Cultural Assets
Our neighborhood is proud of our commitment to art and culture throughout the area. With our annual music festivals, art galleries and shops, historical structures, sculpture parks, and a state of the art library facility, Buckeye Shaker Square is one of the most vibrant and attractive communities in the city of Cleveland.
St. Luke’s Manor
Buckeye Shaker is bordered by the Woodland Hills neighborhood on its west, which includes the former St. Luke’s Hospital redevelopment project. Phases I and II of this project includes 139 affordable apartments for seniors. Phase III will include 77,440 gross square feet of leasable commercial space. St. Luke’s Manor will also include the YMCA, the offices of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, Inc., an intergenerational school, and an auditorium.
Parks
Buckeye Shaker includes Doan Brook Watershed, Kingsbury Run Watershed and Ambler Park. The demolition of the car wash located at the cusp of Buckeye Road, Shaker Boulevard, and Woodhill Road is essential to the first steps toward the redevelopment of Woodland Hills. Buckeye Shaker Square Development Corporation has completed the first plan for Woodland Hills in more than 20 years. The demolition and redevelopment of the car wash site into a public garden/ flower bed has beautified the intersection and complemented the newly constructed Buckeye-Woodhill Train Station. The greening project was completed fall 2012.
RTA Bike Share
Bike-sharing in urban areas can positively affect how residents, employees, and visitors experience a city. Bike-transit systems allow for more people to access cycling for short trips, replace vehicle use, cycle for fitness and recreation, and for tourists and residents alike to explore a city.
Currently, a feasibility study is being conducted to provide a bike share location at at least one RTA stop.
Harvey Rice Campus
The northwest corner of Shaker Boulevard and 116th Street was a critical but undeveloped piece of the Saint Luke’s Pointe neighborhood master plan. The empty five-acre site occupied the eastern part of the Saint Luke’s Hospital complex, the vacated centerpiece being the iconic 1927 Georgian building, slated for redevelopment into multigenerational housing. Through agreements with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Cleveland Public Library, orchestrated by Neighborhood Progress and the Buckeye Shaker Square Development Corporation, the site became available for both the Harvey Rice School and Rice Branch library. The school and library had long been neighbors near 116th and Buckeye Road, adjacent sites which had long outgrown their effectiveness.
The development benefited from a generous grant from the Saint Luke’s Foundation, the intent of which was to create a ‘learning campus’ in the heart of the neighborhood. The site would be enhanced with play areas, a focus on the natural landscape, inspired public art, and strong connections to the surrounding sustainably developed neighborhood. To achieve these goals, the grant administered by ParkWorks in conjunction with Cleveland Public Art.
As the library design evolved, goals were set in response to design challenges inherent to the project. The design team agreed on a series of priorities that would require the library to:
- showcase library services as a warm and welcoming community ‘living room’
- create a flexible design to allow for unknowable future priorities
- provide appropriate stature, as a relatively small building, to address an important urban corner
- welcome pedestrians from the corner RTA and bus stop as well as the central shared parking
- create safe, clear pathways for students and families along all sides of the building
- anticipate a public art installation at the corner
- protect and highlight beautiful, mature oaks along Shaker Boulevard
- reference the historic legacy of Saint Luke’s in a contemporary way
- achieve LEED Silver certification
Permanent Supportive Housing
The Cleveland Housing Network, Inc. (CHN) and the Emerald Development & Economic Network, Inc. (EDEN) planned 65 units of Permanent Supportive Housing, called Emerald Alliance VI which are being built at Buckeye Rd and E. 116th Street. The project is a $10 million development designed to complement and enhance the character and aesthetics on the Buckeye Rd. corridor, while adding diversity to the area’s housing.
CMHA Homes
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) recently closed on land purchased from BSSDC to build a six-unit town home development at the entry of the East 115th Street Model Block. BADC and area residents were engaged in the project design to ensure neighborhood connectivity and integration of design with the existing neighborhood character. This project represents a $1.5 million reinvestment. Construction will be completed summer 2013.