Mar 16 2016

Sunset on the Cuyahoga River

Brent

Burning River

Info on the Cuyahoga River from Wikipedia: “The Cuyahoga River is famous for being “the river that caught fire,” helping to spur the environmental movement in the late 1960s. The name “Cuyahoga” is believed to mean “crooked river” from the Mohawk Indian name “Cayagaga,” although the Senecas called it “Cuyohaga,” or “place of the jawbone.” At least 13 fires have been reported on the Cuyahoga River, the first occurring in 1868. The largest river fire in 1952 caused over $1 million in damage to boats, a bridge, and a riverfront office building. On June 22, 1969, a river fire captured the attention of Time magazine, which described the Cuyahoga as the river that “oozes rather than flows”.

The 1969 Cuyahoga River fire helped spur an avalanche of water pollution control activities, resulting in the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA). As a result, large point sources of pollution on the Cuyahoga have received significant attention from the OEPA in recent decades. These events are referred to in Randy Newman’s 1972 song “Burn On,” R.E.M.’s 1986 song “Cuyahoga,” and Adam Again’s 1992 song “River on Fire.” Great Lakes Brewing Company of Cleveland named its Burning River Pale Ale after the event. Water quality has greatly improved and, partially in recognition of this improvement, the Cuyahoga was designated one of 14 American Heritage Rivers in 1998″.

More info:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River

All photos are copyright of  Brent Durken – www.brentdurken.com

To purchase a digital download of this photo for your website or blog please visit: https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-zRG6xB/

Purchase a print of this photo: Brent Durken Print Sales

http://brent-durken.pixels.com/

 


Mar 2 2016

East 4th Street

Brent

East 4th Street

East 4th Street is a major downtown neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, known for its food and  entertainment. The street runs between Euclid Avenue and Prospect Avenue. This area has become something of a trendy hangout and has become a destination for visitors to Cleveland. The area is home to many famous Cleveland restaurants, including The Greenhouse Tavern, Lola, Pickwick and Frolic and The House of Blues. The amazing old Cleveland Arcade is located just across Euclid Avenue from East 4th St.

All photos are copyright of  Brent Durken – www.brentdurken.com

To purchase a digital download of this photo for your website or blog please visit: https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-zRG6xB/

Purchase a print of this photo: Brent Durken Print Sales

http://brent-durken.pixels.com/


Feb 3 2016

Flats East Bank

Brent

Flats East Bank Cleveland

The Flats East Bank Project is quickly becoming a hotspot along the river in Downtown Cleveland. Here is some more information about this project from the Flats East Bank website: Flats East Bank redevelopment is a partnership between The Wolstein Group and Fairmount Properties driving $750 million in waterfront redevelopment with an 18 story office tower, trendy hotel, state of the art fitness club, and a range of local restaurants.  Fall 2015 marked the completion of Phase II with even more amenities to the growing riverfront district as it added 241 unit high-end residential, restaurants, entertainment venues, and extensive riverfront boardwalk. The late Bert L. Wolstein and his wife, Iris S. Wolstein, started Developers Diversified Realty, which grew into a successful national real estate development company. They later opened Heritage Development. Bert and Iris have long been generous to Cleveland – having donated more than $40 million to local hospitals, colleges and other institutions. Mr. Wolstein worked for more than 25 years to transform the rundown Flats East Bank into a first-class, vibrant, accessible riverfront. After he passed, Iris, along with her son Scott, executive chairman at Developers Diversified Realty, as partners in The Wolstein Group, continued to pursue Bert’s vision. In 2005, after they rigorously worked with multiple parties to assemble land and financing, Iris and Scott unveiled their ambitious plans for this landmark development and even after the project was precipitously slowed by the Great Recession, Iris remained determined to see the development occur. The future of The Flats East Bank is looking very bright. “This isn’t just another entertainment district – it’s a catalytic neighborhood that’s going to place this city on the map as an urban waterfront destination,” Scott Wolstein said of the revitalization of the area. “The redevelopment of the Flats East Bank was my father’s dream but he never got to see it materialize. We knew the potential was vast, but now to see the blood, sweat and tears of the last few decades come to fruition is very gratifying,” said Scott. Driving more people to live, work and play, downtown, will only benefit the city.  “I want Greater Clevelanders to be excited about this project and what it means for the future of Cleveland.”

For more information on the Flats East Bank please visit: http://www.flatseastbank.com/

All photos are copyright of  Brent Durken – www.brentdurken.com

To purchase a digital download of this photo for your website or blog please visit: https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-zRG6xB/

Purchase a print of this photo: Brent Durken Print Sales

http://brent-durken.pixels.com/


Dec 21 2013

Greater Cleveland Aquarium

Brent

Greater Cleveland Aquarium cleveland Aquarium Greater Cleveland Aquarium
In today’s photo blog I wanted to share some photos from the Greater Cleveland Aquarium. If there is one place you should visit with your children over winter break this is it!  I was fortunate enough to visit and photograph the aquarium last week and I was very impressed with it. Not only is it much larger than I expected but there are tons of things to see and do! You can pet rays or maybe even scuba dive with sharks! The aquarium itself is housed in the old powerhouse near the Nautica Entertainment Complex which includes the Windows on the River, Trolley Tours, the Sugar Warehouse with Shooters on the Water, the IMPROV Comedy Club and Restaurant, and Jacobs Pavilion.  

Here is a little about the Aquarium from their website:

 “Consider the Greater Cleveland Aquarium a portal; a portal that will take you all over the world without ever leaving Cleveland. Visit Australia, South America, Africa and the Indo-Pacific; discover aquatic life native to the lakes and rivers of Ohio, and exotic aquatic life native to the Red Sea, Eastern Asia, Indonesia, Fiji and Hawaii. Learn about our animals, how we care for them, when they eat, what they eat and the personalities each one has developed during their time spent here with us. Located in The FirstEnergy Powerhouse, which is considered an historical building, the Greater Cleveland Aquarium spices up the old brick building with fresh colors and playful aquatic creatures with a fun and educational setting”. 

For more information on how you can visit the Greater Cleveland Aquarium please follow this link: http://greaterclevelandaquarium.com/


May 15 2013

Mapleside Farms in Brunswick

Brent

 

mapleside Farms brunswick

From the Mapleside Farms website: “Mapleside Farms is a 100-acre fully functioning apple orchard located in Brunswick, OH. Mapleside Farms has long been a destination for families and friends to get together to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal, fresh homegrown produce, piping hot home baked pies and an amazing view of the Northeast Ohio countryside. It’s the kind of place where children who once came to Mapleside with their grandparents now bring their own grandchildren to share the same traditions”.

Check them out at http://www.mapleside.com/index.php

Today’s Quote:

“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men”. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Mar 9 2013

Shipping on the Cuyahoga River

Brent

cuyahoga river

“The Cuyahoga River was a retreat from the last glaciers ever seen in the United States. It is called an “infant glacial river”, because it is young compared to all of the other rivers formed by glaciers. The river was formed about 13,000 years ago, but the Cuyahoga Valley has been there even longer. The Cuyahoga River also had a great influence on the Native Americans. The Native Americans named it “Cuyahoga” meaning “crooked river”. The Cuyahoga River also had a great influence on the Native Americans. They came as early as 200 B.C. to the Northeastern part of what is now the Ohio Valley. The Indians used the river mainly for food and transportation. They built canoes and fished along the river. The river had an abundant supply of fish as well as plants. Also, large game settled near the river. These resources made it very easy for the Native Americans to live. As the War of 1812 ended, Western settlers displaced the Indians off the Cuyahoga Valley. The Cuyahoga River was becoming a place which was rich and plentiful. Moses Cleveland founded the township of Euclid at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in 1796. Benjamin Franklin and George Washington thought that the Northern part of what is now the Ohio would be of great importance. They knew that the Cuyahoga was the prime spot for the continental divide passing directly through and for the mouth coming out at the Lake Erie”.

For more info:

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/fenlewis/History.html

Today’s Quote: Concentration is my motto – first honesty, then industry, then concentration. – Andrew Carnegie


Mar 4 2013

Hebrew Cultural Garden in Cleveland

Brent

 

Cleveland Jewish garden

Today’s photo is of the Fountain of Wisdom located in the Hebrew Cultural Garden in Cleveland.

From the Cleveland Cultural Gardens website:

“The Hebrew Garden was designed by T. Ashburton Tripp and was the first garden in what was to become the Cultural Gardens. Dedicated in 1926, it is a monument to the Zionist movement, as well as the vision of Leo Weidenthal, who was instrumental in the founding of the Cultural Gardens chain, or Poets’ Corners as he originally named it. The Garden is laid out with the sandstone walk forming a Star or Shield of David, six pointed star, around the Wisdom fountain which echoes the star with six sides and points. To the right or north is a rock garden or poets’ corner. To the left a lyre or harp shaped Musicians area. Beyond the rock garden, to the right or north are a series of boulders with plaques and beyond is the B’nai Brith memorial.Jewish Federation of Cleveland sponsors the Hebrew Cultural Garden through its Hebrew Cultural Garden committee”.

For more info: http://www.culturalgardens.org/gardenDetail.aspx?gardenID=17

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see”.- Henry David Thoreau


Mar 2 2013

Cuyahoga County Courthouse

Brent

Cuyahoga County

The Cuyahoga County Courthouse stretches along Lakeside Boulevard at the north end of the Cleveland Mall in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The building was listed on the National Register along with the mall district in 1975.

From Wikipedia”

“The building was constructed from 1906–1912 by the architectural firm of Lehman & Schmitt. The building is Beaux Arts style and is constructed of Milford pink granite from Massachusetts. The rusticated masonry of the ground floor includes deeply recessed and arched windows and doors. A protruding keystone tops each one. The front entrance is flanked by bronze statues of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton sculpted by Karl Bitter. Directly above the front entry doors are three large arched windows between fluted columns of the Ionic order allowing daylight into the courtroom within. The frieze of the cornice includes the inscription “Cuyahoga County Courthouse”. Above the cornice are several stone statues of historical law givers. Two of these figures, of Edward I and John Hampden, were sculpted by Daniel Chester French. The rear elevation facing Lake Erie is composed similarly, but with the inscription “Liberty is Obedience to Law”. A pediment with a plain tympanum surmounts the central element of the facade on both the north and south elevations”.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be… if we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” – Thomas Jefferson


Feb 9 2013

Guitar Mania Cleveland

Brent

Cleveland guitar mania

Today’s Cleveland Photo: GuitarMania Cleveland

From the GuitarMania website:

“GuitarMania® is a Greater Cleveland community public art project that has raised $2 million for its two benefiting charities – United Way of Greater Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s education programs. The project consists of large, 10-ft-tall Fender® Stratocaster® guitars creatively transformed into works of art by local artists and national celebrities. The guitars are displayed on the city streets of Cleveland for residents and visitors to enjoy from the end of May through October, 2012. Corporations, organizations and individuals sponsor the guitars and select from a variety of local artists to paint, sculpt or decorate them. Celebrity artists also paint and decorate guitars.”

http://www.cleveland.com/guitarmania/

Here’s a Fun Fact:

Did you know that Cleveland was originally spelled “Cleaveland,” named after General Moses Cleaveland. The “a” was dropped so that the name could fit into a newspaper’s masthead. For more cool fact about Cleveland check out the Citiview Cleveland website: http://citiviewcleveland.com/


Feb 4 2013

Dante Statue in Cleveland

Brent

Dante Statue in Cleveland

Today’s Cleveland photo is of the Dante Alighieri statue that was dedicated in the Italian Garden of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens on June 29, 2012. Here is some more information about Dante from Wikipedia: “Durante degli Alighieri, simply referred to as Dante, was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Commedia and later called Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature”.

For more info:

http://culturalgardens.org/gardenDetail.aspx?gardenID=10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri

Today’s Quote: “Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.” ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno