2023 Early Career Faculty Research and Creative Work Grant Winner

Anne Steinert. Ph.D.

Project Title: The Buildings of Cincinnati

NCPE Member Program: University of Cincinnati

Project Summary:

Cincinnati was once the sixth largest city in the United States. It is home to significant historical movements including the underground railroad, the birth of American Reform Judaism, and the rural garden cemetery movement. It is the birthplace and headquarters of important national corporations including Proctor and Gamble and Kroger Corporation. It is the location of several sites significant in the history of American urban planning history including Glendale, Ohio (1855, early English garden design railroad suburb), 1920s model garden suburb, Mariemont, and federal Greenbelt town, Greenhills. It is the home of major architectural works including The Carew Tower (W.W. Ahlschlager & Associates with Delano & Aldrich, 1930), Union Terminal (Fellheimer and Wagner, 1933), The Terrace Plaza (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill/Gordon Bunshaft/Natalie de Blois, 1948), and The Contemporary Arts Center (Zaha Hadid, 2003). Though The Queen City has long been considered a “fly-over” rustbelt victim of the urban crisis, Cincinnati is now the subject of renewed interest from locals and tourists who are rediscovering the architectural gems of Cincinnati’s past. 

Despite this revival, the most recent architectural guide to Cincinnati is John Clubbe’s Cincinnati Observed: Architectural History, published in 1992. Both locals and tourists need a well-researched scholarly look at Cincinnati’s architecture and history. 

The core questions guiding this inquiry will be: What Cincinnati architecture is essential or unique to this city? What does Cincinnati architecture tell us about the growth and development of this city, region, and nation? What Cincinnati architecture is most significant in the architectural history of the United States? What Cincinnati buildings help to tell stories of diverse peoples?