FINDLAY COMMUNITY CENTER

The new Findlay Community Center is focused on transforming a troubled and underutilized civic space into a community amenity that addresses the needs of the entire OTR community, with a specific focus on providing positive activities and programming for underprivileged youth in the neighborhood. Upon completion, the project will feature a 60,000 square foot state-of-the-art community center, an 8,000 square foot childcare and early learning center, robust programming to ensure youth engagement, and equitable access to all amenities, including indoor aquatics, a dedicated roller rink, a gym, fitness areas, meeting rooms and more. The project is being completed in tandem with the redevelopment of the existing Over-the-Rhine (OTR) Recreation Center into a new and expanded home for Crossroad Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that is currently located on the corner of Vine and Liberty streets.

PROJECT PLANNING

In late 2020, the City of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Recreation Commission (CRC) requested that 3CDC take the lead in the redevelopment of four CRC-controlled properties in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood: Findlay Playground, Grant Park, Over-the-Rhine Recreation Center, and the Elm Street pocket park. In addition to being in various states of either disrepair or underinvestment, the sites have experienced significant public safety challenges (including recent violent crime activity), and are surrounded by vacant and blighted structures. The Findlay Community Center project has the potential to address these challenges and have a transformative impact.

The project began with an initial community engagement phase, led by Barker Rinker Seacat, a nationally renowned architecture firm that specializes in recreation facilities, and locally based MBE firm Moody Nolan. During Summer 2021, multiple workshops and small group sessions were held and several surveys were distributed to seek input from neighborhood residents and business owners. Nearly 300 responses were collected from the surveys and more than 200 people attended the workshops or small group sessions.

Review the Engagement Report.

The next phase of the project included site programming and analysis based on information received during the first community engagement phase. Throughout September and October, 3CDC attended multiple community meetings and hosted another in-person input session where the architecture team presented its recommendations for the site based on feedback from the initial phase of community engagement. Additional design team members Human Nature and City Studios also contributed to this work.

Read the Recommendation Report.

Initial proposed recreational amenities at these spaces include but are not limited to a new state-of-the-art recreation center; play fields and courts; facilities for aquatic activities, day care, after school programs, and health and wellness programs; areas for passive recreational activities; other amenities or programming identified in the community engagement process.

Based on community input and feedback received during this community engagement phase, the design team held another community engagement session in May 2022. The design team outlined preliminary concept designs for the new recreation center, to be located at Findlay Playground, and options for physical improvements to Grant Park. The concept design has been further developed based on the feedback from this session.

Review the Presentation.

The community engagement process is ongoing, and additional information will be added to this page as the project progresses. Community members with questions or feedback can submit those to FindlayRec@3cdc.org.

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