From Glorious Gateways to “White Elephants” to a Mall and Museum: Cleveland and Cincinnati Union Terminals, 1900 to circa. 1990

Abstract

The thesis focuses on the development, architecture, and adaptive reuse of the Cleveland and Cincinnati Union Terminals from a period of about 1900 to 1990. Both cities had plans for union terminals as early as 1903, but neither city had them until the 1930s. By the end of the Second World War, passenger traffic had declined significantly. Soon after, they became white elephants in need of adaptive reuse. As early as the 1950s, ideas came about in both cities to reuse the terminals. However, it was not until the 1980s that anything with either terminal was done. In Cleveland, real-estate developers came up with the idea to create a mall, The Avenue at Tower City Center, out of the old union terminal. In Cincinnati, local museums needed new homes, so they created the Museum Center at Cincinnati Union Terminal. The Avenue at Tower City Center in Cleveland, Ohio opened March 29, 1990 and the Museum Center at Cincinnati Union Terminal opened November 10, 1990. The twentieth anniversary of both adaptive reuse projects occurred last year in 2010.