John Vacha is the first to write a comprehensive, in-depth account of Playhouse Square’s history, beginning with the Square’s 1921 opening and describing how the COVID-19 pandemic once again left its theaters temporarily empty before their triumphant reopenings in 2022. Richly illustrated and featuring interviews with the central figures involved in saving the Square, Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance is a powerful story that will appeal to theater history buffs and preservationists alike—reminding readers of the significant role the performing arts serve in shaping a city’s culture.

Each year in the United States, hundreds of religious buildings and schools become vacant or underutilized as congregations and populations merge, move, or diminish. These structures are often well located, attractive, eligible for tax credits, and available for redevelopment. In this practical and innovative handbook, authors Simons, DeWine, and Ledebur have compiled a step-by-step guide to finding sustainable new uses for vacant structures. The reuse of these important buildings offers those charged with revitalizing them an opportunity to capture their embodied energy, preserve local beloved landmarks, and boost sustainability. Rehabbing presents an opportunity for developers to recoup some value from these assets. Neighbors and other stakeholders also enjoy benefits as the historic structures are retained and the urban fabric of communities is preserved.

This book tells the story of the CCC’s construction of the Virginia Kendall Reserve, which today is part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, in Northeast Ohio. Four hundred and thirty acres of farmland came under the control of the Akron Metropolitan Park District and its director-secretary, Harold Wagner, who immediately applied to the federal government to establish a CCC camp there with the aim of creating a natural recreation landscape open to the public.

Based on the award-winning exhibition of the same name, Cleveland Goes Modern: Design for the Home, 1930–1970, examines Modern movement houses in greater Cleveland within the context of American Modernism as a whole. Beautifully illustrated with more than 150 drawings and photographs in color and black-and-white, the book features the work of six architects: Don Hisaka, John Terence Kelly, Robert Little, William Morris, Ernst Payer, and Fred Toguchi.

Eric Mendelsohn’s Park Synagogue tells the story of the construction of The Park Synagogue and examines how Mendelsohn consciously sought to express the ideals and traditions of the congregation and Judaism in its architectural forms. From one of the world’s largest copper-clad domes weighing 680 tons to the shape of the sanctuary and spectacular bimah, Mendelsohn sought to incorporate the architecture into Jewish ritual and worship. He favored dramatic curves of glass walls, circular stairwells, and porthole windows, and he used the circle as a dominant form throughout his career. The Park Synagogue is one of the few Mendelsohn buildings that remains virtually as it was built.

In the early 1960s, Olaf Prufer argued that the Ohio Hopewell societies who built the mounds that characterize the Middle Woodland Period (200 B.C. to A.D. 400) lived in small, scattered hamlets. Prufer’s thesis was evaluated at the symposium, “Testing the Prufer Model of Ohio Hopewell Settlement Pattern” and at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Pittsburgh, April 10, 1992. Several of those essays and others, including two by Professor Prufer, are included in Ohio Hopewell Community Organization.

The evolution of our institutions of learning, from one-room schoolhouses to the modern educational campuses of today, reflects both the growth of our populace and our shared cultures and traditions. Ohio offers an excellent perspective for viewing and interpreting educational architecture. The heritage of its pioneer settlers, the diversity of its immigrants, and its strategic geographic position for westward migration created a history typical of much of America. The state’s educational buildings reflect this rich history and culture.

Walker and Weeks was the foremost architectural firm in Cleveland for nearly forty years, from 1911 to 1949. Its clients were the wealthy and influential of Cleveland and the Midwest; its landmark accomplishments included the Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Severance Hall, the Cleveland Post Office, and the Indiana World War Memorial.

The Genealogy of Cities is a compilation of ancient and modern city plans, from 350 BCE to the present, depicting both built and proposed plans. Written in clear and accessible prose, it is illustrated with more than 500 plans drawn at the same scale, a unique feature of this work. It provides a previously unavailable tool for academics and professionals who must grapple with the issue of scale in researching and teaching urban design or when creating new urban spaces. Author Charles P. Graves Jr. created these computer-generated plans to provide a method of understanding models for modern cities while also creating a series of typological diagrams for both historical periods and city fabric. Also included in this volume is a CD containing nearly 1000 plans that will allow the user to print the urban plans at any scale.

Euclid Avenue, which runs through the heart of downtown Cleveland, was for 60 years one of the finest residential streets of any city in 19th century America. Showplace of America is the fascinating account of the rise and fall of this elegant promenade, including portrayals of the eminent architects who created its opulent residences and colorful details about the lives of the wealthy people who occupied them.