Five Points Cincinnati, Ohio

Services Provided

Site and Public Space Planning
Landscape Architecture

People Involved

Darren Meyer
Jane Jordan

Awards

2016 Making Your Place Award, Cincinnati Neighborhood Summit

Neighborhood life emerges at the confluence of five urban alleys.

Five Points sits at the convergence of five city alleys in Walnut Hills, an urban neighborhood of Cincinnati. Until recently, Walnut Hills had steadily become more vacant for decades despite its proximity to Over-the-Rhine, the region's universities, downtown, and several primary transportation corridors.

Answering the neighborhood's call for a revitalized commercial district and community space, the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation leveraged a number of partners to activate Five Points. MKSK, through its Community Impact Studio, led the public space design and concept testing using reclaimed materials from in and around the space and neighborhood. BLDG, a creative branding studio, curated an international competition for gateway signage murals at the doorway created by each of the five alleys. In addition, BLDG installed Wind, an installation in boarded up windows that celebrates the neighborhood's diversity and sense of humor. The University of Cincinnati partnered by using their MetroLAB team to prototype, design, and build moveable vending kiosks and a stage.

The goal of Five Points was to transform the space and reimagine the experience of the site by creating a new and inclusive programmed public space for the community. Music, diversity and collaboration connect at Five Points: Neighborhood musicians, local microbreweries, and mobile food vendors all enthusiastically committed to be part of the new programming. Five Points is managed and programmed by Cincy Nice, a black-forward community group, along with Cincinnati funding partners Arts Wave.

Five Points has become a permanent living and entertaining room of the neighborhood; and the community has attracted over $50 million in new equitable investment along the corridor. Every month on the third Saturday, residents continue clean ups to maintain the reclaimed space.