The Cleveland Group Plan of 1903
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View of Mall & surrounding buildings from Terminal Tower.
Birdseye view of Mall looking south according to Group Plan, 1903.
The mall including City and County buildings, Federal buildings, Library, Board of Education, and Cleveland Public Auditorium.
Cleveland's Mall is flanked by public buildings and business structures.
Inspired by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the Cleveland Group Plan was the embodiment of the City Beautiful Movement. Grounded in the ideals of Beaux Arts Architecture, the plan called for Beaux Arts style buildings with Neoclassical details* to be arranged around a central Mall.
The Group Plan Commission, consisting of Daniel H. Burnham, Arnold W. Brunner, and John M. Carrere worked together for one year in an office in New York City to come up with the final design, which they presented to Mayor Tom Johnson as The Group Plan of the Public Buildings of the City of Cleveland.
The Group Plan of Cleveland is the earliest and the most fully realized plan for a major city outside of Washington, D.C. and remains one of the best extant examples of the City Beautiful Movement.
Elements of the plan that remain vital parts of Cleveland's cityscape today include:
- Federal Building
- Cuyahoga County Courthouse
- Cleveland City Hall
- Public Auditorium/Music Hall
- Cleveland Board of Education Building
- Cleveland Public Library
- The Mall
A Union Terminal that was planned for the north end of the Mall along Lake Erie was never built.
*Per a phone conversation on April 29, 2009 with Mr. D.H. Ellison, Architect of the D.H. Ellison Co.
For Further Reading:
- The Group Plan/The Mall
- "A Century of Planning in Cleveland"- by Keating et al. from Journal of Planning History1:1 (February, 2002) 79-93.
- Cleveland's Group Plan by Arnold Brunner from the Proceedings of the Eighth National Conference on City Planning, Cleveland, June 5-7, 1916.
- "The Group Plan of 1903" as provided by D.H. Ellison Co., Architects
- A "City Beautiful" Mall for Cleveland by Walter C. Leedy, Jr.- from The Gamut, number 8 (Winter, 1983). p. 39-62.
- The Mall - from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
- The Mall (Cleveland) - from Wikipedia
- Architecture
- Architecture: The City Beautiful Movement - from the Encyclopedia of Chicago
- Architecture - from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Credits & Appreciation
This website is the practicum project of Library and Information Science student, Linda Doll. She would like to thank the following from the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University: Bill Barrow, Special Collections Librarian; Lynn Bycko, Special Collections Specialist; Joanne Cornelius, Supervisor, Digital Production Unit; Kiffany Francis, Metadata/Communication Librarian; Lauren Felder, Web Specialist; and Andrew Cole, Digital Production Unit Student Assistant.
