Stearns and Foster

A massive abandoned mattress factory in the Cincinnati suburb of Lockland as seen in the summer of 2008.

Rally at the Square, Reds October and an Open Letter to Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

On the morning of October 20, 1990, then Reds owner Marge Schott addressed a large crowd gathered at Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati. "We won this for the fans, God love ya," she said. Marge and the rest of the 1990 team were greeted by thousands of Reds fans after returning home from sweeping the Oakland Atheltics to win the 1990 World Series. That World Series would be the last time the Reds brought home the trophy to the Queen City. While there had been a one game playoff for the wild card spot in 1999 (which the Reds would lose to the Mets), the last true playoff game for the team hadn't been since 1995. Twenty years after Marge, the Nasty Boys, Barry, Jose and Eric D. thanked the fans at Fountain Square, the Reds would return to be cheered on before they embarked on a trip to Philadelphia, where they would play the team's first playoff game in fifteen years. (The above photo was taken by Dick Swain of the Cincinnati Enquirer.)

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.