Cascade Plaza, Akron, OH — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Cascade Plaza in downtown Akron is one of those urban spaces that has reinvented itself more than once. Dedicated on June 26, 1970, as part of a 43-acre urban renewal project, the plaza was designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and originally sat atop a massive 2,150-car parking garage. The 6.5-acre plaza features a fountain sculpture designed by artist Don Drumm, erected in 1968, with stainless steel rods and anodized aluminium panels that catch the light in unexpected ways. Four buildings surround the space: a 19-story modernist hotel (completed 1969), the 23-story Cascade I tower (also 1969), and the 27-story Huntington Tower, an art deco brick building that's been standing since 1931. Over the decades, Cascade Plaza has been the home of Akron's Rib Festival, German Festival, Wine and Cheese Festival, a skating rink, a farmers market, concerts, and civil demonstrations. In 2013, the city voted to give the plaza a complete overhaul, partly funded by FirstMerit Corporation. The concrete was demolished, the deck resealed, and the space was converted to green space open to the street, completed in 2015. It's a place that captures the ambitions and reinventions of downtown Akron over more than half a century. If you're passing through on a Questo quest, the mix of mid-century design, art deco architecture, and modern green space makes Cascade Plaza a landscape worth decoding.