Cleveland Planning Commission approves schematic updates to Cavs new practice facility

The Cleveland City Planning Commission voted unanimously Friday, 6-0 to approve updated “schematic” plans for the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center as part of a “multi-step process toward construction of the project,” according to Steven Litt of the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER. The Clinic facility, a sports medicine center that will include a practice facility for the Cavaliers, is the "first phase of Bedrock’s 3.5 million-square-foot development." Yet members of the planning commission acknowledged after Friday’s meeting they “didn’t ask whether Bedrock’s renderings accurately depicted the smooth, flowing curves on the building’s facades that are central to its overall concept.” A new set of digital renderings show that the building will be “surfaced with panels of glass and metal.” Renderings suggest that the curves at the building’s corners will be “smooth and continuous,” especially when viewed in raking light, an effect “difficult to achieve unless the individual panels of metal and glass are curved.” A member of the architecture firm of Populous, which designed the building, said in an email that “the digital model that we [Populous] used to create the renderings does not feature curved glass." Litt noted it is unclear whether the curves would be “so broad as to avoid any suggestion of faceting,” or whether the computer-aided images are “smoothing things out.” But the issue “could be significant, given the great emphasis of the design on curved surfaces.” Planning Commission Chair Lillian Kuri said after Friday’s meeting that the body “would need to see additional details to understand the curving contours in the design” (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 4/20).