Venice Pizza Project

Venice Pizza is an outstanding collaborative project that involved community leaders, eight individual architects and more than forty architecture students from two universities, two private architectural firms, and two community based non-profit organizations to design and build a restaurant and non-profit facility in Over-The-Rhine. Venice Pizza is a program of Power Inspires Progress (PIP), which provides job training and employment readiness for low-income residents through the operation of a restaurant and catering facility, now at 1301 Vine Street. Through the off-campus community based University of Cincinnati Niehoff Urban Studio in OTR architecture and interior design students of the UC School of Architecture and Interior Design (UCSAID) instructed by Architect Carrie Biedelman provided design concepts for PIP and the building sponsor, ReStoc, a non-profit affordable housing provider. Following approval by PIP the UC Community Design Center (UCCDC) with funding from the UC Institute for Community Partnerships (UCICP) provided complete architectural services under the supervision of Project Architect Frank Russell with the benefit of pro-bono consultation from two local architecture firms, KZF and Brashear Bolton. Finally UC SAID students instructed by Architect Terry Boling and Miami University Architecture Students directed by Tom Dutton and Robert Bell of the Miami University Center for Community Engagement in OTR provided design-build services for the finishes in the dining and office spaces respectively. The 2400 s.f. project consists of a Pizza and catering kitchen, dining area, and office-training room in the storefront of a three story historic mixed-use building. The Venice Pizza Project, located on Vine Street in Over-The-Rhine, celebrated its "soft" opening in June. The restaurant is now open for business. See event page for more information.

View images from this project

Project Team: Lauren Kelch, Carlos West, and Scott Mcgrath Collaborative Partners: Power Inspires Progress (Non-Profit Organization); ReStoc (Non-Profit Organization) University of Cincinnati Community Design Center and Niehoff Urban Studio: Instructor and Architect Frank Russell: Project Architect University of Cincinnati School of Architecture and Interior Design, Architects and Instructors Terry Boling, Carrie Biedelman, and Tom Bible; Miami University Department of Architecture and Interior Design and Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine Architects and Instructors Tom Dutton and Robert Bell More than 40 University of Cincinnati and Miami University Architecture and Interior Design Students Faculty Involved: University of Cincinnati: Carrie Biedleman, Terry Boling, Frank Russell Miami University: Tom Dutton, Robert Bell Miami University Students Involved: Charlotte Bornhorst, Nicole Brown, Nicholas Elster, Brad Kaiser, Alex Kolakowski, Ellisa Masin, Neil Sanders Charles Veneklase, Libby Weisenberg, Michelle Cisar, Mark Momper, Lauren Davis, Rusty Slovenec, Jennifer Dort, Jonathan Pietro, Aaron Schielke, Michael Frederick, Matt Charney, Jill Greenwood, Jabari Garland, Dan Bolohan, Robert McNabb, Chang Liu University of Cincinnati Students Involved: Julia Bryan, Lauren Farquhar, Claire Collier, Sarah Knapke, Rebecca Delaplane, Lauren Kelsch, Chris Sommers, Timmy Carlin, Rob Conner, Ben Crabtree, Brian Gernetzke, Craig Hamilton, Jessica Kersting, Michael Mclaughlin, Eli Meiners, Ashley Murphy, Ian Ramous, Kevan Rutledge, Kate Votava, Michael Wagner, Travis Wollet, Emily Wray, Matt Zeire, John Back, Matt Brown, Meghan Conover, Shaun Evans, Dominic Iacobucci, Brandon Kelly, Stephanie Kroger, Travis Little, Barret McClish, Jerry Sabatini, Kevin Schreur, Greg Snyder, Carlos West