The main question of this thesis is how to reconnect the islands of activities that have been developed in clusters in Cincinnati, Ohio’s inner urban core. Cincinnati’s urban core, which this project defines as the Central Business District (CBD), The Banks, Over-the-Rhine (OTR), and the West End district, exemplifies a typical mid-sized American city with a fragmented spatial environment. Over the past few decades, there has been an attempt to revitalize and re-energize the urban core of Cincinnati by adding different activities, such as sport centers and cultural and public places. This revitalization strategy, in many cases, started with different focus points or areas, resulting in clusters of well-defined and well-designed urban spaces, while the rest of the district was largely neglected.
This strategy created a fragmented urban core in which those different parts are disconnected. Movement becomes heavily auto-oriented and attractions become spatially isolated destinations.
This thesis is organized in six sections. Section one of the thesis begins with a study on the forces during the last century that cause inner-city fragmentation and disconnection in the United States. In this article seven major forces are found, each changed and shaped the urban inner-core in the North American cities.
Second section looks at physical characteristics and neighborhood history to understand the forces that shaped them into their current status, and caused disconnection between and within each urban core neighborhood in Cincinnati. Looking at neighborhood history provides information regarding the political and social forces that changed each community, illustrates the needs and problems each neighborhood faces, and provides information about new plans. The physical study, including land uses, distribution of un-built land and green spaces, distribution and condition of store fronts, the location of new and upcoming developments, and city attractions, shapes a picture that shows the areas that are active clusters, create urban voids, or offers opportunities for change. Based on the existing assets, opportunities, and future plans, a list of options for intervention is provided.
Section three considers two case studies from San Francisco, California, and Boston, Massachusetts. The first case study looks at the San Francisco Urban Design Plan from 1971 and the plan’s strategies to manage new developments and improve the connectivity throughout the city. The second case study looks at Boston’s disconnected riverfront, and the city’s various attempts to improve the city’s connection to the riverfront, including reshaping the city’s administrative structure to the Big Dig and smaller projects. These cases can inform strategies for Cincinnati.
In section four, the final section of this thesis, the literature reviews, the target area studies, and case studies are distilled into a series of strategies and a holistic proposal. This proposal would bind the fragmented district and create spatial and visual linkages between the isolated islands in Cincinnati’s inner urban core. For each strategy, including creating or enhancing paths, landmarks, cluster of activities, and public spaces, physical implementation examples are provided.