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A fresh rendering from City Architecture shows how the RTA Little Italy Red Line Rapid station will look in the future. This is the first rendering made available by the firm showing the station without the easternmost of five railroad bridges that separate Little Italy from University Circle.

(City Architecture)

MAKING PLACES

Updated with new renderings from City Architecture

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It’s cause for serious celebration that one of the nastiest railroad underpasses in Cleveland is about to get a much-needed makeover.

The change comes courtesy of the Greater Regional Transit Authority, which will open bids within days for construction of the new, $17.5 million Red Line Rapid Station on Mayfield Road at East 119th Street in Little Italy.

RTA expects to begin an 18- to 24-month construction process this fall or in the spring. Minus the cost of design, property purchases and other costs, the estimated construction price is $11.6 million according to RTA spokeswoman Mary Shaffer.

This long-awaited project will replace an aging, outmoded, secluded and unsafe-looking East 120th Street rapid station located a block north along Euclid Avenue. (Both the new and old stations align more closely with the privately owned East 119th Street rather than with East 120th).

The new station will give public transit a decidedly more visible, usable and central location between Little Italy to the east and the burgeoning residential and cultural development at Uptown in University Circle, located to the west. And it has the potential to bring significant improvement to the muddy, dank, poorly lighted and incredibly ugly stretch of Mayfield that passes beneath the railroad bridges that have severed the two neighborhoods for decades.

A semi-circular canopy will make the entry of the new RTA Little Italy Red Line Rapid station. Portions of a concrete bunker originally built as a rapid station in this location in the 1930s will be cut away to open the interior to surrounding sidewalks.

For about 200 feet, the road and sidewalks on both sides pass below five railroad bridges. The RTA owns two of the five bridges; CSX and Norfolk Southern own two others, and private owners recently sold the fifth bridge to RTA, which will demolish it.

The new station, ably designed by the Cleveland firm of City Architecture, will bring light, safety, public art, new paving and better drainage to a pathetically awful pedestrian environment. The project has strong potential be a victory for the public realm in Cleveland, and it could spur future investment in two of the most lively and frequently visited neighborhoods in Northeast Ohio.

It’s also a case study in how much long, hard work it takes to reshape infrastructure in an aging industrial city.

It was nearly a decade ago that the RTA began planning a modest renovation of the old rapid station along Euclid Avenue. In 2005, recognizing the shabby condition of public infrastructure in University Circle, the Cleveland Foundation cajoled major institutions in the district to create a $1.6 million fund to provide critical early planning money to elevate design aspirations for projects in the area.

Contributors to the fund, along with the foundation, included Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, University Circle Inc. the Cleveland Clinic and the Holden Parks Trust. The money enabled RTA to conduct a broader and more ambitious planning process for Red Line service in University Circle, which resulted in the relocation of the Euclid Avenue station to Mayfield Road, and the proposal for a completely new, $18.5 million Cedar Hill Station, now under construction.

A bird's eye view of the new RTA Little Italy Red Line Rapid Station. The disused railroad overpass closest to the station, with greenery instead of tracks, will be removed.

Since then, additional planning studies, environmental review policies and funding cycles for federal money – which is paying for most of the new construction – gobbled up six or seven years.

It’s unfortunate government can’t move quicker to deliver the benefits such important infrastructure projects provide. It might not be until 2016 – a full decade after the Cleveland Foundation announced the early outcomes of its initiative for University Circle in 2006 – before the Mayfield station is finished. But it should be worth the wait.

From a design perspective, the assignment was exceedingly difficult. Paul Volpe, City Architecture’s lead principal, said the firm had to work with a small, very tight site with little room in which to stage construction. He decided to re-use the sturdy concrete bunker built into the east side of the RTA railroad overpass in the 1930s as a rapid station back then.

He’ll slice off the southeast corner of the structure to open it up and admit fresh air and daylight. A semi-circular canopy will offer shelter and a sense of welcome. A new staircase will be inserted in the northwest corner of the 1,800-square-foot structure that will lead to the elevated platform on the bridge overhead. An elevator, restrooms, lighting and signage are all part of the package.

A floor plan depicts artist Susie Frazier's concept for the paving of the new RTA Little Italy Red Line station.

Cleveland artist Susie Frazier has designed new paving for the concrete floor of the station based on the flowing patterns created by schools of fish or flocks of birds. She was inspired by the similarities among pedestrians in transit stations and the “swarm” behavior of creatures in nature.

Gabriella Mileti, another Cleveland artist chosen by RTA to add to the project, has written poetic statements about coming and going in both English and Italian, reflecting metaphorical aspects of travel as well as Little Italy’s rich ethnic heritage. Her words will adorn risers and treads in a small amphitheater at the entrance to the station.

Volpe, who grew up in an Italo-American family in Lyndhurst, said he thought it was unnecessary to provide any literal Italian symbolism for the station, such as neoclassical architecture or the variations on the colors red, white and green. He wanted a lean, modern look - a thoroughly logical and defensible approach, given the clean, minimalist look of the cast concrete bunker that he’s reusing as the core of his project.

A rendering suggests how the Mayfield RTA Red Line Rapid station would look at night.

Volpe’s principal design flourish will be that of attaching curving ribbons of stainless steel mesh to the 1930s concrete bunker and his own concrete block additions to the original structure. The wavy ribbons will step back from bottom to top in layer cake fashion to create a visual transition from the street level portion of the station to the rectangular “head house” that will shelter riders on the track level above.

During the day, the mesh panels will cast undulating patterns on the rectilinear concrete structures to which they’re attached, softening them and providing a visual signature for the station.

At night however, the mesh panels should be even more intriguing. City Architecture engaged New York lighting designer Leni Schwendinger to fashion an LED (light-emitting diode) system that will highlight each rectangular segment of steel mesh as if it were a luminous block.

If the system works as envisioned in a City Architecture rendering, the results could be beautiful.

It gets even better, though. The RTA board recently voted to spend $1 million on improving the city-owned sidewalk, curb and railing on the north side of Mayfield that extends west from the new station to the University Circle side of the railroad bridges.

The RTA also spent $880,000 to acquire the easternmost of the five bridges over Mayfield Road from Little Italy Development LLC, a real estate group that includes Terry Coyne of the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank brokerage, and the Geis and Asher families, according to a story by my colleague, Alison Grant.

The plan, Volpe said, is to remove the easternmost bridge, which will shorten the 200 feet of darkness between Little Italy and University Circle. The architect said he’s exploring new lighting for the underside of the bridges in ways that could be installed without triggering a veto by the railroads.

If possible, the project could include improvements to the sidewalks on the south side of Mayfield Road, Volpe said.

It’s too bad the station can’t be finished tomorrow. The project has had a long genesis – perhaps too long. But when completed, it should certainly add to the energies of University Circle and Little Italy, and underscore the many ways in which Cleveland – a city long dominated by industry and the automobile – is making itself a more pedestrian-friendly place.