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City Plans Greenspace at Front of Paramount Site
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The city Design Review Committee approved a 20-foot landscaped setback Tuesday for the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Paramount Theater, and is considering other aesthetic elements for the site.
Demolition of the decaying structure, which has been largely vacant for more than 30 years, is due to begin next month. In late March the city approved a $721,000 contract with Baumann Enterprises Inc., Cleveland, for demolition and abatement work at the West Federal Street site.
Activists with the Paramount Project, a local group formed to preserve as much of the structure as possible, had hoped to at least maintain the façade of the building to use as part of a planned amphitheater at the site, the rest of which would be used for parking. However, a structural analysis indicated that preserving the façade would cost about $1.4 million. The city received $803,490 in Clean Ohio funds to assist with the cleanup and demolition. About $300,000 would have been eligible for the Clean Ohio funds, leaving the city to raise $1.1 million.
Failing preservation of the façade, the Paramount Project partners then hoped to prevent the entire lot from being dedicated just to parking. The plan approved Tuesday by Design Review included an “open promenade” space at the front of the lot, reported Bill D’Avignon, who heads of the community development and planning departments and chairs the design review committee.
Other elements discussed the possibility of preserving pieces of the terra cotta façade for use as pillar, columns or planters, or retaining or replacing the existing building canopy, D’Avignon said. Renderings presented at the meeting show the iron canopy, pillars and fending surrounding the greenspace setback and tables and chairs within the space.
“The only thing that was approved was the general concept,” D’Avignon said. “A lot of details need to be worked out as to whether the pieces can be preserved [and] whether funding is available for replacing or preserving that iron canopy."
In addition to the cost, another issue is that work already has gone out to bid, “so anything we would want to do” would have to be with Baumann ‘s permission, said Phil Kidd, owner of the Youngstown Nation store downtown and a Paramount Project member. He wants to rally community support for preserving the terra cotta from potential “pushback” from the city.
“We’re very pleased,” Kidd said He lamented being unable to preserve “any aspect of the theater itself” but is glad for the opportunity to create “an aesthetically pleasing” space as well as addressing the need for parking. While there are “lots of blighted commercial structures” and thousands of residential structures that need to be demolished in the city, “what makes this different is you’re talking about the main street in downtown in the heart of downtown,” he remarked.
“If you’re just going to put up an asphalt parking lot it speaks to how seriously you take yourself as a city,” Kidd added. “It’s a statement about how we perceive ourselves as not only a downtown but as a city.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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