First look: Developers unveil latest version of design for Bridgeworks apartment/hotel complex in Ohio City

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The architects and developers of the Bridgeworks apartment and hotel complex proposed for a high-visibility site at the western end of the Detroit Superior Bridge in Ohio City have considerably revamped their design in response to feedback from the city’s Landmarks Commission.

Developer Graham Veysey released the latest iteration to cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer on Friday, just ahead of a block club meeting on the project next Tuesday and a local design review committee meeting on Thursday.

Veysey and his wife, Marika Shioiri-Clark, are partnering with developer Michael Panzica on the project. The same team recently completed the Church and State apartment project at West 28th Street and Detroit Avenue in the Hingetown section of Ohio City.

He said the project would likely be reviewed by the Cleveland Landmarks Commission again at its Feb. 25 meeting.

In response to criticisms that the first version of the project would have obscured views of St. Malachi Church, a block north of the Bridgeworks site at Washington Avenue, the developer pushed the main bulk of the complex more than 100 feet back from the curb at West 25th Street.

In order to retain roughly the same number of apartments and hotel rooms, the project would rise from 10 stories to 17 stories in height, or 200 feet, which would make it 30 feet taller than the next highest building in the area, a tower at Lakeview Estates. the tallest building in the neighborhood by a significant amount.

But there’s precedent for such height being considered on the near West Side. In 2000, the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority considered building an even taller tower on the block just south of Detroit Avenue at West 25th Street, but later abandoned the idea because the Irishtown Bend hillside was found to be unstable.

In other changes to the Bridgeworks design, architects from Boston-based Mass Design Group and LDA Architects of Cleveland added refinements to the apartment and hotel facades.

Instead of containing the hotel and apartments in a folded rectangular block, the designers placed the building’s 170 apartments in an 11-story block faced with brick tile, and with windows organized in a vertical pattern.

The hotel rooms would be placed in a five-story block set atop the apartments, and an intervening two-story section sheathed in glass, which could contain a restaurant commanding views of the skyline, the lake and the Cuyahoga River.

Closer to West 25th Street, a low-rise portion of the complex, possibly space for retail or a restaurant, would extend west from the apartments to within 59 feet of the curb. The setback from the street, and the low height of this portion of the building would allow St. Malachi to be seen from multiple vantages.

Two years ago, Cuyahoga County agreed to sell the Bridgeworks site to the developers for $4.15 million. The property includes a county garage and a test lab for the public works department.

The project will include renovating a ticket booth likely built around 1917 for the streetcars that traversed the lower level of the Detroit Superior Bridge until 1954.

Veysey said additional details of the project would be available as plans continue to evolve before the Landmarks Commission meeting.

“Our goal is to go through the process and hear continued feedback, to make changes where there’s merit, and have the best possible project for the City of Cleveland and the near West Side,” he said.