UC Liaisons Help Neighbors to Pursue Improvements From: University Currents Date: May 5, 2000 By: Marianne Kunnen-Jones Phone: (513) 556-1826 Photo By: Colleen Kelley Archive: Campus News The playground at Burnet Woods sits in a dreary wet spot that often gets targeted by vandals. Is there a better spot that could be equipped with better playthings? The Ludlow Business District in Clifton could use more parking and a bigger public library. Is there a way to locate both in the already tightly compacted area? An old carriage house sits vacant and falling into disrepair behind Clifton Elementary School. Can it be saved and made useful again? These are just a handful of the challenges now facing UC's neighbors. Unlike most neighborhoods, these communities have a vast resource right next door a major research university to help them find the best solutions. Perhaps more than ever before, in recent years, UC has made an effort to keep a closer pulse on the needs of Clifton, Corryville and Fairview Heights by regularly sending university liaisons to meetings held by nearby community councils and planning groups. Initiated by Vice President for Finance Dale McGirr and University Architect Ron Kull, UC staff, including Kull and McGirr themselves, are serving on community committees to find out how UC can be a better neighbor. The strength of UC depends not only on what happens on campus, but what happens off campus in adjacent neighborhoods, notes Kull. "Students, faculty and staff cross the boundary lines of the university on a daily basis. The quality of the environment on and off campus must be seamless. It is essential that the university and adjacent communities work together to maintain and promote a suitable quality of life for all inhabitants." Attendance by an official UC representive has been a welcome addition to the Clifton Town Meeting, said current CTM vice president and former president Steven Schreiber. "Obviously UC is a huge institutional presence in our community and has a huge impact on our community. We would like to see the university grow and develop in ways that enhance the quality of life in our neighborhood," he said. Currently Michael Burrill of Campus Planning is the official liaison to the CTM; at least two UC faculty members Stanley Corkin and Stephen Keller serve on the CTM board as well. One of the biggest benefits of Michael Burrill's presence is informational, Schreiber added. "It really helps us to keep up with what the university is doing and planning." "Often it is just a matter of listening to what the needs might be and then mentioning it to someone on the faculty or making a suggestion of a contact," said Michael Burrill of Campus Planning who serves with the Clifton Town Meeting. "That's how the plans for a new Burnet Woods playground got started. Someone mentioned it at a meeting, and I brought it to the attention of Virginia Russell, a professor in DAAP." Russell agreed to assign 17 students to the playground problem and soon each of them had developed proposals for a new playground design. Those plans provided impetus and information needed for Doug Fraser, landscape architect with the Cincinnati Park Board, to make final designs. Already a new Frisbee golf course at the site is completed and a new $87,000 playground is expected to be competed by June, at a site near the picnic pavilion. "The DAAP student efforts definitely helped stimulate Fraser's interest," said Burrill. The need for a new library and garage was identified in a study by the UC Urban Design Center, which examined the Ludlow Business District. Ohio Eminent Scholar David Gosling and Urban Design Center Director Frank Russell, both in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, headed the study, while DAAP students assisted. One of the center's proposals was to build a garage with a library on top, to save space. "Now the council is actively looking for funds to make it happen," said Burrill. As to the old carriage house, Burrill himself has begun to study options and gather information on alternative uses for the 106-year-old structure, which sits behind the new section of Clifton Elementary at the end of Wood Street. Burrill has also helped to promote the upcoming Clifton House Tour, a fund-raiser for the Cilfton Town Meeting (see related story). He is also involved in an effort to get new "Welcome to Clifton" signs and landscaping improvements for Clifton's gateways, such as the recently built intersection of Ludlow Avenue and Central Parkway. Other UC administrators are involved in organizations that are planning a revitalized and improved Calhoun-McMillan business district and giving advice on the proposed Interstate 71 light rail transit corridor. UC officials plan for this kind of cooperation to continue well into the future. "The adjacent communities benefit from our stature, and they provide desirable places for visitors to the university to eat and shop and places for faculty, staff and students to enjoy the many benefits of the university in close proximity to home," said Kull.