For now only a featureless massing, Case Western Reserve University’s proposed Humanities Building on Bellflower Road is shown to satisfy Cleveland Planning Commission requirements to win permission for demolishing a vacant house in University Circle (CWRU). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Fraternity house to be razed for temporary parking
Cleveland City Planning Commission today approved a conceptual design for Case Western Reserve University’s new Humanities Building and to demolish an abandoned fraternity house at 11333 Bellflower Rd. to make way for it. Most of the rest of the roughly 1.6-acre site in University Circle is used as a parking lot.
However, the former Delta Sigma Delta fraternity house property will be used as an interim parking lot until the university can raise tens of millions of dollars to construct the Humanities Building. As proposed in CWRU’s 10-year campus master plan, the new building would consolidate CWRU’s humanities programs from six sites around campus into a single location.
CWRU bought the fraternity house in 2022 for $340,000 from Lambda Chapter Corp., county records show. Last year, the planning commission denied the university’s request to demolish the house, citing the lack of a plan for reusing the site for anything more than a surface parking lot. The presence of a building plan, however conceptual and not imminent, was sufficient to win approval this time around.
The vacant house is not historical or a local landmark, nor is it in a historic district, said Michael Bruder, assistant vice president for planning, design and construction at CWRU. There is no economic viability for rehabilitation as the structure has minimal square footage, no ADA accessibility, and no need for this
type of housing space to overcome major costs to bring the building up to code, he said.
Proposed location of Case Western Reserve University’s new Humanities Building on Bellflower Road (CWRU).
“We’re looking at a 100,000 to 150,000-square-foot building based on need,” Bruder said. He was hired by CWRU at the end of 2023 and, according to his LinkedIn profile, served as executive director of facilities, planning and design at Kent State University from 1999-2020 where he oversaw multiple, major construction projects.
“Space for our humanities programs are a high priority for us due to increasing enrollment and student needs,” Bruder added. “CWRU is committed to the overall humanities project, but we are in the very early stages of development. To date, CWRU has invested over $100,000 in programmatic and conceptual design for a humanities building on this site.”
Preliminary plans also show the building could be built atop an underground parking garage for approximately 150 cars. That’s 50 percent more than the roughly 100 spaces total among the two existing surface parking lots on the site. School parking will be used mostly during the day with parking for L’Albatross and Denny’s in the evenings. About 10 surface parking spaces could be offered on the western side of the new school building.
The former Delta Sigma Delta fraternity house at 11333 Bellflower Road was purchased and boarded up by Case Western Reserve University. The building sits across the street from the university’s admissions’ office, giving new students and their families a bad first impression, city and university officials say (CWRU).
Today, the commission first approved the conceptual plans for the Humanities Building, which could not be built with the house still standing. So it would have been awkward if the commission had voted next to oppose the house’s demolition. Both supportive votes were unanimous, buoyed no doubt by letters submitted to the commission by two Cleveland City Council members who serve the area.
“The property is adjacent to Ward 6 and sits directly across the street from the CWRU Admissions office,” said City Council President Blaine Griffin of Ward 6 in his letter. “Having a vacant building in poor condition directly across the street from where prospective students and parents have their first encounter with the university does not send a good first impression. We want to be supportive of the university’s efforts to recruit the best and brightest to Cleveland and having that building there does not help with that goal.”
He also expressed support for CWRU’s intentions to construct a new building to house its humanities program. The original location that was considered for this building was at the park-like green space known as East Bell Commons, 11141 East Blvd., across the street from the Cleveland Art Museum.
A preliminary site plan for the proposed Humanities Building (CWRU).
“I think that it works better, from a community perspective, to maintain that space as a green space and to instead build where the vacant (fraternity house) building sits,” Griffin wrote.
“I have had the opportunity to see the (fraternity house) building up close and it is in terrible condition,” wrote Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell. “One of my primary concerns as a councilman is for the safety and well-being of my constituents. Vacant buildings, as we have seen time and again, pose a significant safety risk to the neighborhood.”
“I’d like to kindly request that you don’t approve demolition of this grand home in the former Wade Park Allotment for a surface parking lot,” wrote Laura Cyrocki, president of the Hessler Neighborhood Association to the commission. “We’ve seen too many examples of demolition with intentions to develop result in surface parking lots which remain parking lots for decades.”
View of a massing for the proposed Humanities Building from the Nash Walkway. L’Albatross Restaurant is seen at right. A massing is intended only to show the potential scale of a new structure based on space needs, not any architectural details (CWRU).
“It is my understanding that Case is planning to build on this site in the near future,” Conwell said. “With that being the case, I would much rather (see) the building be razed now instead of waiting until they are ready to build the new building. There is no sense in having another building sit vacant unnecessarily.”
Cyrocki asked in her letter that, if the new Humanities Building is built, for the city to remove on-street parking near the intersection of Bellflower and Hessler Court, which is right in front of the vacant fraternity house.
“At this time, leaving Hessler Court onto Bellflower is treacherous for both pedestrians crossing Hessler Court and for drivers,” she said. “Cars parked on the south side of Bellflower, on either side of Hessler Court, make visibility horrendous. This, coupled with the abundant pedestrian traffic between students’ classes, makes this intersection very dangerous.”
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