Connecting Downtown Cleveland Master Plan

Connecting Downtown Cleveland Master Plan

GGN worked to revive the urban heart of downtown Cleveland through two catalytic projects: the Connecting Downtown Cleveland Plan and the Cleveland Convention Center & Global Center for Health Innovation. These two projects focus on restoring and revitalizing the historic Group Plan Mall and Civic District, designed in 1903 by architect Daniel Burnham as the director of the original Group Plan Commission. The Group Plan is one of the first built examples of Burnham’s City Beautiful planning principles drawing on his designs for the Chicago’s World’s Fair Columbian Exposition and the McMillan Plan for the National Mall in Washington, DC.

GGN’s Connecting Downtown Cleveland master plan revives the original designed relationships between the civic park spaces, streets, promenades, and lakefront. Over the past 100 years, important pedestrian and visual connections here have been modified and muted. By revealing and reconnecting the original City Beautiful framework, the plan allows new urban activities– from seasonal to daily – to re-occupy and once again enliven the city’s civic soul.