Updated Aug. 22, 2010
On Oct. 19, 2010, officials of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) dedicated a new $9.3 million transit center in honor of
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. The facility, RTA’s first downtown bus hub,
was known as the East Side Transit Center during much of the planning process.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 10, 2009.
The Congresswoman
The Congresswoman was a strong supporter of transit in general and this facility in particular. She was instrumental in securing funding for the building. Tubbs Jones
represented Ohio’s 11th District from Jan. 3, 1999, until the time of her death on Aug. 20, 2008.
"Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones was committed to public service," says Joe Calabrese, RTA’s CEO and General Manager. "She believed in, as well as practiced, service to
the community, to our young people and to the disadvantaged. She used public transportation, and it was not unusual for us to get a call from her after her ride on the Rapid
from the airport with compliments or suggestions regarding services to our customers. She will be remembered as a leader, a friend and a pillar of the Greater
Cleveland community."
The site
The transit center is located at
2110 Prospect Avenue,
on the Cleveland State University campus.
It is a coordinated development with CSU, which owns the land that was once a surface parking lot. It has a high concentration of CSU students, transit users and transit
service. Part of the site may someday hold new CSU housing or a mixed-use building design that may include commercial retail space.
The transit center will:
- Provide a safe and clean "airport-like" environment for RTA customers to wait for and to transfer between bus services.
- Serve thousands of RTA customers in the area with hundreds of buses daily.
Project description
- A 2,000 square foot indoor clean and safe waiting area similar in nature and design to an airport terminal.
- A customer service area, restrooms, and a food vending area.
- State-of-the-art customer electronic customer information both inside the waiting area and at the each of the 12 bus bays or gates.
Sustainability
The transit center’s design is aiming at a LEED Gold certification. LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a
certification program of the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED has a rating system for new buildings
constructed to have less impact on the environment and offer a comfortable workplace for employees with a landscaped plaza, planters and public art.
Finances
Total Project Cost: $9.3 million
Source of Funds: $4.4 million of Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds and
$4.9 million of Federal Bus and Bus-Related Facilities earmarked grants
Public art
RTA commissioned a sculpture of the Congresswoman to be installed in the transit center. The sculpture, by local artist
Michael Murphy, is composed of layers of steel plates positioned to create a 5-foot tall bust. RTA’s public art policy sets
aside at least one percent of the construction budget for art. The RTA Board of Trustees
awarded Murphy a contract for $138,000 to design, build and
install the artwork. The artwork was selected from 46 entries in a competitive process coordinated by RTA’s Arts in Transit Committee.
The transit center plaza will incorporate the pearl and other symbols of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority,
which the Congresswoman so actively supported.
Partners
Public art
