Vocon

The same view, reimagined

A rendering shows the revamped entrance to the restaurant at the Marriott, looking west toward the Warehouse District. Millennia hopes to start both the plaza work and renovations along St. Clair in May, but that timeline depends on discussions about creating a drop-off lane and moving a bus stop with the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and a city

Don't Edit

DERU Landscape Architecture, Vocon

The new overhead view

An overhead view shows the redesigned plaza at Key Center. Key Tower is the building on the left, with the historic Society for Savings Building sitting immediately west of it on Public Square. The Marriott is the building on the right. Millennia also controls nearly 1,000 parking spaces in a garage underneath Mall A.

The sale of the property and the pending arrival of new tenants are spurring the renovations. Millennia plans to move its headquarters to Key Tower, from Sinito's Thornburg Station project in Valley View, this summer. Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. expects to relocate its corporate offices to the building from Terminal Tower in spring 2018.

Don't Edit