Hello Columbus to the I-670 Cap

This is important:

Credit Meleca Architecture and Urban Planning of Columbus Ohio

What is it?
Here it is, from street-grade:

Credit Meleca Architecture and Urban Planning of Columbus Ohio

You say big deal: a city street. Exactly. But it is a city street which is crossing a freeway. I say, yes it is a very big deal.

The American freeways changed the world through which they ran. They facilitated a vast expansion of suburbs and ripped asunder many city neighborhoods. The project (in the oval in the uppermost picture) started out, in the mind of the Ohio Highway Department as a simple widening of the I-670 as it rolls through Columbus, Ohio. But the adjoining neighborhoods put up a fight. (This is my casual from-a-distance understanding of what happened.)

The compromise proposed by some local genius was to make the new overpass (neccesitated by the wider freeway) into a city street by lining it with shops to "link rather than divide." It is under construction now.

In terms of the daily lives of potentially millions, this is architecture at its finest. This is significant, this is meaningful. This is re-building, re-forming the world. Starchitects might well pay attention. (BTW, one may or may not like the particular architectural style of the buildings --- I happen to but that's not the reason this project is so important. Look beyond the style to the larger lesson and model of reconnecting the city by discovering spaces.)

Links below for more information on this marvelous project which ought to be known by every Mayor and City Council in the nation:

Google Search: I-670 Cap

Business First of Columbus

ODOT Interstate 670 Gallery Page

July 03 CoverStory

Columbus AlivewireD

(Maybe this is how Ray Kroc felt when he sat in his car outside the First McDonalds, just observing, letting it sink in, realizing that he was seeing something very big. More here at McDonald's Corporate Information McDonald's History Page 1. The scene of Ray Kroc sitting in awe in the parking lot must be one of the most dramatic scenes from American business history.)

UPDATE: Beyond Brilliance Takes Note

In Boston, I-90 is depressed as it passes through the city, including through the Fenway neighborhood, home of the ballpark. There are plans to buy the air rights from the Mass Turnpike Authority and build a highrise. There are arguments in the neighborhood about the scale of the building and other issues, many of which are probably valid. But really, could anything be worse than a 6 lane highway canyon?

Posted by: joe on August 29, 2003 09:46 PM

The Columbus project is not a typical air-rights deal; those are fairly common. The magic of The Cap it that it creates a connection between two sides of a freeway.

A high-rise --- if it had clear public right of way for both vehicle/bike/walker at its edges -- could also function that way. The issue is not so much "air rights" as "connection."

Posted by: David Sucher on August 30, 2003 01:50 AM

Comments

[Michael Jennings]

This reminds me how Westfield corporation builds malls over multiple city blocks in Australian downtown areas. That sentence may not make much sense to you on its own, unfortunately, and I cannot really write about it without some photographs. Being in England, I can't take them right now. I shall be in Australia in November, however, so I need to remember to right about this then.

[TM Lutas]

I'm pretty sure that highways with buildings on top of them occur several places in NYC, specifically I-95 just north of the GWB and East River Drive cuts under buildings at a few points along its length. Ultimately, the question needs to be whether the new commercial space created (and it does need to be commercial, not residential space) is worth the extra cost of its creation and periodic maintenance.

If it's not, then all you've got is an expensive white elephant.

[David Sucher]

I fear my post has failed in communicating the essence of the Columbus project.

The innovation is NOT the use of air rights over a city street/highway. Use of air rights is fairly common. The apartments over the George Washington Bridge approach is a very very different matter from what is being done in Columbus.

What Columbus has done is to link two neighborhoods by making the overpass itself into an ordinary street and building shops alongs its edge. Don't think "overpass" -- think "city street." That's the brilliance of it; one will not even be fully aware that one is crossing a freeway when on that overpass.

The only thing that I know which is remotely similar is the Ponte Vecchio in Florence and thePulteney Bridge in Bath.

[TM Lutas]

This may be a unique approach but it still doesn't save it necessarily from white elephant status. I would suggest that there are a couple of possibilities.

1. People haven't thought of doing this before, the extra commercial space is cost effective and worth the extra money invested.

2. People have thought of this, did cost/benefit analyses and generally concluded that it was a waste of time. The only reason it was done now was as a political bribe to the neighborhoods to let them widen the highway.

If #1 is true, you're right, it's very important. If #2 is true, then what will happen is that the stores will have unsustainably high rents and remain vacant or be filled by public functions such as police stations or bureaucrats offices, adding the extra cost onto the cost of government. In effect, a white elephant which will probably pass 20-30 years from now when the supports have to be redone due to normal wear and tear.

[clew]

Possibility three: the benefit will outweigh the cost, but will be economically reflected in the health of the city surrounding the new buildings. This might be explicitly captured by tax strategies - who am I thinking of? Henry George? If not, it might be recognized by the surrounding neighborhoods and provide the necessary support for public debt.

Cities are about what's around you. Suburbs are about cheap space.

[paul]

TM Lutas - there is a third possibility as regards rent. As far as having stores on the bridge goes, the benefits don't just go to the stores that take up shop there - it's actually a benefit for the entire community. So it makes sense that the community would want to fot some of the bill. From a policy standpoint the logical thing would be to have the rents for the properties on the bridge adjusted according to tose of nearby properties, with the rest of the costs paid from general revenue.

One problem I'm curious about is traffic - it sounds like they're expanding the bridge to handle increased traffic loads, but won't the shops there add to the problem? I'm just curious how they'll deal with increased congestion once they've started putting buildings there - it won't be so easy to expand next time...

[David Sucher]

"it sounds like they're expanding the bridge to handle increased traffic loads, but won't the shops there add to the problem?"

Paul,
No the High Street Overpass -- now called "The Cap" -- had to be made longer to handle a widening of I-670, the freeway underneath it. Such freeway widening, to my understanding, precipitaed the turmoil i.e. widening the freeway means disrupting the neighborhood, pushing the freeways impact yet farther into it.
The I-670 Cap is mitigation to make such freeway widening acceptable.
An important additional point -- critically important in fact -- is that The Cap will have on-street parking, making it a real piece of city.

[paul]

Should've realized this before - it's precisely the problem we're having here in Oak Park IL where I am. Hope this thing catches on - it certainly has potential to change the flavor of these communities cut up by freeways...

[Joshua Gordon]

ah, so this is how you post on your blog. ok, now even though i'm a musician, i'm also a lifelong architecture and engineering geek/fan. so i can tell you that in nyc there is plenty of old precedent for the columbus project, the best lowrise example i know of being near my bro in queens, the kew gardens LIRR overpass with its shops concealing the railroad below.

http://www.oldkewgardens.com/index/index-aerial-C.html
http://www.oldkewgardens.com/ss-kewcards/kc-0501-OL.html

Other lowrise examples I know of cover the Brighton subway line where it runs in a trench in Brooklyn (ex. Newkirk Ave). The ultimate coverup is of course the neighborhood over the rr yards around Grand Central in Manhattan.

[Meban]

Niccceee pagee

[Kartik Shah]

Hi i am University of Michigan Master of Urban Design student. For our studio in Detroit i am proposing a similar kind of development of bridging the I-75. Can any of you guys help me if there are more kind of examples of these developments or porposals .

[Michael]

I am looking for photos of the completed i-670 Cap and anyone send me some or point me to somewhere on like where I can find some at least (1024x768)

Thanks

[Dave]

Hi David,
Nice post. I live within 2 miles of this overpass and you provided more information than I've seen locally (or in the Dispatch, or I missed it). My family and I just recently watched a parade sitting on that very overpass. It's been developed quite a bit since then but most of the retailers have still not moved in. Thanks for the information and great photos.

[jlt]

This is terrific. Reminds me of an identical project of several years ago in Reno, NV, where a city street (and a big-box store, even!) cap the freeway as it cuts through the downtown area.

[Mike]

Warping ahead a year and a half since the last post on this topic...

I'm visiting Columbus right now and I'm happy to say that by all practical and visible accounts, The Cap is a full blown success. The truest measure? I had been walking down High St. for several blocks and didn't realize I was standing over I-670 until I saw the expansion joint where the street transititoned to the overpass. Aside from that little (wildly necessary) detail, the project is perfectly seamless. The area positively benefits. The retail spaces are completely filled and Short North transitions into the convention center district without a hiccup. This is infill development at its absolute apex. It's been a good eight years since I'd visited this area and I can say the difference is mind-blowing. In short (north), The Cap is is a breath-taking urbanist success story and a paradigm-busting triumph.

So yeah. The Cap worked.

Mike

[Eric Fredericks]

The Cap is a great project, very innovative and does a good job connecting the Arena District/Downtown with the Short North - one of the premier art districts in the country. Could have had a better design (not a big fan of pedestrian overhangs, and the back sides facing the freeway are bland), plus I hear the loading area for businesses is somewhat difficult. Despite its downfalls, it's still 800 times better than the typical ODOT freeway/local street crossing.

There used to be a good candy store, a cafe, and a few other clothing retailers there.
I shot some photos of it about a year & a half ago, just before I moved to Cali. Here is one shot, click around to see some of the others (they are not in order, but are nearby this photo on the filmstrip).

http://www.walkableneighborhoods.com/photos/displayimage.php?pos=-3726

Nice article!

[Benjamin Hemric]

Thanks, Eric, for the interesting photos!

What do you mean by "pedestrian overhangs," though, and why specifically aren't you a big fan of them? (Are you talking about the pedestrian arcades?)

Also, the way you say that "there used to be" a good candy store, etc. there, makes it sound like the retail has in some way gone "down hill" over time. Is that what you meant?

[Lauren]

Benjamin,

I think he just meant that before he moved to California a year and a half ago, there were some great shops on the cap.

I think this is a brilliant idea. Living in Phoenix, I'm sick of seeing bland overpasses (and we have more than plenty!).

I think the idea of this seamless transition is really quite aesthetically pleasing, as well.

I just wonder why no one thought of this before! It seems fairly straightforward.

-lauren

[Eric Fredericks]

Hi Benjamin,

Lauren is correct - I meant there were good shops there before I moved to California. By "pedestrian overhangs" I meant the arches along High Street over the freeway. They are setback a little farther than the rest of the streetscape (if I'm recalling correctly) and they really tend to "hide" the shops and pedestrians. This can be beneficial for pedestrians in terms of shade and protection from the elements, but I think it tends to create a walled-in feel along the streetscape.

With that said, I think the Cap was designed to look like an old nearby train station, but I'm not sure about that. And, I'm willing to bet that 95% of people unfamiliar with the area driving through don't even realize you're crossing over a freeway. Peds might realize this because there are some spots where you can still see the freeway.

I miss the Short North, I've seen nothing in California that can rival it!

[Ben]

I lived in the short north for several years after graduating from Ohio State in 2004. I got to see the original state of the area when I first started school in 2000 all the way through it's current state. Recently moved to Boston and must say that while the big dig project is/was a much more monumental undertaking, the cap project in Columbus managed to unite two areas (short north & downtown) that stood divided for as long as I can remember more successfully than the removal of the elevated highway was able to here. I think all the store fronts are occupied right now, there are several high end restaurants, a coffee shop, clothing shop and my incompetent old insurance agent's office.
There was always a High Street bridge over the 670 but it was just that, a bridge. It was a complete breakdown of continuity and the area suffered for it. The cap project helped to usher in a period of revitalization that still continues.
Further to a comment above (posted a long time ago, granted) the structures are meant to be a throw back to the old union station train station which was situated just down the street. It was torn down in the late 70's to make way for the new convention center.
Interesting tidbit, the grade of high street used to be a full story below where it is today to accomodate bridges over the railroad lines (where 670 and the cap are today) and I-70 to the south. Many old building have 2 basement levels, one of which used to be at street level. Random road or sidewalk work will often reveal these for a short period of time as fill was not pushed up directly against the old first floor facades, probably so they wouldn't cave in.

[A Meleca]

As a response to Eric's post from a couple years ago....

"not a big fan of pedestrian overhangs, and the back sides facing the freeway are bland), plus I hear the loading area for businesses is somewhat difficult. Despite its downfalls,"

...the architect had to meet the demands from the city and state (ie, back sides facing the freeway are bland) - the original design had windows but ODOT would not allow windows as they feared they would be a distraction to drivers below. ODOT specifially requested the backs of the buildings be as 'bland' as possible.

Also - the loading areas for business is difficult. Once again, these were city and state requirements. How does one load in the rear of the building when the rear is a drop-off to the freeway below? Think of the challenges the architect had to overcome with sewage and water service? How do you place restrooms, etc. in a structure where there is no ground below?

Solutions had to be created to handle all the challenges of placing a structure on a bridge.

[Chad]

Absolutely agree with this article a 100%! This would be a great progress for our city. Freeways is a necessity to move a place in an upward direction.