Cleveland Convention Center (demolished)
| Cleveland Convention Center | |
|---|---|
Cleveland Convention Center below Mall B in 2005; the reception pavilion is at right
|
|
| Address | 500 Lakeside Avenue |
| Location | Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 41°30′11″N 81°41′46″W / 41.503082°N 81.696004°W |
| Owner | Cuyahoga County, Ohio |
| Operator | Cleveland Convention Center and Visitors' Bureau |
| Built | 1960 to 1964 |
| Inaugurated | August 1964 |
| Opened | May 1964 |
| Renovated | 1987 |
| Expanded | 1987 |
| Demolished | 2011 |
|
Construction cost
|
US$15 million |
|
Meeting-room seating
|
120 (1964 average) 100-1,000 (1987) |
| Banquet/ballroom | 0 (1964) 4,000 (1987) |
| Enclosed space | |
| • Total space | 424,230 square feet (39,412 m2) (1964) 375,000 sq ft (34,800 m2) (1987) |
| • Exhibit hall floor | 208,000 square feet (19,300 m2) (1964) 205,000 sq ft (19,000 m2) |
| • Breakout/meeting | 18 (1964) 37 (1987) |
| • Ballroom | 0 (1964) 32,000 sq ft (3,000 m2) (1987) |
| Parking | 500 (1964 500 (1987) |
The Cleveland Convention Center was a convention center located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. Built by the city of Cleveland beneath the Cleveland Mall adjacent to Public Auditorium, it was completed in 1964. Plans for the convention center were first made in 1956, but voters twice rejected initiatives to fund construction before approving a bond levy in November 1963. A local private foundation donated several million dollars to beautify the mall atop the convention center with a reflecting pool and fountains.
Construction was plagued by issues with ground water, protests, strikes, and cost overruns. A major dispute broke out between civil rights activists and labor unions in the summer of 1963. Nevertheless, the convention center informally opened on May 11, 1964, almost three months ahead of schedule. A formal dedication on August 28, 1964, was followed an 11-day festival.
The Cleveland Convention Center underwent a major $28 million renovation from 1983 to 1987. Substantially reconfigured, although not larger, it reopened on October 5, 1987. The convention center was demolished in 2011, and the larger Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland built in the same underground location. It opened on June 7, 2013.
Some time in 1954, Cleveland Mayor Anthony J. Celebrezze asked local architect R. Franklin Outcalt of the Cleveland architectural firm of Outcalt Guenther & Associates to work with him on a place for revitalizing the Cleveland Mall and lakefront near it. Outcalt agreed to donate his services for free. On May 29, 1956, Celebrezze and Outcalt unveiled their preliminary plan before a local committee supporting the International Geophysical Year. The plan proposed an "international center" which would lead from Public Auditorium's exhibition space under Mall C (the northernmost part of the Cleveland Mall) over the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway and New York Central Railroad tracks and toward Cleveland Stadium. The center would be primarily exhibition space, although an underground parking garage would be included. The plan also called for an 18-story hotel on land east of E. 9th Street, a 30-story office building with space set aside for companies engaged in international trade and representatives of foreign governments, an above-ground hall with permanent exhibits about international trade, an outdoor amphitheater, a swimming pool with a restaurant overlooking it, a plaza surrounded by stores selling foreign goods, and a reflecting pool. The plan also called for moving sidewalks on E. 9th Street between Lakeside Avenue and Euclid Avenue, and another running down W. Mall Drive from Lakeside Avenue to Rockwell Avenue and Public Square. Celebrezze said he would ask the Cleveland City Council for funds to conduct a preliminary study of the plan. But no such request was made.
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