Cleveland’s North Coast Harbor grew out of a planning process begun by the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, which commissioned a fresh look at the city’s sadly deteriorated park system in 1975. The costs of the study were underwritten by a $40,000 grant from the Cleveland Foundation.

A subsequent series of carefully targeted grants nurtured the gradual redevelopment of the Lake Erie shoreline at the foot of East Ninth Street. In 1984, the foundation commissioned a master plan for the 149-acre industrialized site. A collaboration between Zuchelli, Hunter & Associates and the local landscape architecture firm William A. Behnke Associates, the “Cleveland Waterfront Study” recommended the dredging of an “inner harbor” to create a new recreational asset that would also be a prestigious setting for hotels, offices, retail shops, restaurants and such attractions as a museum and an aquarium.

The exciting prospect of opening up public access to the waterfront led (with the foundation’s gentle prodding and provision of operating support) to the establishment of the North Coast Development Corporation, a nonprofit authority charged with managing lakefront development. The dredging of a 7.5-acre harbor and the construction of a surrounding walkway and park were completed in 1987 with federal, state and local funding. Two world-class attractions immediately chose to locate at North Coast Harbor: the Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (the architectural, program and financing plans for which were developed with underwriting from the Cleveland Foundation). The vision of the harbor as Greater Clevelanders’ downtown entry point to the lakefront, as well as a major tourist and convention destination, continues to inspire public and private investment in redevelopment of the land surrounding this dramatic setting.