The group uses its panoramic photograph as its signature graphic. It can be seen on its Web site; a slightly retouched and reformatted version accompanies this story. Like so many other memorable shots of the city’s skyline, it is looking out toward the urban basin from a hillside park.
But this is a little stranger than most. Looming over the skyline, so close they dominate the view, are two huge, rounded shapes. The top one is so close its circularity appears blurred. Flying saucers? Floating mushrooms? Lily pads? Giant vinyl LPs?
No, the visible concrete indentations give the origin away — as should the fact that this is Bellevue Hill Park. They are the concrete pergolas (supported by columns) that Cincinnati architect R. Carl Freund designed as part of a pavilion built in 1955, when optimistic, progressive post-war Modernism — with its emphasis on unadorned openness and shapes with strong, clear lines and curves — was sweeping American architecture and design. They provided shade and cover at an area once used for dancing.
