Cleveland Terminal Tower - November 2010

Thursday I had a rare and wonderful opportunity to do something few get the chance to do. As part of a Cleveland Film Festival fund raiser, Nancy and I got to ride the art deco elevators to the top of the Terminal Tower and get a birds eye view of the cityscape.

What a fantastic thing! The evening was for a select few and themed after the classic Hitchcock thriller, “Vertigo”. I’ve loved this movie since I was a kid and so jumped at the chance to do a little play acting of my own. So with my hair done up “Kim Novak” style in a French twist and a semi-50’s style outfit I felt right in place for the event. I almost expected Jimmy Stewart to pop around a corner at any time.   Or maybe Cary Grant from "An Affair to Remember".  Ahh...those were the days.

A fund raising event for the Cleveland International Film Festival, the evening was a catered event hosted by CIFF Board members Carolyn Buller and Roy Turnell. A short history about the Tower was given by John Grabowski, author of The Terminal Tower, Tower City Center. John C. Williams, AIA of Process Creative Studios (the firm that renovated the Observation Deck) was on-hand to talk about the renovations. The The Terminal Tower was born in the minds of brothers Orris Paxton Sweringen (known as O.P.) and Mantis James Sweringen (known as M.J.).  These colorful, but extremely media shy, brothers became the driving force behind the development of not only Terminal Tower but Shaker Heights and the railroad line now known as the Rapid.

There is a terrific article from a 2003 edition of the Builders Exchange magazine talking about the history of the Terminal Tower, that until 1964 was the tallest building outside of NYC in North America.  The observation deck was closed to the public after the 9/11 terror attacks and is only just now reopening from time to time. Much of the building has been renovated to it's original 1929 art deco splendor and is home to Forest City Enterprises (the current owners). 

The purpose behind the event was to promote the 2011 Cleveland International Film Festival which will be Thursday, March 24th - Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 which will be held at Tower City Center.  Over 150 features and 150 short subjects from more than 80 countries will be shown. Films will run from 9:am to 10pm, and midnight movies on both Friday and Saturday evenings.

See several photos I took from the observation deck party and see the City of Cleveland as it dazzles from 42 stories above the street.


Untitled from Bobbi Krannich on Vimeo.

TOPPING OFF? NO...THAT'S NOT A BEER HEAD!

Monday I attended the One of a Kind Pet Rescue “topping off” ceremony for their new 9000 square foot, state of the art adoption center and retail outlet. For the past 5 years, One of a Kind Pets has operated it’s adoption and retail center out of one half of a gas station on West Market Street in Akron. The “new” adoption center will replace the former Fairlawn Bowling Lanes located in West Akron. The old bowling alley was razed and new construction began in the Spring of this year.

“We will be operational in the fall of this year” says Director of Organizational Development, Georjette Thomas. “What was an eye-sore for numerous years in West Akron / Summit County is in the process of being transformed into a 9000 square foot state-of-the-art ‘destination location’ for animal welfare and pet related retail.”


Monday’s ceremony drew a crowd of dedicated donors, supporters and volunteers of One of a Kind Pets. The attendees all had an opportunity to sign the beam before it was lifted by crane and set into place atop the skeletal structure that will soon house up to 150 adoptable dog and cats. Plans allow for more family friendly adoption situations, allowing potential adoptee families to spend one-on-one time with a dog or cat at the center before committing to an adoption.

The retail store carries pet related gifts, toys, and grooming supplies. 100% of the retail sales will support the 501c3 non-profit organization and will be applied to continued animal rescue efforts.

In 2009, OOAKP adopted out 953 to families in Summit County. These are animals that were abandoned, abused, neglected, orphaned, or were unwanted domestic pets rescued by OOAKP. Every animal is given full medical care once they reach the shelter in preparation for adoption, including spay and neutering.

One of a Kind Pets also runs a very busy clinic located on West Exchange Street near the intersection of Exchange, Hawkins and Market. The clinic operates low-cost vaccine clinics on the 1st Saturday of each month in an effort to reduce animal diseases on the streets.

My favorite program is their low cost spay & neuter clinic. Every day there are 7 to 8 times more cats and dogs born than there are human babies. The numbers tell us that there is simply no way for all of these animals to find homes. Many are feral, or will become so as they grow up and the majority will continue to produce puppies and kittens if left unvetted.


OOAKP provides not only low cost spay & neuter services, but some completely subsidized as well when there are funds available. Their goal is to dramatically reduce the number of unwanted cats and dogs simply by reducing the breeding capacity of feral and wild animals. They have spayed & neutered over 16,000 animals since opening the clinic just 2 ½ years ago which is run by a staff of 20 employees plus two dedicated veterinarians.

GOLFERS, DOG HOUSES AND ORGANIC FARMING

Well, it was an eclectic weekend I’ll say that. Thursday evening found this old biddy back over at 750ml introducing another good friend to the place. This weekend they were serving up PGA Wines. Who knew the PGA had their own label? Once again the flight was 2 whites and 2 reds and again I found the whites just so-so, but the reds were quite good. I bought a bottle of each to give as holiday gifts this year to some co-workers whom I imagine may appreciate the mingling of decent wine and golfing. While we were there a thunderstorm hit and the power went out for a few minutes. It was so quiet and cozy watching the rain beating down on the windows and pavement outside while we were tucked in with a great glass or two of wine and appetizers. What better location to ride out a storm?

BARKITECTURE AND ONE OF A KIND PETS

Friday evening I volunteered to help out at Barkitecture – a fund raising project on the grounds of Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. Local architects had designed oversized dog houses and they’ve been on display over the summer. Friday they were auctioned off for charity. My task was to sit with a shelter dog at one of the houses and help direct people as they made their way around the exhibit. My goodness….talk about a mismatched couple! Jackie (my assigned Jack Russel mix pup) was very anxious since it was his first day out after being in quarantine for a month. He was a friendly dog with lots of energy and very vocal. And not accustomed to being on a leash either. He barked and lunged at every dog that came by and constantly pulled at his leash as is evidenced by all the bruising on my arms and legs today. This cat person should have known better than to be matched with a dog for the evening. Lessons learned and all that. Meanwhile, it was hard to turn down an opportunity to do something good for One of a Kind Pets, they are a great group of people with a heart-felt mission.

CROWN POINT ECOLOGY CENTER FUND RAISER
Saturday evening was a volunteer gig out at Crown Point Ecology Center. If you’re not familiar, CP is an organic farm run mostly by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron. In 1997, Crown Point began to grow produce for distribution to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank. Over the last 8 years, Crown Point has donated more than 140,000 lbs of organic produce to the Foodbank. Crown Point also began a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in 1998. This program has grown from 20 families in 1998 to more than 70 families this growing season.

The fund raising event this weekend was to help financially sustain the farm in it’s current mission. About 300 people attended and our volunteer group provided check-in and auction checkout services as we have for the past 5 years. The food served to the guests was all from the farm – beet salad, bbq chicken and ratatouille. Thanks to the energy of Sr. Marguerite who helped keep us on track when issues turned up, the task went fairly smoothly.

GOOD END TO A BUSY WEEKED

So it was a busy weekend hitting a variety of fun things. By Sunday evening I was very tired and decided to relax by spending some quality time in the kitchen. Last week while perusing my favorite baking web site (King Arthur Flour) I found a recipe for these decadent looking brownies with a browned butter caramel frosting. This had been an experiment for them after discovering smoked salt in their kitchen and playing with it. While the brownies are really very good – the only interesting part came with the topping made of chocolate and almonds sprinkled with a pinch of smoked salt. The salt lends a bit of a twist to an otherwise regular (albeit very good) brownie bar but I don’t think there’s enough of it to really get the flavor they were going for. Next time I’d like to add the smoked salt to the caramel process to further incorporate the flavor into the frosting. Here is a link to the recipe if anyone else would like to try these out. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/PrintRecipe?RID=1100&radio=1