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 News & Updates | Newsroom News & Updates: Newsroom RTA news
Artwork available on request Sept. 10, 2009 RTA officials
break ground for first downtown bus hub
The Congresswoman was a strong supporter of
transit in general and this facility in particular, says Joe Calabrese, CEO and
General Manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA). 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,” Calabrese says. “She believed, as well as
practiced, service to the community, to our young people and to the
disadvantaged. She used public transportation. It was not unusual to get a call
from her after her ride on the Rapid from the airport with suggestions about
what GCRTA could do to improve service to our customers.” “She
will be remembered as a leader, a friend and a pillar of the Greater
Cleveland community.” The facility, RTA’s first downtown bus hub, is
expected to open in fall 2011. In early planning work, it was known as the East
Side Transit Center. The site The transit center is on the
south side of Prospect Avenue, east of the Wolstein Center and adjacent
to the new parking garage at Cleveland State
University, between East 21st and East 22nd streets. The center
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 a new CSU housing or a
mixed-use building design that may include commercial retail space linked to
the parking garage. Benefits
The project includes: · A 2,000 square foot indoor waiting area for people catching a bus or transferring. This is similar in function and design to an airport terminal. · Restrooms, food kiosks and a customer service area. · State-of-the-art customer electronic information displays in a building connected to 3 integrated canopies and 12 bus station bays. · The building has terrazzo floors and wooden beams. · The transit center’s design is aiming at a LEED’s Gold certification. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a 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. · A landscaped plaza, planter and public art. Finances Architects from Osborn Engineering designed the facility. 100 percent of the work is being done with federal funds, and 87 percent of the construction work is being funded by stimulus dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The construction contract with Infinity Construction is for $6.4 million. About 26 percent of the work, or $1.66 million, will be done by Disadvantage Business Enterprises – Comm Steel, Cook Paving, Gator Cons, Cook Paving, Extreme Cabling and Rockport Ready-Mix. Public art RTA commissioned a sculpture of the Congresswoman, to be installed in the transit center. The sculpture, to be done 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 1 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 competitive process coordinated by RTA’s Arts in Transit Committee. The plaza of the transit center will incorporate the pearl
and other symbols of the Delta sorority, which the Congresswoman so actively
supported. FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES ONLY:
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