Vibrant cities need vibrant public spaces in just the right places.
That’s why the Cleveland Public Library’s architecturally ambitious new Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch in University Circle, which opened in January on Euclid Avenue between East 105th Street and Stokes Boulevard, feels only partially finished.
The new branch looks and performs like a big indoor piazza. It houses a two-story, multifunctional central space overlooked by a semicircular mezzanine with a long, curving wooden reading desk and bookshelves on casters. The ground level space can accommodate reading, studying and computer browsing, but is also designed for public events that have included roller skating, line dancing, art exhibits, meditation classes, yoga, karaoke, and a “prom” for seniors and caregivers, organized by the nearby Cleveland Clinic.
“Coming into this space is amazing,’’ said Branch Manager Kimberly Hunter. “I could have never imagined this. For our patrons, it has been way better than we expected.”
Just one problem: Instead of a beautiful park or plaza just outside the two-story windows on the east side of the big central space, there’s a parking lot. That’s wrong. Until a park replaces the parking lot, the branch will feel incomplete, as if the library had missed a big opportunity.
If the parking lot remains, it will signal that having an asphalt dead zone next door is good enough for library patrons in the heart of Cleveland’s educational, medical and cultural district, and the majority Black neighborhoods of Hough, Glenville and Fairfax that cluster around it. Obviously, that’s not the case.
What the new branch needs is something like the Eastman Reading Garden, the tree-shaded refuge sandwiched between the original Main Library in Downtown Cleveland, built in 1925 at 325 Superior Ave., and the 10-story East Wing added in 1997 just to the east.
Adorned with a fountain designed by Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., and changing public art installations, the Eastman garden is one of the best and most beloved public spaces in the city. The MLK branch deserves something of similar quality.
No easy task
Turning the parking lot into a park, however, won’t be easy. The parking can’t simply be erased. The spaces serve Fenway Manor, the senior housing apartment complex at Stokes Boulevard and Euclid Avenue. The 11-story brick and limestone building was built in the 1920s as a residential hotel.
The Fenway is owned by the Orlean Co. and Renewal Housing Associates LLC. Ken Lurie, a principal at Orlean, said that the property, renovated in 2017 with low income housing tax credits, carries restrictions against changes.
However, he said, the owners agree that the Fenway’s parking spaces could be replaced without penalty by 75 new ones in a garage that will be expanded as part of the adjacent Circle Square development. Circle Square is a $450 million residential and retail development now rising in phases on either side of Stokes Boulevard between Chester and Euclid avenues.
Midwest Real Estate Development Partners, the developers of Circle Square, is willing to build the 75 new spaces needed by Fenway Manor, as long as others pay for them.
The cost for those spaces is estimated at $3 million, according to officials at the library and Midwest. Building the new park itself could cost an additional $3 million, said John Lang, the library system’s chief operating officer, who cautioned that the number is just an early estimate because the park hasn’t been designed yet.
Good news
The good news is that a design process could begin soon. In late June, the Cleveland Foundation’s board voted to award the library a $50,000 grant to create a conceptual plan for the park, which will lead to a more accurate cost estimate.
Representatives of the library and the foundation spoke about the grant for the first time publicly this month in interviews with Ideastream Public Media.
They said the library wants to engage the Boston landscape architecture firm of Sasaki, which designed the highly regarded Nord Greenway near the Cleveland Museum of Art. The work will become part of a larger study of public spaces commissioned by University Circle Inc., the nonprofit that oversees shared services across the mile-square district.
Designing the new park should also include participation by library users and residents in surrounding neighborhoods, plus Fenway Manor and the Artisan, a 24-story tower with 298 apartments that was finished in 2023 as the first stage of the Circle Square development.
A thorough and transparent public process will help build a case for the park and raise public awareness. Philanthropy will also be needed. Public libraries statewide, including Cleveland’s, are facing an estimated $25 million cut to the state’s library fund, a nearly 5% reduction in fiscal year 2026.
Following through on a vision
The park couldn’t have been built sooner because of the complexity of designing and building the new MLK branch as part of the overall Circle Square development.
The parking spaces that are needed to replace the ones at Fenway Manor obviously haven’t been built yet. They’ll come as part of a future phase of Circle Square. That phase will occupy the site of the library’s original MLK branch at 1962 Stokes Blvd., which hasn’t been demolished yet, but will come down as the development of Circle Square proceeds.
The library, for its part, couldn’t have vacated the original MLK branch unless it had a new place to go – the new branch around the corner. The developer agreed to a swap in which the library gave them the Stokes Boulevard site in exchange for the land needed for the new branch at 10601 Euclid Ave. The developer also contributed $5.2 million toward the $21.9 million cost of building the new branch, along with 50 free parking spaces in its garage for use by library patrons.
Also, as part of the deal, the library agreed to allow Midwest to build a nine-story apartment building atop the new MLK branch, called Library Lofts. With 207 studio and one-bedroom units, 75% of which have been leased, the project is the first library/apartment hybrid in Cleveland, although others like it have been built in other cities.
Exemplary project, but with a caveat
The collaboration among the library and Midwest is exemplary, but their final product is not entirely an architectural success. That’s not for lack of trying.
With funding from the Cleveland Foundation, the library worked with the nonprofit consulting firm of LAND Studio on a national design competition to choose the architects for the MLK branch.
The winning team, chosen from 31 entries, included the New York architecture firm of SO-IL plus Cleveland architect Jonathan Kurtz. Midwest chose Bialosky, a Cleveland architecture firm, to design the Library Lofts apartments upstairs. Bialosky also completed an earlier master plan for the first round of an effort to renew all 27 library branches across the city. The MLK branch is a keystone of that citywide library project.
The issue with the combination of Library Lofts and the MLK branch is that they don’t look convincingly integrated.
The apartments on floors three through 11 are enclosed in a façade with a pronounced grid pattern designed to evoke library shelves filled with books. The two-story library below, with its vertically pleated facades of folded glass and slabs of concrete, speaks another language.
The two portions are separated visually by the emphatic horizontal line of a projecting cornice and a horizontal ribbon of glass that touches where the two buildings join. The cornice literally leaves the library in the shadow of the apartments above.
The library also looks compressed by the apartments and less noticeable than it should be. A more harmonious approach might have made the two parts of the building look unified, while also giving due prominence to the library. The end result — not predicted by earlier renderings — leaves one wondering whether the design could have been handled differently.
Inside, however, the library is visually appealing and functioning well. The interior takes inspiration from the “table of brotherhood’’ envisioned by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1963 “I Have a Dream’’ speech.
The “table” is a slightly raised terrazzo floor in the heart of the library’s big central space, which is edged by cozy seating areas and a long curving desk with computer stations.
Adjacent areas on the ground level are devoted to use by young children and teens. Movable bookshelves throughout the building can be wheeled away quickly to make way for events for up to 1,000 people at a time. Even when it's empty during quiet times, the library has an expectant air, as if it’s poised for action.
What’s needed now is a beautiful space outside, and a strong connection to it.
It’s true that University Circle already has lush areas of parkland around Wade Lagoon, Wade Oval and the Cultural Gardens. What it doesn’t have is a cozy, inviting outdoor space next to a highly active public building. The parking lot between the new MLK branch and Fenway Manor is just the right place for such a park.
Hunter, for one, sees the need, and she believes the money can be found for it.
“If people understand what we're trying to do, I know they will give,’’ she said.
Clevelanders, let’s prove her right.
