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Cleveland Foundation Headquarters – ULI Americas Awards for Excellence Finalist
May 3, 2024
Photo By Eric Hanson
Terraced outdoor spaces, a public café and glass nano walls on the east side of the building open onto the future park space between the foundation and Dunham Tavern Museum next door
Photo By Peio Erroteta/S9
The Barbara Haas Rawson Community Stair in the heart of the building’s second floor is a central gathering space
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Developers: Cleveland Foundation
Designers: S9 Architects; Vocon; Arlene Watson; Nolan Beck Rivera; Communication Exhibits Inc.; Merritt Chase; DERU Landscape Architecture; Osborn; Karpinski; Better Together Solar; and StructureCraft
Site Size: 1.2 acres
Photo By Merritt/Chase
A rendering shows plans for future development and greenspace in the vicinity of the Cleveland Foundation Headquarters
The Cleveland Foundation’s goal with its new headquarters was not simply to build an office building but to make a transformative place-based investment aligned with its mission and values. The 55,000-square -foot LEED-Gold-certified headquarters was conceived to fundamentally change the way the world’s first community foundation engages with the community it serves, while also changing the conversation and catalyzing equitable development in Cleveland’s historically redlined near east side neighborhoods.
Located along a main public transit line between downtown Cleveland and the city’s University Circle museum district, the site was chosen for its visibility, accessibility, and potential to make a catalytic impact that could benefit the surrounding area and strengthen the fabric of the city as a whole.
In the headquarters’ design, the industrial grid building common to the neighborhood is reimagined through mass timber construction, with a warm wood and glass façade that is transparent and welcoming. Designed for the future of work, with flexible office and meeting areas, the building dedicates half of its footprint to spaces that are open to the community, including a public café, dance and multipurpose studio, conference center and art exhibition space.
Photo By McKinley Wiley
Hundreds of guests toured the building during its opening day on July 15
The 55,000 square foot mass timber building was designed to be transparent and accessible to the community. It’s the first time in 100+ years that the Foundation has a sidewalk-level presence, with its previous offices on the 12th and 13th floors of an office building. It’s the first time the Foundation has co-located with Neighborhood Connections, a grassroots community organization the foundation helped to launch in 2003.
The programmatic design of the building was shaped by neighborhood resident engagement, led by architect Pascale Sablan. A community dinner with neighborhood residents early in the design process led the Foundation and team at S9 to radically re-imagine the building’s first floor. Their feedback encouraged permeability on all four sides of the building, emphasizing accessibility and a welcoming posture. The eastern side of the building “kneels down” toward the historic Dunham Tavern Museum next door, honoring the history of the site and connecting to neighborhood greenspace.
The first floor features a community curated art exhibition space; a nonprofit cafe that is open to the public and operates independently of the Foundation, employing individuals with developmental disabilities; a conference center offering state-of-the-art meeting space that is free for nonprofit organizations to use during the work week; and a multipurpose studio for dance and movement classes, performances and other activities. Neighborhood Connections’ offices, which operate independently and host regular community meetings, are housed in the northwest corner of the first floor.
The second floor is dedicated to staff work and meeting space and the “community stair,” where an art installation highlights winners of the Foundation’s Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. The third floor houses a boardroom and rooftop terrace with sweeping views of the city.
Photo By Peio Erroteta/S9
The main lobby of the building was designed to be warm and inviting
The project continues the Foundation’s history of transformative place-based investments. For more than 40 years, the Foundation’s offices were located in Cleveland’s Playhouse Square district, an area the Foundation helped to preserve and revitalize after becoming the first community foundation in the country to make a Program Related Investment from its endowment to save the historic theaters from demolition. With its office lease set to expire, the Foundation’s board and staff had a chance to thoughtfully explore a wide range of options for a future home and to determine whether there was an opportunity to play a similar role in a different Cleveland neighborhood.
After evaluating more than 40 sites across the city, in 2019 the foundation purchased the parcel at 6601 Euclid Avenue from the Dunham Tavern Museum. The land is located in MidTown Cleveland, along the southern edge of the Hough neighborhood. Economic investment has been scarce for decades, and the site of the Foundation’s headquarters was previously home to a factory that was demolished in 2012, requiring significant environmental remediation to address pollutants in the soil. The Foundation viewed these challenges as opportunities to fulfill its mission in myriad ways, becoming more transparent and accessible to the communities it serves while changing the narrative and honoring the vibrant cultural heritage of Cleveland’s east side neighborhoods.