The Rise of an Icon.
In July 2008, the second phase of Queen City Square began construction. Phase II, dubbed the "Great American Tower" (after primary tenant Great American Insurance) would eventually come to be a 41 floor office tower topped with a "tiara" inspired after the late Princess Diana's, a tribute to Cincinnati's nickname of the "Queen City." The first Cincinnati skyscraper to be constructed in the past two decades would continue to rise despite the onset of the "Great Recession" while other major construction projects in nearby Kenwood became rusty hulks on the suburban skyline. A new icon was rising in Cincinnati.
Porkopolis Square
Towers of steel and concrete, architectural traditions that symbolized Americana and became milestones of culture and history. Porkopolis Square began rising where a parking garage once stood. Destined to become the city's tallest skyscraper, it would soon surpass the iconic Carew Tower in height. Anxiously, the citizens and passersby watched from various vantage points as the tower began rising.
The "Research Division."
It was the holiday break of 2008 when Venkman and I struggled through a maze of dead plant life and stoic tree branches covering the asphalt path that had once been a driveway. Walking right past the empty, crumbling guard shack and into the complex's courtyard, the rare Midwest winter sunlight glimmered off the eerie, metallic lettering on the front of the building which read: Research Division.
"Always Coca Cola"
Standing at the base of a pile of ruble that had once been 1/4 of the Ault & Wiborg Building, one couldn't help but remember the slogan that had been used from 1993-2000 by the soft drink giant who used this building as a billboard for so many years.