Legacy Village, Lyndhurst, Ohio

Legacy Village, a lifestyle center that opened in Lyndhurst, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Cleveland, in 2003, occupies a modest portion of what was once Franchester, the wooded park-like estate of renowned United States congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton. Remaining portions of that estate are occupied by the private Hawken School and the former headquarters of TRW, Inc. (now devoted to various offices of The Cleveland Clinic).

Developed by First Interstate Properties (also of Lyndhurst), Legacy Village is situated on 67 acres bounded by Cedar Road and Richmond Road. The project’s 610,000 square feet (of which 96% is retail area) are occupied by such tenants as Crate & Barrel, Apple, Bombay, Z Galleries, Viking, Restoration Hardware, Coldwater Creek, Joseph Beth Booksellers, and a Giant Eagle foodstore, among others. Enhancing the projects appeal are such restaurants as Cheesecake Factory, Claddagh Irish Pub, Starbucks, Chipotle, and Brio Tuscan Grille. Valet parking (within congested lots and a byzantine network of drives) serves the project and its restaurants, while entertainment at the development’s ‘town square’ livens weekend evenings and special events.

The architecture of Legacy Village is heavily tricked out with offsets, material and color changes, ornate details, pseudo-French Normandy influences and gingerbread embellishments. The end result is a somewhat haphazard, though picturesque, effect. However, the ‘anchors’ of Crate & Barrel, Apple, Cheesecake Factory, Claddagh Irish Pub, and Giant Eagle each depart from the village style to assert their own individual identities. To make the parallel-parked interior streets more tolerable to both auto and pedestrian throughout biting Cleveland winters, pavements are heated to melt fallen snow and ice.

While Legacy Village draws from a significant and fairly affluent trade area to its east and southeast, it also competes with the nearby La Place boutique center and Beachwood Mall, both in adjacent Beachwood, Ohio, as well as Eton on Chagrin, a mere few miles away along the interstate. And, while the lifestyle center clearly offers attractive retail options for area residents, there are many who miss the unspoiled and wooded pastoral beauty of the former Bolton Estate, and rue the significant traffic congestion occasioned by the project.

Rickzworld offers even more of varied visual interest.