2020 Merit Award
General Design
Public Square
Cleveland, OH
Landscape Architect:
James Corner Field Operations
Project Team:
OSBORN Engineering
nARCHITECTS
Fluidity Design Consultants
FRS Design Group
Sustainable Environmental Consultants
Nelson\Nygaard
Donley’s Construction

About the Project:
Public Square is at the historic and geographic center of downtown Cleveland. Its revitalization as a renewed civic core and public commons is the culmination of a multi-year process to reinvigorate the downtown and re-position Cleveland as one of the Midwest’s premier places to live and work. The design gives a bold and iconic identity to the Square, while addressing key challenges of unification, clarification, and activation.
The new Public Square dramatically reconfigures the once fragmented quadrants into a unified whole. Streets have been reorganized and relationships to adjacent buildings have been strengthened. The new 6-acre park provides distinctive and beautiful settings for recreation and public programming, and promotes civic involvement and democracy with the backdrop and draw of downtown.
Images by: Multivista for Donley’s Construction, Roger Mastroianni