“While growing up in nearby Fort Thomas, downtown Cincinnati was like the nerve center of the universe to me. I was always begging my parents to take me over there. Until I visited Atlanta for the first time in high school, Cincinnati was the largest city I had ever been in.
Later in my life I found myself living in places like Chicago and New York City, so downtown Cincy no longer really impresses me with its bigness. That said, downtown Cincy is no slouch, and there are some much larger American cities that would kill to have a central business district as strong as Cincinnati’s. Many fine old buildings have been preserved and restored, the streets are generally clean and well-kept, and things are looking up. Downtown went through some rough periods through the 90’s and 2000’s, but the mood seems much more optimistic now that vacant storefronts are being filled and more people are choosing to actually live downtown.
This series of photos, taken during the week of June 20-26, 2009, includes downtown Cincinnati, the Cincinnati and Covington riverfront areas, the Purple People Bridge, and the Carew Tower.
Update: A few more photos added from March 2010.”
From Cincinnati: Downtown and the Riverfront, posted by David Cole on 6/28/2009 (125 items)
- The Tyler Davidson Fountain
- The Tyler Davidson Fountain in Fountain Square, the symbolic heart of the city.
- Fountain Square from the intersection of Fifth and Vine. Formerly located in a mall d…
- Fountain Square from in front of the Carew Tower.
- The Tyler Davidson Fountain
- The Carew Tower from Fountain Square
- The Carew Tower and Tyler Davidson Fountain. Since 9/11, Cincinnati and New York City…
- The exterior of the Carew Tower from Fountain Square.
- Carew Tower’s shopping arcade.
- The Netherland Plaza Hotel’s famed Palm Court, one of the most spectacular art deco i…
- Ornate metalwork in the lobby of the Netherland Plaza Hotel in the Carew Tower comple…
- Carew Tower’s lesser-known Concourse, located in the basement below the Arcade.
- A typical air grille in the Carew Tower’s Concourse.
- The Carew Tower Concourse, looking toward the office tower elevators.
- Ornate elevator door in the Carew Tower’s Concourse.
- Looking north from the top of the Carew Tower, toward Over-the-Rhine and the Universi…
- Looking straight down at Fountain Square.
- Looking east to Mount Adams.
- Toward the riverfront and the Northern Kentucky cities of Newport and Bellevue.
- Looking west toward the spaghetti junction of I-75 and I-71, with the convention cent…
- Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Bengals.
- The PNC Bank tower, formerly the Central Trust Tower. This building was designed by C…
- The Scripps-Howard Building, with the Great American Ballpark — home of the Cincinna…
- Looking down toward Fifth Street and Government Square.
- Downtown Cincinnati has an impressive density for a city this size. Keep in mind that…
- Looking west toward Union Terminal and the city’s west side.
- The new School for the Creative and Performing Arts, with the Macy’s (formerly Federa…
- A zoom shot of Union Terminal through the haze.
- The University of Cincinnati’s west campus.
- Looking northwest toward City Hall, the Millennium Hotel, and the former Shillito’s b…
- Looking northeast
- Mount Adams
- The Roebling Suspension Bridge, John Roebling’s precursor to the much more famous Bro…
- This mess of highway ramps will soon be entirely rebuilt as part of the Brent Spence …
- Piatt Park along Eighth Street, one of my favorite spots in downtown Cincinnati.
- Piatt Park
- One of several handsome buildings that overlook Piatt Park
- The Aronoff Center for the Arts, designed by Cesar Pelli.
- Zaha Hadid’s new Contemporary Arts Center
- The approach to the Purple People Bridge, formerly the L&N Bridge.
- Disused railroad tracks through Cincinnati’s waterfront area. These tracks may one da…
- The Serpentine Wall, the prime viewing spot for July 4th and Labor Day fireworks.
- The Purple People Bridge. The bridge once carried a railroad, a street, and streetcar…
- The elegant Daniel Carter Beard Bridge
- Structural detail of the Purple People Bridge. They don’t build ’em like this anymore…
- The former Louisville & Nashville Railroad portion of the bridge.
- The Purple People Bridge
- The Purple People Bridge
- The Purple People Bridge, with Mount Adams and the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge beyond.
- The Purple People Bridge, with the former railroad alignment to the right and former …
- The Cincinnati skyline from the Newport end of the Purple People Bridge
- The Daniel Carter Beard Bridge
- Massive stone piers that support the Purple People Bridge
- The Purple People Bridge
- The former railroad portion of the Purple People Bridge. Depending on how Cincinnati’…
- Mount Adams from the Purple People Bridge
- Yes, they actually show reruns of “WKRP in Cincinnati” on the Fountain Square jumbo-t…
- Looking west on Sixth Street
- Looking north on Walnut Street, with the Contemporary Arts Center on the left.
- Government Square, the city’s main transit hub for Metro busses. Cincinnati remains o…
- I’ve always liked the street light and traffic signal fixtures in downtown Cincinnati…
- Looking east on Fifth Street as storm clouds begin to move in.
- Looking east on Fourth Street
- A handsome loft building on Elm Street, now home to a design firm.
- One of several alleys that still exist downtown. Downtown Cincinnati’s street grid is…
- Fort Washington Way, which carries I-71 through downtown. Formerly a mess of entrance…
- Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Bengals.
- The Carew Tower to the left, and the PNC Bank building to the right. In almost any ph…
- The Freedom Center, a museum dedicated to the history of the Underground Railroad. Ci…
- Queen City Square under construction. When complete, this will surpass the Carew Towe…
- The Roebling Bridge and the Ascent as seen from Second Street, with The Banks project…
- The Great American Ballpark, home of the Cincinnati Reds.
- The Reds are the oldest professional ball club in the nation.
- The concourse of the Great American Ballpark, as seen through the entry gates. The Re…
- A memorial to Reds legends of days long past
- This little cluster of vacant buildings is just across from the ballpark. I’m not cer…
- Street fixture in downtown Cincinnati
- Looking west on Fourth Street
- Looking west on Fourth Street. This is the one street in downtown Cincinnati that res…
- Queen City Square under construction
- Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral. This building was built in 1957, and replaces an e…
- The KPF-designed headquarters of Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods behemoth. My ma…
- Government Square, with the Federal Building in the background.
- Cincinnati once boasted of an extensive Skywalk system that connected most of downtow…
- The Bartlett Building on Fourth Street
- The concourse of Dixie Terminal on Fourth Street. Streetcars and then TANK buses from…
- The 1902 Ingalls Building on Fourth Street, the world’s first skyscraper to use a rei…
- An ornate storefront on Fourth Street
- The old Pogue’s Garage hulking over Fourth Street, an unfortunate relic of a time whe…
- The entrance to the Cass Gilbert-designed PNC Bank tower.
- Loft apartments downtown, starting at $700 a month. Good luck finding those rents in …
- West Fourth Street
- West Fourth Street
- West Fourth Street
- Parker Flats, at West Fourth and Central Avenue. One of several new residential devel…
- Loft condos from $239,900. That price might get you a tiny studio co-op in a marginal…
- Expressway ramps above Third Street and Central Avenue
- West Fourth Street. Right around the time I took this photo, I overheard somebody tal…
- The former McAlpin’s department store on Fourth Street, now residential lofts.
- The Ascent in downtown Covington, a residential building designed by Daniel Libeskind…
- The Roebling Suspension Bridge. This was the first bridge to span the Ohio River at C…
- The Cincinnati skyline from Covington at dusk
- I was lucky enough to catch the Belle of Cincinnati, the flagship of the B&B Riverboa…
- The Roebling Bridge at dusk. People often comment that this bridge resembles the Broo…
- Other cities can boast of much larger city skylines, but I like to think that what Ci…
- The Cincinnati skyline as sunlight fades
- A few of the gracious homes that overlook the Ohio River in Covington’s historic down…
- A night shot of the Tyler Davidson Fountain
- Queen City Square II nearing completion in March 2010.
- Looking east on Pete Rose Way, with Mount Adams in the distance.
- The Tyler Southgate Bridge, which replaced the old Central Bridge on this site.
- Mehring Way and the Public Landing below the Tyler Southgate Bridge.
- The Tyler Southgate Bridge and the historic Showboat Majestic at the Public Landing.
- The sternwheeler sculpture thing on Mehring Way, with the Covington riverfront in the…
- Only a few more weeks until Opening Day…
- Downtown Covington
- Covington’s historic downtown at the mouth of the Licking River.
- Mount Adams
- The Taft Museum with Mount Adams and the Immaculata Church in the background.
- The Fifth Street Viaduct leading to Columbia Parkway, with Mount Adams in the backgro…
- Mount Adams
- Mount Adams
- The old Times-Star Building, built in 1933. The building now houses courtrooms for Ha…
- Inside Arnold’s, Cincinnati’s oldest bar.
- Inside Arnold’s
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