The PNC SmartHome is complete at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and open to visitors who want to learn how to make environmentally-friendly improvements to their own properties. The 2,500-square-foot three-bedroom house uses 90 percent less energy than a traditional home, and it uses no furnace for heating and cooling. The walls are a foot thick and packed with insulation, while the windows are triple-pane glass -- both of which reduce heat loss. The home is heated and co... Read more >

The apartment buildings that line East Boulevard in Glenville boast stunning architectural details such as ornate columns, artisan brickwork and broad balconies that overlook Rockefeller Park. They attest to the wealth that once existed on this grand old street.

Yet for decades, East Boulevard has deteriorated as owners struggled with a soft market, much-needed repairs and soaring energy costs. Despite its proximity to University Circle and Rockefeller Park, the area was... Read more >

Good design can stop a man in his tracks. It's what makes that concert poster scream, that neon sign hum, and that brand logo unforgettable. These consumer experiences come courtesy of the creative men and women who dare to be bold, better, brilliant. Many of the brightest design minds will be headlining the second annual Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, to be held June 11 and 12.

When Cleveland's Group Plan was created a century ago, Teddy Roosevelt was President, Tom Johnson was Mayor, and the Rockefeller family still lived in town. Back then, architect Daniel Burnham envisioned a kind of outdoor civic living room that promenaded to the lakefront beneath gracious classical buildings.

Needless to say, much has happened since then. Today, Public Square and the Mall are often desolate spaces one must walk through to reach downtown's bustling centers... Read more >

Tucked between University Circle and Cleveland Heights, Little Italy is one of Cleveland's most charming and historic neighborhoods. Aluminum-sided doubles nestle against modern pastel-colored townhomes, while art galleries and Italian restaurants dot Mayfield and Murray Hill roads.

Although Italians no longer are the neighborhood's predominant ethnic group, much of the real estate is still owned by the Italian families that settled here nearly a century ago. Popular wit... Read more >

When Tyler Elevator moved its facilities to the 'burbs, it left behind over one million square feet of vacant warehouse space. A labyrinth of two-dozen brick buildings spread across 10 acres, Tyler possessed more than its share of challenges when it was acquired by Graystone Properties. Today, Tyler has been reborn as a thriving entrepreneurial district -- a bona fide urban village on the fringes of downtown.

Architect David Ellison had been watching the dilapidated cluster of buildings at the southwest corner of W. 41st and Lorain fall apart for years. His dismay only grew as copper thieves looted the property, rainwater poured through the roof, and illegal activity soared in the shadows of the boarded-up building.

When Ellison learned that the City of Cleveland had granted a permit to tear the buildings down, he decided to do something. "One way to improve real estate value... Read more >

When sculptor John Ranally set up his live/work space in a two-story building at W. 30th and Lorain Avenue, back in 1981, he was among the first wave of urban pioneers to redevelop Ohio City.

Working with his neighbors, he fought abandoned storefronts, crime and a perception that the neighborhood was going downhill. "Things couldn't get any worse than it was then," he says. "and part of the reason why you're seeing redevelopment on Lorain now is because of the people tha... Read more >

When the Moreland Theatre was built in 1927, the Buckeye neighborhood was home to the largest concentration of Hungarians outside Hungary. There were also six Hungarian newspapers in the area, and nearly every shop owner on Buckeye Road spoke Hungarian (and often English, too).

In the past 40 years, Buckeye has struggled as businesses and residents fled to the suburbs. The recent foreclosure crisis also hit the area hard, leaving boarded-up homes and vacant lots in its w... Read more >

The Tremont neighborhood recently celebrated the opening of a new parking lot at Jefferson and Professor avenues that will not only help alleviate the neighborhood's parking crunch, but also help solve the region's storm water management problem.

The parking lot incorporates bioswales that will prevent rainwater from entering the sewer system. When rain falls onto the property, it runs off into carefully designed plant systems that gradually release it back into the groun... Read more >

Rhonda Sincavage has vivid memories of the day that a dilapidated shoe factory in her hometown was torn down. The incident sparked her lifelong passion for historic preservation.

"My grandfather worked there, along with many people that lived in our town," said Sincavage, Program Associate for State and Local Policy at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, at last week's sold out TEDxCLE event. "It was our town's namesake and a symbol of our community."

... Read more >

Five years ago, Deby Cowdin was cleaning up after a party. As she picked up the empty wine and liquor bottles on her porch, her friend and partner, Mindy Bohannon, dared her to do something that would change her life. "She said, 'you're a glass artist, figure out something to do with them.'" So Cowdin did exactly that. She founded Blue Bag, a company that transforms bottles into serving plates, cheese boards and other works of art.

Cowdin started the business out of her h... Read more >

April and May bring out the best in design during the inaugural Cleveland Design Month-and-a-Half, which features two events that show off the talents of local design students as well as regional and national designers.

The Cleveland Institute of Art's annual Spring Design Show, a tradition for more than 20 years, kicks off on Tuesday, April 19, while the Cleveland Furniture Fair, hosted by Cleveland's District of Design, begins May 16.

In the spring show stu... Read more >

Although jewelry maker Heather Moore moved into her rehabbed Midtown studio earlier this year, she's still getting used to her spacious new digs.

Maybe that's because she's spent the last 11 years running her fast-growing business out of her house. Granted, it was no ordinary home office: the Cleveland Institute of Art grad bought her great-grandmother's estate, a rambling Heights mansion, after moving back from New York City in 1999.

"We just couldn't grow any... Read more >

American Greetings has made it possible to send a loved one a greeting card with birthday candles to blow out -- literally. The new line of cards called Ready, Set, Blow features six scenarios in which recipients are prompted to blow on the card. The puff of air prompts the card to come to life with LED lights, a song and sounds.

Users blow on the cards to extinguish birthday candles, toot a horn, or make a wish on a dandelion. The cards are designed to please recipients ... Read more >

A large map on the wall of Crafty Goodness, a new Lakewood store that sells goods from artisans that live in Northeast Ohio, provides a visual reminder of the store's mission. It pinpoints all of the different communities where the items are made, stressing the owners' commitment to the buy local movement.

"We wanted to create a store that would offer an alternative to big box retail for people that want to buy local," says Chris Sorenson, a potter who joined with artist... Read more >