Cleveland planning commission approves design for humanities building at Case Western Reserve University

The Cleveland City Planning Commission has approved a conceptual design for Case Western Reserve University’s new Humanities Building and cleared the way for demolishing a vacant fraternity house to make way for it. 

Cleveland Magazine reports that the university is looking at a 100,000- to 150,000-square-foot building, according to Michael Bruder, the university's assistant vice president for planning, design and construction.

The fraternity house property will be used as a parking lot until the university can raise the tens of millions of dollars needed to construct the Humanities Building. 

Case Western bought the fraternity house in 2022 for $340,000, county records show. The vacant house is not historical or a local landmark, nor is it in a historic district, university officials say.