Imagination Alley Reopens to Public Following Renovations

Pocket Park on Vine Street Reimagined with Design Reflecting Community Feedback

CINCINNATI (September 8, 2021) – After four months of construction, the City of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) today held a ribbon cutting to celebrate the reopening of Imagination Alley, a newly renovated park in the heart of Over-the-Rhine. Located on Vine Street between 13^th and 14^th streets, the pocket park had been an underutilized space for years before receiving the recent physical improvements, which totaled $850,000 in project costs.

Mayor John Cranley, City Manager Paula Boggs Muething and Lann Field, Vice President of Development for 3CDC spoke to event attendees about the project and what the space means to the OTR community.

“Imagination Alley has always served as a community gathering space but in recent years had been underutilized and struggled to live up to its full potential,” Mayor John Cranley said. “Making physical improvements, combined with ongoing management and programming, will help the space realize its potential, while increasing vibrancy and safety in the area.”

3CDC was selected by the City of Cincinnati through an RFP process to make physical improvements to the park and manage the space once renovations were completed. The organization worked with The Storefronts Team of the Miami University Center for Community Engagement to conduct community workshops and engagement sessions and did follow-up surveys of nearby residents and businesses to determine what the community wanted to see in the reimagined space. The admired mosaics that have always adorned the park were left intact, and renovations included new plantings, additional public art and lighting, along with expanded seating. Also included in the finished product is a new plaque that provides context around what the space means to the community.

“We’re honored to have been entrusted with the responsibility to reimagine such an important space to the OTR community, and hope that we have done Imagination Alley justice with the improvements that have been made.,” Field said. “We listened to our neighbors when they told us what they wanted to see in this space, and we worked hard to create a safe, welcoming environment that we’re excited to activate with community events.”

With the physical improvements to Imagination Alley now complete, 3CDC will focus on the management and programming of the neighborhood gathering space. The organization plans to activate Imagination Alley with programming like the Street Stage Project (a busking project that positions various musicians around the OTR downtown area to provide live music to the community), Final Friday, movie nights and more.

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